Can I Sand A Floor To Take Down The Gloss
This fine detail work can make your diy project look more like a professional job.
Can i sand a floor to take down the gloss. Sanding hardwood floors is a big messy and expensive job and there you have three good reasons to avoid doing it. Step 1 load up your floor screener with the roughest grade of paper 60 grit. Vacuum the floor clean of all sanding dust. Ordinarily you wouldn t have to buff that hard for a recoat.
If you don t fully sand the floors down neither the stain nor polyurethane will properly adhere to the floors. A satin recoat is bound to tone it down some. Use hammer and nail set to tap any exposed nails below the surface. It may be over sanded or it may have a veneer that s too thin to sand.
Even if you have the budget for it and can take a vacation while the work proceeds your floor may not be a good candidate for sanding. Now if your floors are in relatively good condition there is an alternative called a screen and recoat. This allows the first coat of gloss to grip the second coat so it does not flake or peel off. Use a 6 inch wide drywall knife and water based wood filler to patch all holes and cracks in the floor.
So if you do hire someone mention this to them. To apply the new gloss the old gloss has to be screened off which is a light version of sanding the floor it takes off just the gloss not the wood surface. I don t know whether you can solve this problem by buffing until you completely dull the semi gloss coat. Next use a floor buffer fitted with a fine grit screening pad to screen sand the flooring.
Sanding a wood floor is a multi step process. This type of sanding will level minor unevenness left by the drum sander and edger as well as buff away sanding scratches. Unless you plan to sand many floors in your lifetime the best choice for do it yourself floor refinishing is the random orbital sander. I m just not sure you can bring it down flat like a regular satin sheen.
None of it is rocket science but it will help you to read through all the sanding pages including first things first working with sanders and edgers and the sanding faq before you begin. Scuff the floor lightly using sand paper after you allow the first gloss coat to dry for 24 hours. If you attempt this your floors will peel. Sure it may take longer to remove old finishes than it.
After sanding the whole floor turn the sander at a 45 degree angle and go over the entire floor once again. That way you ll get a heads up on and hopefully the knowledge to avoid some of the problems you might encounter and some of the mistakes beginners make.