Advice refinishing hard wood floor (maybe to late?)

[Steve]

10' x 12' room, floors were pretty bad. Kids had slid furniture around and dug it up. I rented a sander saturday and cleaned it up quite a bit. some of the deeper gouges are still there. I put 3 coats of a minwax polyurethane oilbased sunday.

Looks OK now, I'm not that fussy about it but there is a problem with dust and "stuff sitting in the poly finish. I think it was a mistake to have an exhast fan in the room window. The room door was open a little and I think dust was pulled in throught the door and settled just inside the door.

THE QUESTION: can I lightly sand out some of the dust bumps without having to recoat the floor? 120 grit in a palm sander? what will that do to the semi gloss finish? If I spot sanded will it leave dull spots where I sand??

I also have access to a floor buffer we use at work to strip and refinish floors here. I was thinking of using that with one of the fine finishing pads. or would that just make a mess???

Like I said, I'm not that fussy, the floor will probably have to be redone with a belt sander in the future to really fix it up but id I can just smooth out the poly a bit to clean up the dust that settled in it I would be satisfied.

Thanks for any help.

Steve

[m Ransley]

Use the buffer and get the right pad, maybe a 220 or 320 grit. Satin finish will show less imperfections. Use a tack cloth and clean equipment . Even dust the walls. I would not run a fan till it is dry.

[Steve]

Yes the fan was a bad idea. I was worried about it drying in time so I could put a 2nd and 3rd coat. Its only about 50 degrees and the can says it should be a little warmer for faster drying. I'm sure the fan added to the dust in the finish.

The buffer here at work insnt for sanding. It has white, green and black pads Kindof like a plastic mesh. The guys here at work are telling me that one of them is meant for polishing a finished floor. I was thinking of trying that.

I've already used a semi gloss polyurithane finish. I just want to smooth it out now.

Thanks'

Steve