Floor sanders - can they remove floor paint?

[dave.dixson_nospam]

I have a floor which I am ultimatly planning to sand and varnish, in a year or so when we get an extension built. In the meantie, i have horrible dirty floorboards on display, and I would like a quick interim fix to sort them out in the meantime.

If I paint the floorboards how easy will the panit be to remove when I sand the floor? Will it make my job of sanding much harder when I use the sander, or will it not make much of a difference. I have used the sander on a floor with old brown varnish on before and it just melted and clogged up the sander, making the sanding process a real nightmare. Would floor paint do the same thing?

Cheers in advance,

Dave.

[news]

yes

[Mr Fizzion]

Sanded and varnished floors are a bit passe these days :-) (add acute accent)

I used some "International" floor paint on a small area of floorboards once and it was almost impossible to remove with a small hand sander. I guess an "industrial" sander that you hire would make it a lot easier, but you can expect some extra difficulty as floor paint is designed to be tough.

Mr F.

[Christian McArdle]

When we moved in to our house, all the floors were gloss painted. It came off no problem with the sander, except that the paint between the boards was impossible to remove (also inside flight holes/imperfections). This was worst downstairs, where dark green paint was used. Upstairs, there was cream paint, which was much better.

It might depend on the paint, however. I bet some paints are much more difficult to remove than others.

Also, there is a technique that can be used to avoid clogging, especially on that horrible Victorian black gunk. It is quite hard work and will probably give a hernia. What you do is using the rotary sander, put an ultra coarse disc on. Then, swing the machine at the floor, so that it just makes contact at the bottom of the swing at a slight angle. The paint/gunk will then be propelled across the room as dust, rather than heating up, melting and clogging the disc.

Personally, I wouldn't risk painting. Just put a bit of cheap lino down until you are ready to sand.

Christian.

[ben]

[snip]

Paint them now and turn them over when you come to sanding them in a years time. Personally I think painted flooring looks cheap and nasty. :-(

[Grumps]

The easy way is to use normal emulsion, it'll not last very long as a floor paint but then again it will sand off with no problems. Grumps

[Rembrandt Kuipers]

Then the grain of the wood will be the wrong way up though.

They often do.

I am considering what to do with our floor after it is sanded. Has anyone had any experience with Linseed Wax?

Rem

[Christian McArdle]

No, but if you've got kids or dogs, clear "Diamond Hard" varnish is the way to go!

Christian.

[ben]

[snip]

Heh!

[Michael Mcneil]

Use an old paint roller with bleach. Put a couple of coats on and then wash it with plenty of water and a scrubbing brush.

It will take a few days to dry off. Allow it to do so fairly slowly to prevent warping. Then give it a coat of 50% varnish in meths or turps. That aught to last for a few months until you make good the lot.

It will be a different colour to the new though. If there is a lot of wiring under it, you had best just wash with strong detergent or sugar-soap.

Try both methods on a piece of scrap.