Tips sanding a parquet floor

Booked a floor sander to sand my deeply grooved floor, but a mate has said that I'll have trouble sanding it so it is flat, I'll end up with dips. Has anyone any experience of doing it, and can give any advice / tips?

Reply to
Phil McCavity
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"Phil McCavity" wrote in message news:cnvsiq$mn$ snipped-for-privacy@sparta.btinternet.com...

Never done it but I have watched an expert do it. What type of wood and what pattern are the blocks laid in. Mine are all 1-1/4 inch pitch pine. Laid in single or double herringbone also a small area in basket weave. Start by cleaning the floor thoroughly. Drive in or remove any protuberances such as nail heads etc., unlikely, but you never know. Obviously remove beforehand anything that can be removed by way of furniture etc. When sanding start with a coarse grade of abrasive material and work (as far as possible) with the grain. Don't concentrate on high traffic/worn areas of the floor. The coarse abrasive will remove a lot of material. Be patient. Work steadily, carefully and methodically. You need to reduce the level of the whole floor to the depth of your worst existing groove. As you approach this level start using finer grade abrasives until you get to the finest available and the floor is level to your satisfaction. Although most floorsanders have fairly efficient dust extraction it is good practice to wear some form of apparatus to prevent the inhalation of dust. With certain types of wood this is a neccessity. Also keep the freshly sanded and unsealed floor clean. Sweep it thoroughly & regularly avoiding the ingress of muck from outside (change shoes, no dogs/cats etc). Edges and any projections into the floored area that are not dealt with by the floor sander can be done with an electric hand sander using the same procedures - coarse/med/fine abrasives. The places that an electric hand sander cannot reach, which should be small, can be dealt with using a cork block and abrasive papers. You should end up with a clean and level floor. Seal it thoroughly and immediately after cleaning it scrupulously. Don't even think about trying to fill the gaps between wood blocks. After sealing, apply the finish of your choice.

There you go ~ simple! The worst problem you will encounter is your own patience. This will not be a 5 minute job. At the end, you will have the satisfaction of a job well done. My last woodblock floors were laid in the late 70's. Jack (the floorlayer) was born in 1900. Took him 4 days to lay the wood and a further 4 to finish it to his own satisfaction. This was 5 rooms and a total of about 70 sq.m. A lovely chap now sadly gone, a craftsman with respect for his own workmanship.

35 years on, all of his floorlaying is in near perfect condition.

Hope that helps a little, sorry for rambling.

Good luck.

DBF

Reply to
dogs best friend

OK, it's not. It's a small and slightly stale biscuit in comparison to a planked softwood floor, but it's still pretty easy.

Fix your loose parquet tiles before you start.

Fix any major unevenness before you start. The drop off around a high tile does tend to form a divot. Tiles _should_ be level anyway - if they're not, then something funny is going on and you might be heading for loose tile trouble in the future.

Always work diagonally across the tiles. It's going sideways across a tile that causes the most divot trouble.

Compared to softwood, you'll use less coarse grit and more fine grit. There's usually less coarse levelling to do (unless the tiles are grossly uneven, which I'd rather sort out separately). You can't sand along the grain though, so getting those early scratches out is more work than usual.

Pray that the tar holding the tiles down is well below the surface. You don't want to deal with a floor where that stuff is getting onto the drum, clogging them and smearing onto the surface.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Thanks for all that DBF. My floor is 5 strips of 4" x 3/4 " blocks laid North-South, then 5 strips East-West, so I can't really go with the grain. I'm going to use Diamond Glaze to seal it, which I hope will produce a good finish. Thanks again, !P

Reply to
Phil McCavity

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