You can do this yourself if you come to Pete's and let us give you the free lesson that comes with every one of our rental sanders -just be sure to book the lesson in advance, because we only have one training floor.  If you can follow instructions (and if you don't keep running to consult your handy 'friends' who think they know all about hardwood floors because they sanded one five years ago) and are motivated and reasonably fit, we are quite sure you can do this yourself. We don't promise that you will do the same job as a professional, but we can ensure that you don't cause harm to your floor or yourself. Check out our photo gallery for a picture of the diminutive Felisha and proof that you do not need to be big or burly to do a fine sanding job!

What does it cost? How much money will I save ?
A good rule of thumb is that it costs about $1 per square foot to do it yourself. This estimate includes machine rental charges, abrasive, finish, and assorted small tools. Hiring a professional will cost $3.50-$4 per square foot. So, if you are refinishing aa typical 450sqft living/dining area, you'll save at least $1,125 if you do it yourself. Keep in mind though, that smaller areas tend to be slightly more expensive because the cost of the sander rental is not spread over as many square feet. A single bedroom 10'x12' will cost about $180.

How long will it take?
Three sanding passes with both the drum sander and the edger in one room of 140 sqft takes the average renter, working alone, 5 hours. Allow extra time for houses that are more than 50 years old, for jobs that are made up of multiple rooms (more rooms means more walls which means more edging which takes more time), and for jobs involving heavy layers of old finishes.

What kind of sanders do you rent?
All of our rental drum sanders are Clarke EZ-8s.  They run on 110v house current and plug into any grounded outlet.  These sanders use a sleeve or 'belt' of abrasive that slips over the sanding drum -no crimping or tightening of abrasive required. These sanders are not the 'tip-back' style you may be familiar with. The sanding mechanism of this brand is engaged with a feathering handle at the top of the machine which gives the operator much finer control, reducing gouges and stop marks.  EZ-8s are convenient because they can be broken down for transport and for hauling up and down stairs.
Our edgers are also made by Clarke, and we favor the B-2 model which has two speeds; the higher speed is more aggressive, the low speed is much gentler and is used for your final pass with a fine grit abrasive - great for reducing the appearance of dreaded edger swirl marks. We also rent the Clark Super-7 edger which is slightly lighter and easier to operate.

Click here for more photos and specs our machines. rentalequip.html

Will your machines fit in the trunk of my car?
Absolutely. The EZ-8 breaks down into two sections, the handle and the motor. The motor measures 17"x s 16"h and 24"l and can easily fit into a small trunk or back seat. Edgers travel in a suitcase-style box that will fit behind most seats. EZ-8s weigh about 125 pounds; edgers weight about 40 lbs.

Your ad says you have "professional grade abrasives" what does that mean?
Most abrasive companies sell different 'lines' of abrasive, with the the poorer quality papers generally marketed to the rental trades. This is usually lucrative for rental stores because customers tend to use more the lower quality sandpaper. Lower quality abrasive belts, for example, have a paper backing which tends to stay stiff and rigid while on the sander and can lead to chatter marks; professional grade abrasives are always cloth-backed and have a diagonal, wavy-line splice where the two edges are joined to form the tube. Inferior abrasives have the abrasive mineral simply glued to a backing, rather than embedding the mineral in a resin that is bonded to the backing. One sign of a high-quality resin-bond abrasive is that the belt or disc has abrasive mineral right up the edge with no chips or areas of exposed backing.

Are you sure I have enough floor left to sand?
Of course, we haven't seen your floor, but full thickness strip hardwood flooring can go through 4 to 5 sandings in its lifetime. Most hardwood floors that were installed in the '20s and '30s fell into disfavor by the late fifties and were covered with carpet, effectively preserving them. If your home dates from 1880-1915, you may have greater cause for worry because some of the floors installed prior to milling standardization were 3/8" thick (and top-nailed to boot) and many of those floors are now too thin to sand. If you have doubts take a picture of your floor and, if possible, find a place where you can check its thickness and cross-section, and bring that information into the shop with you.

Do I really need to rent an edger? My belt sander can handle the edges…
Saying you can edge a floor with a belt sander is like saying you can dig a ditch with a trowel - sure you can do it, but its going to take a very long time. Belt sanders are easy to handle, but they just don't have the power you need to match the aggression of the drum sander. It's a simple matter of math - if your belt sander weighs, say 15 pounds and it has a sanding surface that is 4"x 8" then you only get half a pound of pressure per square inch. An edger, in addition to having higher average rpms (3200 per minute), focuses 33 pounds onto 6 square inches or 5½ lbs per square inch. And you can't make up for that lack of aggression with coarser sandpaper because most belt sander abrasive only goes down to 36 grit, whereas you can go as low as 12 grit on an edger. Still think you can do the same job with your belt sander?

Can I sand off adhesive or backing from old linoleum? What about sanding painted floors? Should I be worried about asbestos or lead?
We are neither asbestos nor lead abatement contractors and are not qualified to advise you on these matters, but it is safe to assume that most linoleum backings have asbestos in them and any floor painted or clear-finished before 1978 contains lead. Contact the EPA at 612/664-5160 or at least buy a lead test before proceeding.

A great hazardous material testing company in St. Paul (that employees and owners at Pete's have used for testing their personal floors) is Legend Technical Services. They can be reached at 651/642-1150 or http://www.legend-group.com

If you do your testing and research, and all you have is asbestos-free, but thick old finish on the floor, the quickest way to remove it is with an edger. Using a very coarse paper (12 or 16 grit) and moving quickly, try to get the bulk of the adhesive or paint off, then you can continue with a drum sander without running the risk of delivering all that melted, messy adhesive into the chassis of the machine.

What can I do to get ready to sand my floors?

• First of all, measure the room - it's much easier to estimate abrasive needs and finish needs if you know your square footage.
• After that, you need to remove all carpet, tack strip, carpet pad, and especially, the carpet staples (Sanding over metal creates a spark hazard, and it can destroy the rubber drum or disc plate of a sander).
• Remove or quarter-sink any nails in the floor.
• Remove all quarter-round - but it's not necessary to remove the baseboards. If your quarter-round is painted solidly to your baseboard and removing it will mean a huge repainting or replacement job, you can skip it. This will mean being more careful as you edge and using a sharp scraper to clean the floor right up to the quarter round. You'll also need to do some paint touchups on the quarter-round when you're done.
• Remove doors that open into the room.
• Remove all furniture -yes, all of it-and take down window treatments and wall hangings.
• Raise and secure any low-hanging chandeliers, or you'll hit your head.
• Fumes from oil-modified polyurethane can be lethal to small pets (birds, gerbils, guinea pigs - anything smaller than a rabbit) so we require that those animals be removed from the premises for the entire coating process. Larger pets can stay in the home, but we recommend securing them on another level to keep them away from the work area. If your pets are traumatized by strangers or noise, you might consider sending them on a short vacation until you're done.
• Take some "before" pictures so you can remember how bad it looked before you started (and because we give free t-shirts to anyone who brings in their before and after photos).

Will these black stains
sand out?
This is always a hard question. It is almost impossible to tell by looking if a stain will sand out. Dark stains from urine are the worst, largely because decomposing urine is a strong alkali and discolors the wood chemically. However, it is always best to try to sand out a stain before trying more drastic measures - occasionally they do sand out. If the stains don't lighten on sanding, patching is an option. Wood bleach is available, but we find that the results are so unpredictable that we aren't willing to sell it. If you do try to bleach, do not use household bleach - buy a product specifically designed for floors and do it 2-3 days before sanding so that the wood has time to dry.

How dusty will it be?
Sanding is just not a dust-free process, and don't let anyone tell you different. We strongly recommend using an attached vacuum (available for rent here at Pete's) on your edger because it tends to be the weakest link in the dust-control chain. The dust bag on the EZ-8 is very efficient, as long as you empty the bag regularly. No matter what you do, there will still be a layer of fine dust on horizontal surfaces and an even finer layer sticking to your walls. This is easily removed with a sponge and warm water. If you are sanding your kitchen, even if you do rent an attached vacuum, I would still either pack away all food and dishware or plastic over the cupboards and pantry.

"We just bought a house and took out the carpet and the floors look really good - can we just buff them up a little?"
If he finish on your floor is completely intact (no areas of wear or grey soiled patches at doorways) and you like the color, you can screen and recoat your floor. This means that you will sand the existing finish very lightly, just enough to create a bonding surface, and then apply one or maybe two layers of polyurethane over it. However, this process will only work if the floor does not contain any wax residue (remember that many floors were routinely waxed in the 50s and 60s, sometimes even when they didn't need wax). Test for wax by rubbing a clean, white cloth damped with paint thinner in a corner. If a brown, waxy residue is left on the cloth, a fresh coat of finish will not bond to that floor.

You might also check our Wall of Fame section for examples of customers who thought their floors looked okay but decided to sand anyway. The improvement in the newly refinished floor is so drastic you may change your definition of what makes an acceptable floor.

What about radiators? Stairs?
We have specialized machines for both. Radiator edgers are designed to reach under even low radiators, though you will still need to hand scrape around legs and pipes. We also have a smaller edger for sanding stair treads. Unfortunately, there is no machine for doing the stair risers.

Should I fill in the cracks on the floor? When?
We limit the areas we fill to nail holes, dents, splintered board corners, and the short 'board-end' cracks. The cracks that run along the long edges of the board just aren't worth filling - boards continue to swell and shrink along that dimension and any filler in there will quickly be reduced to kitty litter. Trust us, uneven, cracked, loose filler looks far worse than just an honest gap. If you use filler, don't choose the kind that is applied after the job is done - this stays soft and comes out easily.  Choose a hardening wood putty that matches the species of wood you have and apply it before you finish sanding.  We usually sand through the 36 grit stage, fill all our holes and gaps, have lunch, and when lunch is over, all the filler is dry and ready to sand flush and neat.

What do I do once I've sanded the floor? I thought I was just supposed to stain it…
Be careful with the word 'stain' - it's the most abused word in the wood flooring industry. Most people use it to describe any coating that goes on the wood, but when we say 'stain' we mean anything deliberately applied to the floor to change its color, but is translucent enough to allow the wood grain to still be visible . Stain alone is not a protective layer - it would scuff right off in a week! (Check out our article for our arguments against stain Staining Headache in the chapter on applying finish.

When most people say stain, what they really mean is the process of applying a protective finish over the wood to prevent damage to the floor from wear, water and dirt. The most common way to do this is with polyurethane, but penetrating finishes (such as Waterlox) are also growing in popularity. All of the systems that we sell involve applying a minimum of three coats to the floor. Both waterborne and oil-modified finishes are available. Stain can be used as a base coat under polyurethanes if a darker finish is desired. Stain can be used with penetrating finishes as well, but is usually mixed with the finish before application.

**A word of warning: Floors made from maple, birch, pine, or fir are notoriously difficult to stain evenly and well. We will actively discourage most do-it-yourselfers from attempting to stain those floors.

Do I always need to sand between coats of finish?
It varies according to what type of finish you are applying. Penetrating finishes do not require abrasion between coats. Polyurethanes, because they build a layer of polymer over the floor, will require inter-coat abrasion at least once during the finish process. If you have a large area, this is best done with a buffer and an abrasive screen. Small areas can be done just as effectively with a pole sander (the tool normally used for sanding drywall seams) and a small sanding screen.

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