Rent the right machine to save time and money.
We’re a little opinionated about which machine does what, but that’s a good thing. See our list of rental equipment.
Are you trying to sand an older floor down to bare, clean pretty wood?
A drum sander and an edger will get the job done in the shortest time with the least amount of sandpaper.
For some refinishing projects (especially if you haven’t had any training on a drum sander), the U-Sand is a fine alternative, but it will take more time, especially on old maple floors.
Heavy shellac or old varnish floors will require large quantities when using the U-Sand.
Buffers like this will NOT be aggressive enough to remove finish or scarred wood, no matter how coarse the abrasive.
They are too light and their motors just aren’t powerful enough.
Are you trying to sand a newly-installed floor?
We still think drum sanders and edgers are the most efficient way to do this.
But the U-Sand is great option for sanding new floors, especially if you want to avoid running the edger.
Occasionally, for fir or pine floors, a buffer with a hard plate like this hard plate for buffer can remove mill marks and small amounts of overwood to prepare the floor for finish.
But it won’t work for harder woods like oak or maple.
Are you trying to sand under your kitchen toe-kicks or baseboard radiators?
The radiator edger with the short snoute will let you reach under toe-kicks and baseboard radiators.
What about stair treads?
If they’re in tough shape, we recommend starting with the big edger and switching to a palm sander.
If the treads aren’t too bad, you can do all the passes with the short-snout edger and use the stair tread extender to give your edger wheels a nice place to roll.
Pete’s Bonus Tips
Meet Randy Lundin, one of Pete’s owners and Fixer-of-all-Things.
Randy has been with Pete’s Hardwood Floors in MN for over a decade – think of how many sanders he has maintained, how many jammed nailers he has un-jammed, and how many edgers he has brought back to life. He takes great care to maintain Pete’s rental equipment.
Not to mention all the customers he has trained and calmed. When Randy’s in the house, we can fix anything.