Restoring a parquet floor

[Normanj]

We're trying to restore a parquet floor in a moderately large room (approx 5x10m). In some areas the finish is badly worn down to bare wood where desk chairs were located etc. In a couple of places the tiles have lifted due to localised flooding. We've fixed the loose tiles and filled the gaps and now we need to apply a durable finish.

We're planning to use a couple of coats of Feast Watson Floor Clear as finish. The real question we have is what kind of sander to hire to remove the old finish? Working round the edges with a hand sander proved to be a time-consuming task. An orbital sander seems to be the obvious choice, given the alternating grain. But would a belt-type sander be more efficient and do a decent job with parquet floors? Thanks

[Horsecroft88]

It sure sounds like you have a project on your hands. I am all for the use of the Feast Watson floor seal. Its a nice product and will give you and excellent finish.

I can well imagine how time consuming etc sorting out the edges would be, especially with a hand sander.

My advice given you are talking of parquetry is that perhaps a belt sander might be a little too extreme and could cause damage if not handled well. With an orbital sander and using some different grade papers (coarse, medium and fine) on the other hand, while certainly slower, should at least obviate the risk of damage to your flooring, and therefore would be my choice if I were doing this. The only thing is depending on how badly damaged the old surface is, you may not want to use coarse and just rather medium and fine grade papers. Just a suggestion.

I actually have used an orbital sander to do all of my floors at both my properties for exactly the same reason. Having used industrial grade sanders in the past, my take is that they can ruin the patina of an old floor very quickly making it look brand new. Which at least in my case is the last thing I would want to with my early colonial properties.

[Normanj]

Thank you. Looks like an orbital sander is the way to go.