How long does it take to sand a floor?

[bnpenty]

I've just hired a sander combo (good deal: pick up Fri 4pm, return Mon 9am, pay for 1 day only). Was hoping to finsh today but only only got the heavy sanding and some of the edgeing done (whole floor: 60 sq m). I have to plan next w/e to finish it off. I was using old boards with 1/2mm - 1 1/2mm difference in boards surface so it took a while to level it off. Have I done most of the sanding given that I now have to work my way through the finer sheets only to take out the scratches? Any tips for this process? Nick

[BigCal]

Thats a bit of a how long is a piece of string question...

In my case the finner grades are a small fraction of the time of the first grade... with finner grades we did each room twice with the grain one way then with the grain the other way, this was in part due to the sander not being the best... The edges will take a while if your fussy with them, careful with the edger in the finner grades it'll still groove the flooy real quick I used a 1/2 sheat orbital for alot of ours in the finner grades...

good luck with it, patience is key...

[bnpenty]

Callum, nice to see you up bright 'n early Also, why am I not suprised to see you answering that post. That's exactly the answer I wanted to hear. But is there's anyone else out there who has a comment, Melbourne posts welcome!

Any other 'soon to be DIY floorers' out there (near Lilyfield, Sydney) who want to drink a bit of ('cos I can't, using the sanders), learn how it's not done , etc etc next weekend? All welcome, Nick

[bnpenty]

Well.. the answer to how long does it take to sand a floor (70 sqm, cypress) is 10 days. Most of it done 1st w/e, 2nd w/e the belts (3) kept on ripping off before the sander touched the floor! I'm still in dispute with the hire co. over this. Anyway I paid a sander who took 8 hrs to finish it off Wed/Thurs this week.

One big question (as the sander filled all the nail holes before sanding but not the gaps between boards in the 20 sqm of old floor):

There are no gaps, yet, between the 50sqm of new boards and recycled boards, in one room the, up to 2mm gappy, old boards meet the new boards half way across the room. I want to disguise this difference by minimising the look of the gappy boards.

Has anyone tried this: Use filler in the gaps and gently push in fillets of cypress so the filler and fillets are slightly proud, then sand off??

I'm worried the fillets may pop out, should I alternately glue them ONE side only and then fill where necessary the other side??

I've gone for what I think is the most expensive finish possible: Livos Kunos (at 5 times the cost of Poly) and want a glossy/glassy finish similar to Poly.

[That Floor Guy]

Not much experience in floor sanding myself, but I do chat to those boys often at my supplier, the general consensus is that it's very risky filling the gaps as no matter what you do it's really only a matter of time before it starts to "crack out". This is mostly due to movement in the floor.

Would it be possible to replace the last board in the row joining the new floor and cutting it in as a much tighter fit?

[bnpenty]

In the end I left the gaps and have now put on 3 coats of Kunos. It's looking good, but I want to burnish on the next coat. Anyone done this? Do I need a floor polisher?