Renting Floor Sanders

I checked into renting floor sanders in my area and found out
the following. Lowe's has an orbital sander/buffer but no
drum sanders. Home Depot has a pad sander made by Verathane
but it doesn't work. Actually they have 2 and neither work and when they checked to see if they could get one from another store they found out that all of the stores in the region have
pad sanders that are not in working order. Sounds like a vendor
problem.
Anyways my question is can I use the orbital sander at Lowe's,
doesn't it leave swirl marks or something? Has anybody had
any success using one? They have a little video they sell
with the sander rental and the clerk claims people rent it
all the time to refinish floors, but I have yet to meet anyone
that has actually used one....any thoughts?

 

Have you tried a local equiptment rental yard? They are the people that have the right equiptment for what you are looking for. Generally speaking you would first drum, and edge and then use the buffer you are talking about to remove chatter marks left by the drum. In a sense smoothing out of the floor. The buffer can be used for a screen and recoat (roughing up of the old finish to get the next coat to adhere But if finish removal is what you are after a drum is the way to go. Ken Fisher has a site that shows detailed pictures of the sanding process and the equiptment that is required. Look in his byo for the site also you can try www.finishingwoodfloors.com

Phil
www.locyshardwoodfloors.com