Sanding Maple floors


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Old 06-12-10, 11:07 AM
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Post Sanding Maple floors

I recenlty bought a home and we are trying to sand down all the maple floors in the house so we can stain them a darker color. I have already rented two drum sanders and it's not even scratching the surface. I'm thinking that striping it with chemicals is the way to go...Anyone ever do this? Any suggestions?
 
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Old 06-12-10, 11:21 AM
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I can't imagine a drum sander not working. The problem most people have is it's sooo aggressive they get dips.

Are you starting with a coarse grit?

I think chemicals would be the last thing you would want. It gets into the cracks and seams....

The site has been sorta wonky today and I see most of the Pro's haven't been on much...give them time...
 
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Old 06-12-10, 12:25 PM
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"The site has been sorta wonky today"

I was wondering why the forums weren't loading correctly - glad it's not me

One thing about maple - it doesn't always take dark stains well. I also can't imagine the drum sander not being effective
 
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Old 06-12-10, 02:24 PM
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Originally Posted by marksr
[I]I also can't imagine the drum sander not being effective
Neither can I. Did you remember to put sandpaper on the drums?
 
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Old 06-12-10, 02:38 PM
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Are we talking real maple, or laminate?
 
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Old 06-13-10, 04:54 PM
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floor troubles

Yes, the sand paper was on it and there is some cupping issues. I still cannot get it to take. It's real maple and I'm finding that I'm at a loss. Someone suggested an orbital sander instead of the drum sander. Any thoughts?
 
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Old 06-13-10, 07:23 PM
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A drum sander will definitely cup and cut the floor. An orbital sander is probably what you need anyway. What type stain and finish is on it presently?
 
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Old 06-13-10, 07:32 PM
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There is no stain...it is natural maple factory finish. Orbital sander is the way to go then?
 
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Old 06-14-10, 03:27 AM
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With no stain, all you have to do is remove the finish, and the orbital sander is the way to go. Let us know how it goes.
 
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Old 06-16-10, 07:22 PM
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If you're resanding a pre-finished solid floor, its probably an aluminum oxide uv-cured finish. This stuff is HARD to get off. generally there's 7-9 coats of finish on most of the products my company uses. When we sand AlumOx, we run 80 grit paper on both the drum and the edger. This gets the finish off. (you would think a rougher grit would work better but its the opposite. The grit particles are larger and dull faster on rougher grits.) After getting the finish off, We will do a 3-cut process. 40 grit rough, 60 grit med., and 100 grit fine cut. Don't skip more than 1 grit between cuts... *Especially* on maple.

This is dependant on the sanding machines being set-up properly, and the operator to be running them properly.

We run our drum sander before the edger on the rough cut, after that the edger goes first and drum second to blend the edges into the middle of the floor. We also screen the floors after sanding.

Maple does not take stain well. If you have a darker color in mind, it will end up being blotchy. Generally, you want to water-pop the floor after all sanding and buffing is done to open as much of the grain up as possible. We use a garden weed sprayer - works great. (high-flow fans work great to dry the water and get you staining faster) light colors like golden oak or pecan (minwax like colors) you probably wouldnt need to water-pop for that. Do a test spot.

One more thing.. and probably the most important: Don't waste your time on using an orbital sander (I'm talking random orbit like a car buffer). It will get you nowhere fast. What kind of sanders did you have?
 
 

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