How to Sand a Wood Floor Part 1

If you need to sand a wood floor, there is a specific process that you will need to follow. By sanding down your wood floor, you can refinish it and make it look new again. However, if you do not do things correctly, you could end up doing more damage than good. Here are the basics of how to get started with sanding your wood floor. (This is Part 1 of 2. To move ahead to Part 2, click here.)

Nail Down Boards

You need to start off by making sure that all of the boards are fastened securely to the subfloor. If not, you could run into problems during the sanding process. If there are any loose boards or boards sticking up off the floor, you will need to nail them down.

Drive Down Nails

Something else that you will want to watch out for are nails that are sticking up out of the floor. If nails are sticking up, you will not be able to sand the floor in that area. Use your hammer to drive down the nails into the wood. You may need to use a nail set so that you can make sure the nails get down into the wood.

Cover the Furniture

You will also want to make sure that you cover all of the furniture and personal belongings with plastic. Even if something is not in the same room as where you are sanding, you should consider covering it up. Dust can travel through the air very easily and when you sand the floor, you are going to be creating large amounts of dust. This dust can also damage electronics, so you will want to make sure to cover up your TV and any other equipment that you have.

Mask Off the Room

In addition to covering the furniture, you should try to mask off the room as best you can. For this process, you will need to use large sheets of plastic. Take the sheets of plastic and cover door openings with them. You can attach the plastic to the door frames with masking tape or some other type of tape that you have available. Make sure to cover as much as you can with this plastic to keep the dust contained in one area of the house. You should also make sure that the entire edge of the plastic is taped down to the wall. Otherwise, dust can get around the corners of the plastic and still get through the rest of the house.

Getting Your Tools

In order to sand your floor properly, you will need to make sure that you have the right tools for the job. There are a number of different ways that you could potentially sand your floor. While you could do this by hand with sandpaper, using sanding equipment will be much easier. You should be able to rent sanding equipment from your local home store.