Continued from Day 1.
Today the real work begins. Get ready for a lot of sweat and pain!
Step-by-Step
Step 1
Remove heating registers, cover vents with newspaper or rags.
Step 2
Cover all passageways with plastic sheeting (as shown in the video). We skipped this step because the only passageways we had were blocked with doors. We did block the gaps at the bottom of the doors with newspaper and closed all doors. And we covered the fireplace opening.
Step 3
Don your face masks and turn on the sanders! The drum sander was scary at first as it seemed to want to run by itself, but keep a firm grip on the handles and don’t let it run off and you’ll be fine! The edge sander was a trickier machine to handle as it too wanted to run off by itself. The vibrations of the edge sander were much more powerful than the drum sander and made work much more involved and painful.
We made the mistake of starting the sanding process with 60 grit paper and it did a terrible job of melting the existing varnish, creating burning tracks in the floor. A quick call to Tool Rentals at Home Depot solved the problem for us. We needed to use a 36 grit to cut into the varnish. So I made a second trip to the store to pick up more paper - for both the drum and edge sanders because when you use one grit for one machine, you have to match it with the other machine. Get a lot more paper than you think you need for the edge sander because that machine ate up way more paper than the drum sander did. We had to make a third trip to buy more 36 grit paper.
Step 4
Cut corners. The edge sander won’t get to the corners so that’s where the wood scraper comes in. This is tough work and won’t be easy so be prepared. Then sand down with the 60 grit followed by 100 grit just like you would for the machines.
Step 5
Vacuum all the dust. There will be loads of it. In fact, we vacuumed as we went just we could see the areas that needed to be sanded.
Step 6
Hammer in the nails. Using a nail set and hammer, we went around the room to see if any nails were exposed in the sanding process and tapped them back below the surface.
Step 7
Fill in holes. It’s easiest to fill in the holes with wood putty in your floor immediately after you tap the nails back in. This way, you don’t have to look for the holes all over again.
At this time you can call it quits for the night or continue to apply the first coat of stain. Since we goofed up and had to make two more trips than planned, we finished late into the night.
The saga continues on Day 3!
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