Over the years, raw or varnished wooden floors become tired and dull, losing all their shine. It’s time to proceed with sanding to give the parquet a second youth and deep maintenance. But should you call a professional or sand your floor yourself? Without a doubt, this operation must be carried out by a specialist who alone has the know-how to perform quality sanding.
Floor sanding, a technical task
Before sanding the floor, the room must be prepared. First, with the classic sanding technique, which generates a lot of dust, the room must be sealed, the central ventilation turned off, the room ventilated, and the person working equipped with a protective mask. Then, the baseboards must be removed using a crowbar, a delicate operation that requires equipment and patience. Then it’s the nails and staples on the floor surface that need to be removed.
The actual floor sanding operation consists of propelling sand under pressure onto the parquet to remove all varnish residues, dirt, and all dust embedded in the parquet. This highly abrasive technique allows the floor to be stripped bare in order to treat it in depth. Today, it is possible to choose between classic sanding which produces dust, which is harmful to health and requires the inhabitants of the house to lodge elsewhere during the sanding work, and ecological floor sanding which is completely harmless, does not release any dust or particles, and allows you to stay on site during the work.
Sanding a floor requires expertise
When you’re not a professional, you’re unaware of the sanding technique, particularly:
– Which sandpaper grit to choose: sandpaper comes in strips of various weights ranging from 40 to 150 grains per cm2 and only the specialist knows which one is suitable depending on the wear of the parquet, its thickness, and the number of sanding layers already done.
– How to use the sander: to obtain quality work, you should never stay in one place with the sander, as this risks digging into the wood. On the contrary, care must be taken to sand continuously in the direction of the wood grain. The sander’s drum must also be lifted at each change of direction to avoid marking the wood. Drum sanders, which offer optimal results, are also not simple to use when you’re not a professional. Not to mention that there are orbital sanders, triangular pad sanders, or edge sanders, and you don’t always know which one to use depending on the areas being sanded.
– How long to use the sander: the specialist is accustomed to treating soft woods, like spruce wood, and hardwoods such as hardwood. He knows perfectly how to adjust the sanding duration according to the type of wood he’s sanding.
– What precaution to take with thin parquet: too many DIYers sand their floor despite a wood thickness of less than three millimeters, causing cracks to appear.
Finally, the last argument and certainly not the least, sanding done with a rental sander does not remove all the dust, but 90 to 95%, while some professionals offer 100% dust-free sanding that’s safe for health.
Sanding a floor is not something to be improvised and wanting to do it yourself is not only harmful to health but can also lead to a disastrous result. Even if it costs more than doing it yourself, entrusting the sanding of your parquet to a professional is not a luxury, but a real investment.
