Floor Sanding Dilemma

[Talby999]

Howdy,

I have a hallway that requires sanding; the timber is King Billy Oregon that has been laid across the hall rather than lengthways down the hall. With the hall being 1.4m wide, I am considering hiring a drum sander but the risk is that I will have to use it across the grain due to the way the boards have been laid.
I would rather avoid that; especially considering the timber is particularly soft. One guy I spoke to suggested I do the complete hallway with an edger. The job is about 10 square metres, small enough job to consider using an orbital, belt or other hand operated sander.

With the grain going across the hall, does anyone have any advice on which way I should approach the sanding?

Cheers, Mat

[Marc]

Forget the drum sander for such a job. Buy or rent a Makita Belt sander and do the edges with a large orbital sander. Sand always along the boards, in your case a pain in the neck ... or the knees probably.

Start with fine grain and see the result. If you see that the gunk does not come off only then use a slightly coarser belt. Don't worry about clogging the belt. Remember that sandpaper is cheap, floorboards are expensive.
Before you even start, try to measure how much timber you have left for sanding by inserting a metal ruler or similar between the boards at different points.

[vsquizz]

A wee bit down the Reno page you should find this;

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=10074

Well worth a read

Cheers

[Dusty]

G'day, Mat.

Go with the original suggestion you recieved and do it with the edger. It'll be fairly hard work, but don't try to do it all in one or two hours, spread the work out over a whole day or even the weekend. Along with the edging you'll also have to punch and then fill the nails. Probably best to do that prior to tackling the sanding.

As for the grit to use I'd recommend 80 grit, this will give you a good deal of cutting power, particularly on the Oregon, without leaving too many deep scratches. To finish off, I highly recommend that you purchase the Triton Orbital Sander attachment, which when attached to a good 100 millimetre angle grinder (I use Makita) makes quite possibly the finest finishing sander you could hope for with this particular job in mind. Once again go with 80 grit paper on the orbital.

Depending on your level of patience with the edger, this combination of edger and orbital should give you quite a professional result with out the need to hire the bigger machines.

Good luck. :)