DIY hardword re-finishing Part 1

When we moved into our home, the corner bedroom, previously a little boy's room, was full of holes in the walls and nasty carpet. The majority of our main level is hardwood so I pulled out the nasty old carpet and carpet pad. For a few years this room was just storage for my husband and I, but since we were planning on starting a family soon this room needed a major clean up!

After cleaning out all of the stuff we had been storing in there for several years, and researching the best way to go about our project we began our adventure!

Tools for this project:
Tape and tape measurer
Drum Sander (rental)
Various grits of sandpaper for your drum sander
Hand sander for edges (rent or buy at local hardware store)
Belts for hand sander

Shop vacuum
Masks and goggles


Some before pictures:

As you can see, there were many black marks, scuffs and scratches throughout the floor!

In the entryway of the room the floor had a very grayish discoloration.

This is the tutorial we used as a guideline:
Family Handyman Hardwood Floor Sanding

My fabulous DIY momma and I rented a drum sander. We went to a local tool rental place and found their advice very helpful as well. There are several different kind of drum sanders ranging in different powers too! Some may be very difficult to get in your home and maneuver in the room. Measure the room you are working in prior to going to the rental place so they can guide you on what will work best for this space and tell you about how much sand paper you will need for the size room. You will need several different grits of sandpaper too.

Money saving tip: do as much prep work as you can before renting your drum sander as they usually rent for 6 hours or so!

First, we removed any nails sticking up in the floor and covered the vent and outlets in the room to prevent dust from spreading to the rest of the house. You will definitely want some safety goggles and masks as this project is VERY dusty!

Once we were ready to begin sanding we decided I would maneuver the sander and my mom would be in charge of keeping the cord and shop vac out of the way. In such a small room you need another person for this job. You will need to sand in the several different levels of grits (see above tutorial) and try to go in a pattern starting in a corner or closet and keep the sander moving.

The first time we turned on the sander and realized how difficult it would be to move around the room with the cords and all, we both started laughing so hard in our masks that I had to turn if off so we could re-group and come up with a plan of which way to move around the room best!

Once you get in a grove, it is much easier. Be careful not to use the same sandpaper pads too long or they can burn down and gum up on the floor (the opposite of what you want!)

Here is a during picture:

This is what our drum sander looked like. As you can see we were able to get up almost all of the old worn finish and black marks. Only in the one area to the left were we not able to get all of the old finish off as the boards were slightly un-level here. You can try to hand sand areas that you are not happy with after using the drum sander and edger.

Stay tuned for the next post on the staining process and more pictures to come for our future nursery!!!