Floor Restorations |
Whether it's a newly laid Timber Floor or restorations needed on old existing floors, the sanding and polishing processes are pretty much the same. Sanding and Polishing is necessary to produce the smooth glossy look of finished timber floors. As for old existing timber floors, Sanding and Polishing is required to remove any scratch or scuff marks, or old existing coating that has been worn out. If sections of the timber floors are beyond repair, then the damaged individual floorboards are simply ripped out and new floorboards are put in place.
Before any coating process can begin, the timber floor surface must be smooth and leveled out. The Sanding and Polishing process shaves off about 2mm off the surface of the timber floor, so if the timber floors have been nailed down with nails, then every single nail on the floor must be punched down at least another 2-3mm. This enables the floor to be sanded down without the sanding equipment getting damaged from the exposed nail heads.
The Sanding process starts with the belt or drum sanding machine with a 40 grit sandpaper. this is the main sanding machine that does the bulk of the timber floor but an edge sander must be used to sand the edges and corners the main sander cannot get to. Scrapers are used to scrape down the tight corners the edge sander cannot reach. A 60 grit sandpaper is used to sand the floor further to make the timber surface is even smoother.
Once the sanding is complete and all the sawdust is vacuumed, the first coat of polyurethane is applied. The coating of polyurethane will cause the loose timber fibres to rise up from the timber surface so the floor needs to be polished. An orbital sander is used with a finer 80-120 grit sandpaper, depending on the condition of the timber floor. After Polishing, a second coat is applied to the timber floor. The timber floor may be polished again with a 120 grit paper, if it's required, before the third and last coat.