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I'm planning to sand the floorboards in our dining room this weekend
and would like to get my wife and baby out of the house while I'm doing
the sanding but have no idea how long it will take?

I've got everything prepared, room cleared, all boards screwed down
etc.

I want to sand the floorboards first to get rid of the top layer of
dirt etc and then sand a second time to collect the sawdust to fill the
gaps between the floorboards. I will mix this with some special glue
like liquid (which I'm getting from sanding shop) and allow to dry
overnight. I will then do the final sand on Sunday using 2/3 different
grade sandpapers.

The room is about 12 foot by 12 foot.

Obviously they only need to be out while the sanding is going on, not
while I'm filling the gaps.

When I did it it took me sat/sun from a prepared position to having the
varnish down.

I'd allow four hours each day. That ought to cover eventualities.

The dust will go everywhere, blank off all other rooms, you have been
warned.

By the way, I tried that sawdust and pva business, what I ended up with did
not match the boards, it looked like dark shiny goo, and it shrank as it
dried.
I recommend you bin the idea and use either a wood colour acrylic frame
sealant, or, Wickes now stocks floorboard gap sealant in a range of three
colours, light, medium and dark.

Another thing. I suspect you've booked the sander now, but unless your floor
boards are really yukky there is a school of thought that just says clean
them with a scrubbing brush to get the ingrained dirt out and then
stain/varnish/oil. The reason is that sanding them flat removes all the
character, whereas really old floorboards look best with a myriad of dings
in them.

I went over my hallway with a scrubbing brush and then a handheld orbital
sander and achieved a nice result that left some character: cupped
floorboards cause some problems though as the raised bits tend to get sanded
more than the dipped bits.

If your boards are painted with that black stuff then that'll need sanding
off, and surface woodworm tracks are better removed or filled too.

Andy.