NT wrote:
On Aug 5, 11:38 am, RobertL wrote:
in our current house we paid £400 to have about 35 sq m of floor
sanded and varnished. We now want to do our new (Victorian) house
which has about 120 square metres. We are considering doing it
ourselves.

You seem to be able to hire a sander for about £30 a day.

Are there any hidden pitfalls to doing this ourselves?

many thanks,

Robert

Sometimes the worms heave been eating the boards under the surface,
and your sanding exposes the worm tunnels and basically totally ruins
the floor. Sanding is rarely necessary for domestic houses, cleaning
and repairing as needed is far easier and gives a great finish.


NT


Modern floor sanders are pretty easy to use. I know of at least two
couples who have done 3/4 rooms in a weekend without a problem, and
there is no way that can be achieved without the machinery.
The only advice I'd give is to spend time going through the grits. It's
tempting to slap the varnish down as soon as it all looks clean and
feels smooth, but the minor imperfections (cross board scratches etc)
only show up after the finish has been applied, by which time it's too
late.