Sanding the hallway floor!

Yay! The time has come to make some jolly good progress with the floor.

It started at 7am on a Saturday with a trip to the local hire shop to pick up a floor sander and edging sander.  The local shop allow you to take the equipment from 7am Saturday to 7am Monday for just one days hire - bazinga! I did look into the national firms like HSS Hire etc. but the deals weren't very good at the time I was looking so we just went for the local firm instead.  They were also only 5 mins down the road, instead of 25 mins so more convenient too.

The guy in the shop was really nice and helpful and explained to me how to use both machines.  We also then discussed what the floor was like at the minute, and what I was expecting, so that he could recommend how much and what grit sandpaper to use, as I had no idea.  He even helped me load them into the car - a feat I couldn't have managed myself.

This was a shot 2 seconds are Dan had started with the edging sander.  You can see where it's been already, just to the right of the sander.

Some edging done to get us started. I think ideally we would have taken the radiator off, but given all the palaver over the last couple of months with this radiator, honestly, I couldn't be bothered!  It was ok in the end, and we got as close to the edge as we needed to, but it just meant I had to rub some scuff marks off the radiator at the end - nothing too major.

Fitting the sandpaper wasn't too bad either.

Making some progress with the floor sander.  Note: these machines are so heavy(!) and have a mind of their own!  The whole weekend was a workout for my arms, core muscles, back, hamstrings...

You can see we left the access hatch in and didn't replace these boards.  We insulated from the top here as there was no other choice, but I wanted to keep the hatch in case we ever needed to get under there again.  I've asked Santa for a large doormat for this areas though which should cover it up a treat.

(Ignore the actual stairs - these still need some work!)

I had a go with the edging sander upstairs and it was amazing the difference in made.

How long did it take?

I think we probably did it in about 5 or 6 hours of the both of us.

How much sandpaper did you use?

As the floor wasn't in too bad condition, we used 10 sheets of 80 grit sandpaper on the edging sander and the floor sander each (so 20 in total at 80 grit), and probably 3 sheets of 120 grit each.  I know people who have used 24 grit, but our floorboards really weren't that bad.

We did an area that was approx. 12-13m2.

How much did it cost?

A few pennies shy of £100 (literally).  The hire of the machines came to about £65 for the weekend, and the sandpaper approx. £35.  Obviously the more rooms you plan to get done in one weekend, the more cost effective it becomes.

Did it ruin your body for days afterwards?

YES!!!!!!!

(On the plus, no need for the gym!)

Did you have any problems?

The large floor sander kept on disintegrating (not sure this is the right word... it just made a load noise and the sandpaper would come out all shredded) the sandpaper, for reasons unbeknownst to us.  I had punched every nail in so it can't have been getting caught on anything, so this left us a little confused.  Even though it wasn't hard to change the sandpaper, it was time consuming (and money consuming), so it was very annoying if it needed a new sheet after just a few seconds.

Can anyone do it?

If you are up for a full body workout, then yes!