Lifting very old floorboards

Building Candy · 15 Nov 2021 at 21:50

Only just realised you are THE James Veitch, always enjoy watching your stuff you used to make me laugh, good luck on the floor!

dlockers · 15 Nov 2021 at 22:16

Building Candy said:
Only just realised you are THE James Veitch, always enjoy watching your stuff you make me laugh, good luck on the floor!

I knew he was too funny to just be a DIY ****. Now we know he is a legit comedian and a DIY ****!

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2021 at 23:16

Once you've got the slivers somewhere near, consider going over the whole floor with a big floor sander before applying your finish/oil/whatever.

Hire for a day or weekend should be sufficient - eg https://www.hss.com/hire/p/floor-sander-240v

James Peach · 16 Nov 2021 at 15:52

jellybeard999 said:
Once you've got the slivers somewhere near, consider going over the whole floor with a big floor sander before applying your finish/oil/whatever.

Hire for a day or weekend should be sufficient - eg https://www.hss.com/hire/p/floor-sander-240v

Thanks. I was going to rent one but then I read this blog post that suggested sort of just buying one for 200 quid.
Here's the passage:

Choose the right power tools

You have a couple of options here – either hire a floor sander from somewhere like HSS Hire, or buy your own hand-held belt sander. Here’s some advice on to decide which option is right for you.

Are you sanding one room only, or a small number of rooms?

Are you able to dedicate an entire weekend (or week) to getting the job done?

Are your floors a nice even height across the room, ideally parquet or tongue and groove?

Then you should probably hire the equipment. You’ll need a belt sander and an edger.

Alternatively…

Do you have quite a few rooms to do?

Do you have kids or other commitments that make it harder to devote significant chunks of time to DIY? Is it easier to break projects down into small chunks and do a couple of hours at a time whenever you can fit the work in?

Are your floors uneven? Our plank floors are all slightly different heights, and we found the hired belt sander only sanded an inch at a time on each side, even though the belt was nearly a foot wide.

Then you should seriously consider buying your own sander.

We initially hired a floor sander from HSS Hire, but it just didn’t work on our uneven floors. It also worked out insanely expensive – the hire charge was fairly reasonable, but we spent almost double that on sandpaper. Due to the design of the big floor sanders, the belts rip extremely easily and we got through LOADS.

So we did a ton of research and eventually bought a Makita belt sander and a DeWalt detail sander. You can read more about why we chose the Makita here. We buy sandpaper for each sander on Amazon for significantly less than HSS Hire charged us. And we can use the sanders for as long or as little as we like, with no time pressure to get the job done by the end of the hire period. To give a cost estimate, we paid around £200 to do the first pass only of two rooms. We then paid around £300 for the two sanders plus approximately £20 in sandpaper per room to finish these rooms (two more coats), do a third room, and then the entire three storey staircase. So it’s worked out much, much cheaper for us to buy our own equipment.

DO you have any thoughts?

I'm a tad worried it'll all be uneven considering the state I have managed to get them into. I'm not 100% sure I should have begun this endeavour. Nevertheless I live in hope.

James Peach · 16 Nov 2021 at 15:53

Building Candy said:
you used to make me laugh

Are you my ex?

James Peach · 16 Nov 2021 at 15:54

dLockers said:
I knew he was too funny to just be a DIY ****. Now we know he is a legit comedian and a DIY ****!

Presume the ****s mean *tw*t* [you decide the vowel!]

James Peach · 16 Nov 2021 at 15:56

dLockers said:
You can get adaptors for other brands.

Ah. Yes. I did see this I think but I wasn't 100% sure it was the right thing.

Hey, I was thinking of getting a battery powered proper one anyway but the blades seem to go blunt so quickly. Do people resharpen blades at home? It seems such a waste and expensive to just keep buying them.

Nutty_Death · 16 Nov 2021 at 19:33

James Peach said:
Thanks. I was going to rent one but then I read this blog post that suggested sort of just buying one for 200 quid.
Here's the passage:

DO you have any thoughts?

I'm a tad worried it'll all be uneven considering the state I have managed to get them into. I'm not 100% sure I should have begun this endeavour. Nevertheless I live in hope.

Hiring a big belt sander really isn't that big of a deal. If you can vacuum and remember to lift off before changing direction then you should be fine.

I didn't have issues with ripping sandpaper and had plenty to return for a refund. I destroyed more from the edge sander as it's a powerful beast to tame.

A big hired belt sander will mean you're done within a couple of hours.

Hand sander is doable but obviously more work and I'd guess has more potential for an uneven finish but you could probably argue that either way.

Just go with whatever you feel comfortable with. Don't think either is the wrong option.

Once you've sanded and then treated the floor, you should hopefully think it was worthwhile. You're just going through the destructive phase atm.

Nutty_Death · 16 Nov 2021 at 19:36

James Peach said:
Ah. Yes. I did see this I think but I wasn't 100% sure it was the right thing.

Hey, I was thinking of getting a battery powered proper one anyway but the blades seem to go blunt so quickly. Do people resharpen blades at home? It seems such a waste and expensive to just keep buying them.

As I said before a chisel works. Just take your time so you don't split the sliver below the floorboards and that you don't give yourself a massive splinter. You'll be left with lots of great kindling.

James Peach · 17 Nov 2021 at 13:42

Nutty_Death said:
As I said before a chisel works. Just take your time so you don't split the sliver below the floorboards and that you don't give yourself a massive splinter. You'll be left with lots of great kindling.

Too late for splinters. I have many. One of my hands is basically 20% splinter.

James Peach · 17 Nov 2021 at 13:46

From the look of my floors can we determine they are, indeed, pine?
I'm trying to find out how to finish them.

I want them to look like this:

dirtychinchilla · 18 Nov 2021 at 16:21

I'm also not an expert, but could you not use wood filler for the very small gaps?

Nutty_Death · 18 Nov 2021 at 19:47

James Peach said:
From the look of my floors can we determine they are, indeed, pine?
I'm trying to find out how to finish them.

I want them to look like this:

Sand a bit and see if it looks like that.

The picture you put up is a freshly sanded floor with no treatment. So whatever we you do it won't stay like that once you put a finish on it.

I was doing some sanding today and got a splinter under my thumb nail. Had to grit my teeth and yank it out... Could see it below the nail.

James Peach · 19 Nov 2021 at 13:06

Do you guys give out prizes here?

James Peach · 19 Nov 2021 at 13:06

Nutty_Death said:
Sand a bit and see if it looks like that.

The picture you put up is a freshly sanded floor with no treatment. So whatever we you do it won't stay like that once you put a finish on it.

I was doing some sanding today and got a splinter under my thumb nail. Had to grit my teeth and yank it out... Could see it below the nail.

the humanity!

James Peach · 19 Nov 2021 at 13:06

dirtychinchilla said:
I'm also not an expert, but could you not use wood filler for the very small gaps?

I have some Osmo putty stuff and I'm experimenting with that downstairs.

James Peach · 19 Nov 2021 at 13:07

The drum sander has not worked out;

Here is a video explaining why.

I am now in the market for a belt sander.
There are two Makita 9403's one is 110v and the other is 220v. Dumb question but in the UK does it matter which one I get?

dirtychinchilla · 19 Nov 2021 at 13:48

We have 220-240 V at the plug in the UK.

At what point have you spent enough and damaged enough to justify paying someone else to do it?

explicit4u · 19 Nov 2021 at 13:48

James Peach said:
The drum sander has not worked out;

Here is a video explaining why.

I am now in the market for a belt sander.
There are two Makita 9403's one is 110v and the other is 220v. Dumb question but in the UK does it matter which one I get?

110v is usually for the pros working on site, safer voltage incase something goes wrong, it also requires a transformer. 220v is fine for home use.

James Peach · 19 Nov 2021 at 14:18

dirtychinchilla said:
We have 220-240 V at the plug in the UK.

At what point have you spent enough and damaged enough to justify paying someone else to do it?

I ask myself that about 50 times a day. But I don't think I've damaged it so much; I just think that I don't know what I'm doing. But I'm learning and I'm enjoying that part.

Also, the quote I got was for about seven thousand pounds.

I suspect I'll have it all done professionally if I ever get the works done to the place that I want to.