Sanding wood floor

[NotAGolf]

We had some wood flooring put down a smidge over 5 years ago. It's held up pretty well, but the oil is starting to wear thin in a couple of heavy traffic areas, and there's a few minor scuffs/scrapes, so I'd like to sand it down and give it a fresh coat of oil.

I was thinking of hiring a floor sander such as this one. Are they fairly simple to use? My only concern is that it only needs a light sanding to take the oil off, so is this a bit OTT? It's only engineered wood with a few mm of wear layer, so I don't want the floor sander to tear through all of it!

The area is only ~35 sqm, so I could potentially do it with my orbital sander. Would take a lot longer and burn through a fair few sheets, but perhaps I'd have a bit more control.

 

[NotAGolf]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have just got a new orbital sander for the worktops. I'll time how long it takes to get through them, then work out how long it would take to do the flooring. It sounds like the safest option, so as long as it won't take crazy long, that might be the way forward.

 

[NotAGolf]

Thanks for all the feedback all. I played it safe and went with the orbital sander in the end. It was pretty slow going and quite uncomfortable being hunched over for hours on end, but I'm pleased with the end result.

I went right back to the wood and made sure to get all the oil off, so went 40 grit initially, then 80 grit and finished with 120. With hindsight, I probably should've done it sooner then I wouldn't have had to sand quite so much as I'd let it get quite patchy.

It's the first time I used the sander too (Bosch GEX 125-1 AE). Very impressed. I was lucky that the hoover nozzle fitted perfectly, so there was literally no mess to tidy up afterwards. I didn't get through too many pads either.

A few mins after starting to sand:

Half of the room re-oiled:

 

[NotAGolf]

Your vacuum is going to die now btw lol.

That's my 'manly jobs' vacuum. It's been sitting unused in a damp garage for the last 2 years. Didn't flinch after being used for about 6 hours straight. The thing is bomb proof! My electricity bill on the other hand...