Call me Mrs. Sandman: the importance of sanding

After ripping up the carpet, the great debate became what to do with the floors. Do we preserve them as they are? Do we sand them down and stain them? Looking at them closely and also seeing the 2 holes of where there once was a wall, it was obvious that we had to start over. The yellow floors clashed with my style and resembled more of a basketball court than a home. So it was decided - we must sand! 

Now I told you already that Pinterest was my ally in this process. I found several tutorials on how to refinish floors and all lead me to the Home Depot tool rental department. 

I marched in and asked for my orbital sander (I felt like a pro already). From there the friendly worker assisted me in choosing the pad, grits of sandpaper ad even showed me how to operate the tool. Though I read all the how-to blogs, he walked me through the process again. Very helpful! 

Now in order to sand your floors you need to prep your space. 

- Cover all return air vents. You don't want the sawdust and debris finding it's way to other places in your home

- Cover all outlets. Again you don't want sawdust to get in there and make then unusable. 

- Remove all furniture and items you don't want to get debris on. If you can't remove it then cover them completely. 

- Seal off doorways so the sawdust doesn't penetrate other parts of your home. Trust me. This stuff will fly everywhere but really you want to prevent as much as you can. 

Once the area was prepped, I prepped myself. I wore goggles to protect my eyes, a mask over my mouth (seriously you need this) to make sure I didn't inhale anything, and my painting clothes. 

You also need the following to really make the cleanup simple - a shop vac and broom. Between grits, you MUST clean up up ALL the sawdust in order to properly sand as well as see your progress. 

I highly recommend having 2 people do this. One to sand and one to follow with the shop vac. However, I didn't have that all the time so I worked with what I had. 

For my first pass with the orbital, I enlisted the help of my friend Christina. However, I was worried about rental time and hurried the initial sanding. I didn't ruin the floor; however, it was not down to the bare wood. It is extremely important to have it sanded down completely or else your stain won't take. 

So I rented it again and made sure it was thoroughly sanded down. The results were beautiful. I am telling you, there is nothing more beautiful to me than bare wood. It's a blank canvas! 

Important note: you won't complete the job with the orbital alone. While it's amazing and thorough, it can't get into the corners. You will need a palm sander or a smaller sanding device to get the corners as well as any small sections the big machine might miss. I learned that any area of wood that is shiny or reflects light needs additional sanding. Bare wood doesn't shine or reflect light. Nope! You need everything completely sanded off in order to proceed to your next step. It's a very long process but very much worth it in the end!