Wooden floors are a gift. Though high foot traffic and dragging furniture can cause some wear and tear to wooden floors, they can be easily revived. Floor sanding and polishing will make them look and feel brand new again by vitalising your floors. However, to get the desired look, you must pay attention to the following factors:
1. Your Floorboard
Floorboard sanding and polishing methods revive any kind of timber floor, including finished, prefinished, or engineered timber floors. However, before you select any finish or even decide to sand and polish your wooden floors, you must always thoroughly examine your existing floorings first. Alternatively, you can contact an expert team of floor sanders and polishers to do that for you.
Floorboard Species
Your floor may be oak, mahogany, maple, or jarrah. Whatever the type of wood it is, finding its species helps identify its strength and weakness. For instance, removing a dirt build-up from wooden species like jarrah is not easy. It may take additional time than species like oak, pine, and ash. Your flooring professional will be able to assess the wood species for you.
Floorboard Type
Then comes the type of wooden flooring. Your flooring professional will recommend a suitable sanding and polishing method only after assessing the floorboard type. For instance, parquetry flooring requires delicate handling and more equipment than regular hardwood floors. And in some cases, if you are renovating a newly purchased home, it may have an engineered floor that looks similar to a solid hardwood floor.
Floorboard Quality
You should also look for the quality of the wooden floorboards, whether it has any cupping, warping, dents, or other surface defects. Most importantly, you should check for the unevenness in the wooden floorboards. If there is unevenness, it is advisable to flatten the floorboards first and then remove the dirt build-up to get a smooth finish. In terms of scratches, your flooring professional may recommend screening if there is no deep scratches or dents.
2. Grit Selection
Grit selection is the most crucial step in floorboard sanding and polishing. You will get a smooth and ready to polish flooring surface only if you use grits of apt quality and size. A wrong grit can completely ruin the natural beauty of your timber floors. So, it is critical to follow a precise grit sequence according to the type of your wooden flooring. Beginning the floor sanding process with abrasive grits is the best way to remove the existing paint, polish, and coating. Eventually, you can move to finer grits. Once the top varnish or coating is removed, the next step is to remove stains, scratches, or dents. This, in turn, will make the floorboards even and smoother.
3. Sanding Machine
When it comes to floor sanding and polishing, there is no fixed approach. It requires a series of equipment and techniques depending upon the needs and type of flooring. To begin with, you should know when and how to handle a particular type of sanding machine. You also must know how to sand along the grains without damaging and making the timber floors rough. Most importantly, you must take care of the feed speed. That’s why it’s important to have an expert floorboard sanding and polishing professional who does it all without any hassle.
4. Floorboard Coating
Coating plays a crucial role in achieving the final look you want. If you rush towards coating or staining, the entire effort will go in vain.
Therefore, if you are looking forward to giving your worn-out wooden floors a fresh new look, give Stanton Flooring a call now. We are the floor sanding and polishing experts in Sydney, and by letting us do the job, you can be assured of a damage-free and neat finish.