How to Polish floorboards

It is firstly very important to examine your floorboards to see the condition of them before you commit and buy any tools, stain or polish. The picture to the right is half stained and half natural. The stain and the natural floorboards were both sanded back together and the result is the picture at the bottom of this page.

Tools & Materials you will need:

• Pliers - for staples etc from any old underlay & carpet
  

• Hammer & Nail Punch - ensure all nails are level with the surface otherwise they will catch on the sander and tear holes in the sandpaper.
  
  
• Floor sander - this can be hired from your local Hire Shop or Hardware Centre.
  
  
• Floor Sander sand paper - can also be brought from your local Hardware Centre.
  
  
• Orbital Sander - for around any edges or hard to reach places, sand paper can be bought from your local Hardware shop.
  
  
• Masking tape - for anything you don’t want polish on.
  
  
• Rollers With extension poll, use the wool white roller pads - not the normal painting pink ones (you will get bubbles), you get a smoother finish this way.
  
  
• Paint Brushes - for around the edges
  
  
• Safety Mask - go for a good quality full face one with replaceable filters.
  
  
• Stain - if you do not want the natural colour of your floorboards, you can get various colours.
  
  
• High Gloss Polyurethane - also known as the polish/vanish/clear coat

Getting started

Make sure you carefully check your floor for any staples and nails sticking up, make sure you remove any staples etc and punch down any nails.

Sanding

Start with coarse grit sandpaper – if your floors are stained and you want to take it back to natural it may require more sanding. Depending on the age of your floorboards, sanding across them may work better, but try going the length of the boards first. We found on one property with floorboards that were stained and over 100yrs old that we needed to sand across them because they boards were slightly curved.

Floor sanders are quite heavy so make sure once it’s going you keep it moving to avoid any over sanding in one area (this can make a groove in the floor).

Once you have sanded with a coarse grit (recommend 40) then sand with a medium (80 grit) and finish with a 100 - 120 grit sand paper. Basically sand until you are happy with the finish. Make sure you clean the area well & get rid of all the dust before polishing.

Staining

This is completely optional, it depends entirely how you want your floors to look. Just remember usually when you put the polish on the floor will darken – depending on the type of wood – best to try a small area first.

Polishing

I recommend doing the whole area at once, don’t do half a room then the other half as in some cases you can see where the line in the middle. Use a paint tray or trays & quality rollers if you have one or more people helping. Do around the edges first with a paint brush – make sure you give the floor a good coat. You should do 3-5 coats of polyurethane, with the time between each coat approx 12- 24hrs or when it is dry for you to be able to walk on it.