Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Sep 05, 2009 5:53 pm We are doing a home reno and trying to do as much as possible ourselves. Got a quote to sand the floors, 4 bed home with jarrah floors, nearly $5000 so we decided to give it a go ourselves. Last week, while really sick of sanding i would have said DO NOT EVER TRY IT- JUST PAY. Now we have sanded the bedrooms and put the polish on and they truly look amazing i'm sort thinking its not such a bad DIY job. It has been a hell of a lot of hard work but the floor looks fanastic. The pro woud have had the entire house done in one week and for us its going to be a job spread out over a month. We also used bona traffic, satin which is very expensive $180 for a 5 litre bottle. The finish is beautiful but i will never know how it compares to products available on the shelf at bunnings that were much much cheaper. I'm wondering if the traffic was worth the price. Also in the rooms where we ripped up the carpet i was concerned that the wood putty didnt match exactly so i only filled the nail holes and a few larger cracks. For the kitchen where i'm ripping up lino, i'm going to fill all the little cracks because the colour difference is not noticble and it looks nicer all smooth. Anyway after buying the traffic and sandpapers and hiring machines we will only be saving about $2500. I am really happy with how they turned out so far but am really scared of the next phase of the floors, the kitchen, dining and lounge areas as we need to use the drum sander. I've been researching on U tube how to use these. So while you do save some money, more if you dont go for the expensive varnish, it really is hard work. I'm also super paranoid about keeping the floor perfect now so i even carry the vacuum instead of dragging it. We were joking today that the planned post reno party, date still unknown, might have to be held outside. Drunk people, shoes and my newly polished floors? Hmm Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 2Sep 06, 2009 7:31 am Wow, you are yet to use a drum sander! Things go much faster with that. And can go wrong much faster, too, admittedly. My experience is only based on one diy experience, followed by a couple of houses where we paid contractors Filling the crevices between boards is problematic. The boards will always move on joists, shrink, expand. Putty and the gap sealants can't keep up with that. They tend to separate over time. Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 3Sep 06, 2009 9:17 am mango could you post some photos of your polished jarrah floors? I've decided to get a contractor in to do mine because I suspect jarrah is particularly difficult to sand because it is such a hard timber Are you vacumming the jarrah floors? If so I'd get a dust mop they work really well on hard floors and no wheels to worry about. I have an oats floormaster but there are a few of them out there and they work great. Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 4Sep 06, 2009 10:48 am I'll take a pic this arvo and try and work out how to post. Not very computer savvy but i'm so proud of my floor boards. Now the bedrooms we just finished, we used an orbital sander which was very slow but they didnt have any varnish on them, so were not too wad. We also bought an edge sander. Jarrah is very hard but beautiful. maybe the filling the gaps is not such a good idea? Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 5Sep 06, 2009 6:45 pm Here goes with the pics, hope they work http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss126/chrisyn/ With these rooms, we moved the wall out about 1 metre so you can see that the new boards are slightly more pink. We have an elevated house and the bedrooms were too small so we moved it out and used some of the verandah space. Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 6Sep 06, 2009 7:04 pm wow, they look stunning! you've done such a professional job it looks flawless!
from what I understand you shouldnt fill any gaps between the boards but if there are cracks in the actual boards that's ok to fill but over time the edges will separate no matter what you use to fill them so the fill can just crack as the boards move. I found a link to one of the hire places a while ago with instructions on using a floor sander so I'll see if I can find it. this is the link here http://www.kennards.com.au/index.php?fu ... ductid=199 (hopefully that links works but it's the kennards hire website) and if you scroll to the bottom of the page there is a pdf which has instructions on using the floor sanders so it might give you an idea of using the drum sander anyway The bona traffic looks fantastic on your floor so natural and not plastic looking like some of the finishes. What were the fumes like? Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 8Sep 06, 2009 8:31 pm Thanks guys. We are really happy with how they came up. The lounge room has the old super glossy 2 pack hard finish. That stuff is super hard and very toxic when applying. The superglossy stuff looks great when new but will dull where the floor is used so we went for the satin finish. The new products on the market are water based and the fumes were not too bad. The old 2 pack glossy stuff looks like its got a plastic coating where as the waterbased satin finish is much more natural but still has a sheen. I'll be honest and say i'm not sure if the bona stuff was worth the money as i've seen floors that were recent DIY jobs with waterbased satin finshes that were just bought at bunnings and they also looked amazing for a third of the price. I'm just sighing at how much we have spent because we thought we were going to save a fortune DIY but it was not quite that much of a saving. At least the floors are fab. Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 9Sep 27, 2009 9:13 am Oh, Mango, they look divine - well done you!!! MagicJ I finally have my own reno thread: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28335 The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue! Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding - updated pics 10Sep 27, 2009 4:13 pm Here are the before and after shots of the kitchen and loungeroom floors. We had to use the drum sander to rip up the old 2 pack gloss. We removed the old lino from the kitchen. The drum sander was not as bad as we were expecting but there are a couple of small divets where we did not keep the sander moving. We are thrilled with the results of all our hard work and it was hard, hard work. The kitchen should finally be here this week! before with the new window installed http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss12 ... C00228.jpg After http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss12 ... C00233.jpg Loungeroom floors http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss12 ... g&newest=1 Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 11Sep 27, 2009 5:29 pm It's truly amazing!!! I love before and after photos, one of the best parts about renovating! MagicJ I finally have my own reno thread: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28335 The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue! Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 14Sep 27, 2009 8:59 pm Thank you all so much for the compliments. I was upset at first because there are little divets from the belt sander and i felt that i had forever wrecked my floors but after the varnish went on, they are not so bad. I keep telling my self i'm the only one who notices the little blemishes and overall the jarrah looks beautiful. We are very pleased to have pulled it off but will never do it again! Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 15Sep 27, 2009 11:21 pm they look niice! A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 16Nov 05, 2009 9:55 pm Mango Thank you all so much for the compliments. I was upset at first because there are little divets from the belt sander and i felt that i had forever wrecked my floors but after the varnish went on, they are not so bad. I keep telling my self i'm the only one who notices the little blemishes and overall the jarrah looks beautiful. We are very pleased to have pulled it off but will never do it again! Thumbs up for trying and the hard work looks like it paid off. What I want to know is and this is not directed at you Mango but why is it that people think they can sand their own timber floors yet would we lay our carpet or tiles? Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 17Nov 05, 2009 10:06 pm The other thing I was going to add is that dints etc add character to timber floors. Over time they will show wear but I think it just adds character to a house. Think of the old federation homes that have timber flooring with all their marks etc overtime. Don't worry about your mishaps Mango. A job well done. Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 18Nov 11, 2009 10:04 pm Dollar Thumbs up for trying and the hard work looks like it paid off. What I want to know is and this is not directed at you Mango but why is it that people think they can sand their own timber floors yet would we lay our carpet or tiles?[/quote] I hear ya dollar! I guess those home reno shows make it look alot easier than it really is and floorsanding aint easy. I can laugh about it now though. Hubby and i are very DIY types though and will do most of what we can ourselves to save money. We extended two bedrooms, moved a few walls, did our own gyprocking and will also be tackling the tiling ourselves when we get to the bathroom reno. Fingers crossed that project works out. Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 19Nov 11, 2009 10:08 pm I say go for it Mango. It's just strange people will choose the DIY option and yes there is nothing wrong with trying to save money especially in these hard financial times. Re: For anyone considering DIY floorsanding 20Nov 11, 2009 10:18 pm Thanks for the info Mango! The sanding is the main thing that is putting me off doing ours ourselves... we were quoted around 4k and I want them done a lot sooner than I'll be able to afford that! The great thing is our good friend is a "floor guy" and he owns one of the sanders we'll need, and has said he'll help us with the sanding, and from there it's all pretty easy =D Assuming the structure of your cabinetry is good then I would DIY everything as follows: - replace your counter tops entirely, - replace all drawer runners with soft close… 1 4776 Re my second point – yes exactly. And often it may take additional time if the manufacturer recommends no more than X meters… 3 5618 |