Hi,

Just moved into new house and have cream carpet in living room which is glued down
The hallway and cupboard under stairs havefabulous oak(?) floorboards. both rooms ajoin living room.

what i am wondering is how much hard work it will be to sand down and finish (varnish?) floorboards in living room 14' x 11'? and wd i need to hire big belt sander? Or wd it just be easier to recarpet in darker carpet? thanks x

Moved in? Nice one!
Fabulous oak (not pine?) floorboards? Nice one! Definitely worth sanding and finishing (not sure how tho).

You've probably also seen TV programs where they use a sanding machine to do the job. They do make it look easy, but is it? (I'm sure somebody else will fill you in)

hotcookie - i did this in my living room (about the same size) last year. It looks fab but it is a horrible job. My old carpet wasn't glued down and a part from a couple of patches of spilt paint there on the floorboards it was fairly straightforward. I've done floors with both a belt sander and a had held one and even though it takes ages I'd use the hand held one if i had to do it again. Either way, sawdust will get everywhere!!! Put a damp towel in front of the doors to stop it getting all over the house, and wear good goggles & mask. With the belt sanders if it catches on any nails the paper will tear - I went through loads of sheets this way. The belt sanders are very heavy and noisy, they do get the job done quicker but are harder to control. Doing it with a hand sander takes longer, but I found the price of buying a reasonable handheld, compared to hiring a belt sander for a weekend was ok, and with the hand held it meant I could take as long as I needed to do it.

Have you thought about getting a quote to have the floor professionally stripped and polished? The end result will be much better than a DIY job and if your boards are oak then it is worth the investment. The new breed of sanders produces very little dust, the job should only take a couple of days and the cost should not work out at more than you would pay for a half decent carpet. Not sure whereabouts in the country you are, but this site will give you an idea of what's involved in terms of cost.

quote:

Originally posted by susiecam:
Have you thought about getting a quote to have the floor professionally stripped and polished? The end result will be much better than a DIY job and if your boards are oak then it is worth the investment. The new breed of sanders produces very little dust, the job should only take a couple of days and the cost should not work out at more than you would pay for a half decent carpet. Not sure whereabouts in the country you are, but this site will give you an idea of what's involved in terms of cost.

That looks NICE! (Who needs carpet when you can have this?!)

Hope their service is better than their grammar though

yep i think I may go for the professional route-looks SO much simpler and sure will do much better job than me as a diy novice....

thanks for the link-am in essex so they only charge an extra 20 quid for here, but totallt think that its worth it for the lack of hassle

quote:

Originally posted by pont:
Hope their service is better than their grammar though

Not great is it? Happily their floor stripping skills are better than their command of the English language - I had the whole of my downstairs done by that firm and was very impressed.

Susie, I remember you recommended that company to me last year. I decided against using them because the person who answered the phone was very unhelpful. I was probably just unlucky.

I think you were also one of the people who recommended the floor lacquer I used though - Bonakemi Traffic, thank you, it was v.g.

quote:

Originally posted by velvet:
Susie, I remember you recommended that company to me last year. I decided against using them because the person who answered the phone was very unhelpful. I was probably just unlucky.

Oh bad luck velvet It is very offputting when you get a miserable git on the phone as I know only too well from the trials and tribulations I am having with a skip hire company at the moment (I think I should pop off somewhere else for a proper good rant...) I found the floor sander people very helpful but maybe I caught them on a good day!

I sympathise. I am have scaffolding aggravation at the moment.

quote:

Originally posted by susiecam:

quote:

Originally posted by pont:
Hope their service is better than their grammar though

Not great is it? Happily their floor stripping skills are better than their command of the English language - I had the whole of my downstairs done by that firm and was very impressed.

Susie i'm thinking of stripping the floorboards in two rooms. I have done it before but i would be interested to know how much it would cost for this firm to come in and do it. How much was yours if you don't mind me asking?
thanks.

From memory it was about £1,700. This included gap filling, sanding, staining and varnishing and was for two reception rooms (each roughly 14'x14') and a long, wide hallway. We prepared the rooms beforehand in terms of moving floorboards from upstairs to replace any knackered ones downstairs but if you want the company to fix any boards with reclaimed timber they charge by the metre. I know it's a lot cheaper to do it yourself, but I would never have got the finish as good and I probably would have lost my sanity somewhere along the line too. I had enough to do elsewhere in the house and it was so much more convenient to get someone to do this particular job.

Whew I am a bit at the price although I am sure they did a lovely job. Having done ours ourselves once I agree, never again, horrible job and the professionals get a better finish.

My builder did ours (similar area) for his daily rate of £150 plus sander hire. He replaced and repaired boards, went to get matching ones from a reclamation yard, and applied two layers of lacquer. I think in all it took him about two and a half days.

Yeah it wasn't exactly cheap But then again this is what these guys specialise in and they were as good as their word with regard to dust - there was practically no mess at all. The main sanding was virtually dust free and the only bit that was even vaguely messy was the edge sanding. I rationalised the cost by comparing it to the cost of getting a good quality underlay, carpet & fitting. Their prices are all published on the website - they charge by the square metre and it's pretty easy to work out what the job will set you back so you know how much of the piggy bank you have to raid.

Susiecam,
thanks for the info regarding the prices. I'll check their site and see how much our rooms come out at. As i said, i've done it once before and it was a bugger but i was satisfied in the end with what i did. One of the few DIY jobs i've done.