How long should it take to sand a floor?

It's difficult to plan for sanding and refinishing hardwood floors without understanding how long it takes to sand a floor. You might be surprised by the answer to this question.

When sanding a floor, how long does it take? Depending on the size and condition of the floor, it can take a professional 1-5 days and a DIY enthusiast 2-15 days. For planning purposes, a professional would spend one day per room and a homeowner undertaking DIY would spend two days per room.

There are a number of elements that will influence how long does floor sanding in Sunshine Coast takes.

Taking care of your floors on your own.

It's far more difficult to estimate how long it'll take to sand and refinish your hardwood floors when you're doing it yourself. Take the preceding math and multiply it by two to get a really simple answer.

That may seem exaggerated, but I believe it is a realistic estimate for DIYers. Without my video course, there's no chance of breaking that timetable. It's pretty simple to keep going.

Rental sanding machines are substantially less powerful than professional sanding machines. The abrasives you'll find in rental shops are also less effective. DIY abrasives are typically constructed of aluminum oxide (which is rather soft and wears out rapidly) or silicon carbide, whereas trade abrasives are typically made of zirconia or ceramic (very hard, but smashes to stay sharp, then wears out fairly quickly).

Even if you had all of the same tools and abrasives as we use and someone standing over your shoulder instructing you what to do, you wouldn't be able to work as quickly as we do simply because of the practice and experience. Floor sanding is a process that requires a lot of dexterity. Speed and confidence are bred by experience, and speed is bred by confidence.

Unevenness

If the floor is uneven, you'll have to remove a lot more material to get it back to a clean, flat surface. You could leave it uneven, but it would necessitate sanding the dips with a hand sander. That is not going to save you any time. Cupped floors are included in this category.

Previous floor finish

When a floor is covered in carpet glue, how long does it take to sand it? Let me tell you, it's going to take a long time. If you're lucky enough to have an oiled floor, you're in luck. Congrats. That stuff isn't going to come off easily. Whether it's a penetrating oil or a hardwax oil, there's something for everyone. Any of these vegetable oil-based products are just not harsh in any manner. This is something I've mentioned before on other areas of my website. Vegetable oil floor coatings do not appeal to me.

If you have the misfortune of having a prefinished floor with a "aluminum oxide" finish. Ali-Oxide is exceedingly tough, and the abrasives prefer to merely skim over the surface, so be prepared for some tough days ahead. 

Damage

There are numerous sorts of damage that can penetrate the surface and lengthen the sanding process. The dents are the first. Deep dents caused by dropping heavy things or even stiletto heels can necessitate the removal of a large amount of wood from the floor's surface, as discussed previously.

UV rays eat away at the wood's surface. The lightening (or sometimes darkening) induced by sunshine is known as UV damage. Many people feel that the finish, not the timber, has been destroyed by the sun. UV damage, on the other hand, does not just impact the surface of the wood; it may also enter pretty deeply. Again, this implies that more material must be deleted.

If the finish on the wood has worn off and the wood has greyed over time, as woods do. It may take longer to sand away the old finish if it is protected by it. This, like Ultraviolet damage, penetrates fairly deeply but is caused by exposure to water and air. It also requires a thorough sanding to be clean.