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View Full Version : Floor sanding gumming up paper. Need advice!



Chad Stucke
06-14-2010, 8:46 PM
I am working on another rental and the floors need sanded. 2 rooms were farily easy to sand. We used the drum first and then the square buff to finish them the edger was also used.
Then we got into the lower bedrooms the edger just would gum up.
We think it is orange shellac but not sure. After the 3rd edger disc in the 1 wall we decided to stop. We tried the drum with the same result. The drum will get bands of brown material on it it hardens and gets brittle when cool.
Then we thought that we weren't going fast enough to keep it cool. I couldn't move any faster by myself behind it so I had my helper take one handle and myself the other and really moved it fast and was able to sand 1/2 of the room with 3 paper changes. Still not efficient enough.

We are using 24 grit paper and it still plugs. I noticed that the 36 grit plugged a little less but still not good.
the 60 and 80 plugged almost immediately.

We have 1.5 room to go and decided to try to strip it off we used a torch and scrapper and got 75% of it off. Then there is a layer of what looks like polyurathane underneath that that came off occasionally where we got it too hot. We tried again and it still plugs the drum sander and edger and the square buff . It's real humid and the floors feel kind of gummy. Kind of reminds you of when you use old product and it will never really dry properly.

Any Ideas on how to aproach this. We still want hardwood and want to sand it.
I am thinking that some type of hardner or something other than what we are doing.
I have done about 25-45 floors over the years so I have seen enough of them to cover the basics.
Chad

glenn bradley
06-14-2010, 10:10 PM
The gummy part does not sound like shellac. Wipe with some DNA and you'll know for sure if it cuts through it. Sounds more like something was applied too thickly over an already sealed surface. I would try the least nasty chemicals first and work my way up to a stripper if required. A pic would get you more specific answers I hope as I am guessing here ;-)

Steve Bracken
06-14-2010, 10:12 PM
First try measuring the RH of the floor planks. If it's more than a few percentage points above any other wood in the room then you might have to investigate a damp problem.

There is no easy way to remove old coatings. Paint stripper might work, but a good deal of scraping is in your future, so invest $30 in a floor scraper from Lowes or similar.

Alternatively ..... try brushing the residue off the sanding pads and keep going.

Myk Rian
06-15-2010, 9:31 AM
Ever try one of those sanding belt erasers to clean the belts? Might extend the life of them.

Callan Campbell
06-15-2010, 2:29 PM
If it's Shellac, which it sounds like, scraping is generally the preferred method since Shellac will always make sanding or screening clog up with debris. I have heard of some people using the Brown or Green coarse 3M type Scotchbrite pads and dealing with Shellac that way. You can "power" Abrade through it, but the speed or time is probably dependent on how thick a layer you've run into. I don't think sterated paper will help much either.:(

Tom Rick
06-15-2010, 8:40 PM
Yep- sounds like scraper time.
These do a good job and stay sharp through tough jobs:

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=61

Steve Bracken
06-15-2010, 9:35 PM
Yep- sounds like scraper time.
These do a good job and stay sharp through tough jobs:

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=61

lol ... and kneepads ... get good kneepads :D