Sanding and Water Polyurethane?

[daniel skaf]

Hi,

I'm in the process of refinishing my 40-year-old white oak floor. Any suggestions for the type of sanding machine? Belt or circular? Water or oil polyurethane?

thanks,
daniel

[Mike Parzych]

If you're just taking off the old finish, circular motion sander is the way to go. If you have to take off damaged wood use a belt sander first since it takes stuff of faster. But you'd still have to go over it with a circular sander. Belt sanders will leave definite sanding marks.

Oil based finishes are tougher.

[Corey Hallagan]

I have used the Varathane brand 3 disk dustless sanders on 3 different occassions. Depending on the age of the finish they work very well but use alot of sand paper. Finishes that have been on for 20-30 come off slowly. I used this machine to keep the dust down to a minimum and that works well, it just isn't as agressive. One other room was refinished sometime in between and it removed the material much easier and a whole lot less sand paper. When the paper gets hot on some finishes it likes to carmelize on the paper and it needs to be removed before you can get it to sand again. For what it's worth, I used oil varathane finish. It makes for a beautiful floor.
Corey