Intro and Question on Distressing Wood

[James Culbertson]

Hiya Folks,
Very long time lurker and only recently joined the forum. I've gotten a lot of great information from this group and someday, I hope I can offer my own. My WW journey has been put on hold for awhile after being sent overseas for work but I'm back now and am working on a mostly house stuff but hope to get the table saw fired back up soon.

Anyway, one of the projects I'm looking to do in the next few months involves distressing a wood floor. I've got a small cabin in the mountains that has wall to wall 1x7 planking down. In one room, the builder put carpet over this. For the rooms that it is exposed, they clearly did some distressing on the boards. I've now removed the carpet to find the boards under were not distressed so now I'm trying to figure out how they did this. Attached should be a couple of photos showing what they did and I'm hopeful someone here knows what they used so I can match the rest of the cabin.

Thanks much for any insight.
Cheers.

[Jamie Buxton]

My guess is that was not distressing. Instead, the floor guys were knocking down high spots so the carpet would lie flat. My guess is that the tool they used is an edging sander. It is usually used by hardwood floor installers to sand right close to the wall. You can rent one at any tool rental place. Here's a link -- https://www.homedepot.com/tool-truck...dger-7/07013A/ That builder probably used grit which furniture guys think is quite coarse -- like 24 grit or the like.

[James Culbertson]

Thank you. Just to clarify, the "distressing" is everywhere except where the carpet was. I've removed the carpet and want to get the underlying planks to match. I'm guessing if they used an edging sander as linked, they'd have put it up on edge to make those distinct semi-circles. If you look closely, and unfortunately I don't have a better photo on hand to show, on some of the boards the marks on on the edges and on others, they go off in all sorts of directions. Thanks for the help!

[Jamie Buxton]

Thank you. Just to clarify, the "distressing" is everywhere except where the carpet was. I've removed the carpet and want to get the underlying planks to match. I'm guessing if they used an edging sander as linked, they'd have put it up on edge to make those distinct semi-circles. If you look closely, and unfortunately I don't have a better photo on hand to show, on some of the boards the marks on on the edges and on others, they go off in all sorts of directions. Thanks for the help!

Aha, upon re-reading your original post I had the areas reversed. But I'm still pretty sure that the edging sander was the tool they used. A different possibility would be a 7" body sander, but it is more a tool of a automotive body shop, while the edging sander is a flooring tool. If you are going out to buy one, the body sander is less expensive.
They wouldn't have put the sander up on edge. They would have put the sander down flat on the floor, or at a very slight angle. That is, the sandpaper would be flat to the floor. The sander spins the sandpaper on a vertical shaft, and those semicircular scratches are the result.
I say "at a very slight angle" because if you put the body sander down absolutely flat on the floor and turn it on, you don't know what area will bite first, so you don't know which way the sander is going to lunge -- and it will lunge. So you start the body sander while it is up in the air, and put it down on the floor. You'll get better control. The edging sander actually is built to do this. Its sanding disc touches the floor in the front, and is slightly off the floor at the rear.

[James Culbertson]

Thank you. Only thing about the sander idea is all of the semi-circles are facing the same direction. It's almost as if they tilted it on edge and then bounced it along the floor just to cut semi-circular gashes. Not discounting the idea in the least....actually on the list. I may try to get a measurement next time I'm there to see if I can figure out the diameter which might point me to the tool they used.
Cheers.

[Jamie Buxton]

Thank you. Only thing about the sander idea is all of the semi-circles are facing the same direction. It's almost as if they tilted it on edge and then bounced it along the floor just to cut semi-circular gashes. Not discounting the idea in the least....actually on the list. I may try to get a measurement next time I'm there to see if I can figure out the diameter which might point me to the tool they used.
Cheers.

We may be stumbling on language here. I wouldn't say they tilted it on edge -- like the sandpaper disc is 90 degrees up from the floor. I'd say they tilted it slightly - like the disc is maybe 5 degrees from the floor. That's how an edging sander is set up.

[James Culbertson]

Thanks. I follow what you are saying but am having a hard time understanding why we have semi circles all headed in the same direction if the sander isn't tilted. Typically with a sander is you go back and forth, side to side and ultimately cover the entire pieces with undiscernible scratches. With a grit like 24, those gouges will be very noticeable but I would think i would see them in random alignment. That's the only thing I'm hung up on. All of the semicircles are facing the same direction and are spaced pretty evenly apart.
Cheers.

[Dan Hahr]

How about sanding it all properly and letting natural wear and tear distress it? Those swirls look like a poor sanding job at best.

Dan

[Mel Fulks]

Agree with Dan. Doesn't matter how they did it... Only who did it ,and what the sentence should be!

[Mel Fulks]

James, please check out "floor cloths". Easy to make ,appropriate , and fun ,makes a surface that will show the unevenness of an old floor but block splinters.