Right now let’s get down to sanding my softwood floor!
Firstly, I read up the entire floor sanding safety information and made a mental note not to leave the floor sander dust bag unsupervised and, when full, remove the dust bag, seal and deposit in a non-combustible container outdoors. I made sure that the room was brightly lit up and that the electric fire had been disconnected. I told my wife that if she had an uncontrollable urge for a ciggy, she must puff it well away from the room.
After checking that our neighbour was not on a late-shift or sleeping off a night on the tiles, I removed all the furniture from the room, including the curtains, books, and our ornaments. I then opened all the windows and began the process of preparing the softwood floor with the recommended Lecol Filler, filling the larger gaps with bits of MDF. When this was complete and I was satisfied that the cold air wouldn’t circulate through the gaps, I sealed the Lecol Filler lid and donned a pair of ear defenders and pulled on a cotton dust mask.
I fixed a 40 grit sanding sheet to the Hiretech 8” drum sander and after switching the machine on I began to sand the floor on a left to right basis. My first reaction was how powerful the floor sanding machine was, but I soon got used to working the floor sander and I could see instant results as the sandpaper bit into the wood. After completing the first run right across the wooden floor, I then attached the 60 grit sanding sheet and repeated the process. Finally, I completed the job by using a 100 grit floor sanding sheet, which gave me a very nice, smooth finish. Once I was satisfied I had achieved a flat finish with no high spots, I then turned to the Hiretech edge sander.
I got down on my knees, not to ask for divine intervention, but to fix a 40 grit floor sanding disc to the Hiretech edge sander. Still dressed in ear defenders and a dust mask, I used the edge floor sander to get right up to the skirting boards, achieving a smooth finish from the 60 grit discs and finally a polished top surface from the 100 grit floor sanding discs.
After safely disposing of the residual floor sanded dust in the non-combustible container I had outside, I then proceeded to carefully and thoroughly vacuum the whole of the softwood floor. When I was satisfied that all the remaining dust had been removed I opened a tin of Bona Prime and using a short haired roller I applied the Bona Prime, covering the whole of the recently sanded wooden floor. The Bona Prime took about 4 hours to dry, making it ready to apply the top coat, courtesy of Bona Mega. I again used a short haired roller applying the Bona Mega evenly, over the entire wooden sanded floor. The floor was dry and ready to walk over in about three hours. I then added a second coat of Bona Mega, for that “icing on the cake” moment and then replaced the lids on both the Bona Prime and the Bona Mega floor finish.
Whilst waiting for the floor to dry properly, I emptied the floor sander dust bag and the edge sander dust bag, I then thoroughly cleaned both the Hiretech drum sander and the Hiretech edge sander. I assembled the unused sanding discs and floor sanding sheets and made my way back to the floor sander hire shop. Everything was in order, I got my deposit back and credit was given for the unused floor sanding sheets and edge sander discs.
Job done! But …….. just imagine my disappointment as walked back to my car to spy a recently pinned up notice in the floor sander hire shop window, which exclaimed “‘all customers hiring machines in the month of June quoting the code ‘june15’ will receive a whopping fifteen percent off machine hire!’
I had just missed out, but this offer is on now, ready for you to take advantage of it. Oh well, maybe I’ll do the bedroom floor this month!