I have prefinished wood floors. They are looking worn and I was just told that you can't sand them. Is this true?
Yes you can, but it depends. Do you have engineered? Because if you do, then you can only do it a few times.
Solid wood flooring can be sanded until the nail heads show, and if you reset the nails, you can go below that, even. "Engineered wood" or "laminated wood" floors (not "laminated floors") are basically a kind of plywood. The top layer is thin, but it can be sanded and refinished once or twice.
Source: Wood floor refinishing com.
1 It depends on the type of flooring you have. Solid wood flooring can be sanded until the nail heads show, and if you reset the nails, you can go below that, even. "Engineered wood" or "laminated wood" floors (not "laminated floors") are basically a kind of plywood.
The top layer is thin, but it can be sanded and refinished once or twice. "Laminate" floors don't actually have any wood. They are a sheet of clear plastic layered on top of a photograph of wood, glued to a material like Masonite.
These cannot be sanded even once. With these it is better to just replace the worn or damaged planks. Now about the prefinished aspect of it.
If the prefinish is just a surface coating, you should be able to sand it off. Some prefinishes use ceramic, silica or even aluminum oxide particles to make it more abrasion resistant, in which case you might have a hard time sanding the finish off. And some prefinishes impregnate the wood with a kind of plastic, so some plastic would remain even after the finish is sanded off.
That wood might take stain or varnish in an unexpected way. So if possible, I would try sanding a sample, or even a small hidden area like in a closet. homerenovations.about.com/od/floors/a/ar... .
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/woodfloorsandingFloor sanding can be done by hand, but electrically driven sanding machines are used almost exclusively today. These machines are usually available from rental agencies and some paint stores/home centers which also supply the sandpaper. Some handwork is ususlly necessary in less accessible places.
Sanding MachinesSanding machines may be either the drum type or disk type (floor polisher). In drum sanders the sandpaper is mounted on a cylindrical drum that rotates on an axis parallel to the plane of the floor. Thus the sandpaper makes its scratches in straight lines in the direction of movement of the machine.
In disk sanders the sandpaper is mounted on a disk that rotates in a circle in the plane of the floor. As a disk sander is moved over the floor, the grits make spiral scratches that necessarily cross the grain of the wood. A drum sander, however, cannot reach the last few inches of floor nearest the baseboard.
Electric edgers, which are small disk sanders, are available for sanding these edges of the floor, or they may be done by hand. SandpaperSandpaper acts by gouging fine slivers from the wood surface, leaving scratches, the size of which is governed by the size of the grits on the paper. Coarse grits act rapidly, but the scratches they leave are conspicuous, especially if they cross the grain of the wood.
Fine grits act slowly, but the scratches left are too small to see. Scratches are least noticeable when they run with the grain of a wood. Scratches must be especially fine to escape detection on a wood with close texture, such as maple, and must be still finer to remain unnoticed if they cross the grain of the wood.In sanding a floor, time is saved by starting with coarse sandpaper to remove the grosser roughness and imperfections and to make the floor level as quickly as possible.
The scratches left by the coarse grits are then removed by successive sanding with a finer sandpaper. The scratches left by the last paper should be too small to be observed even after the finish has been applied. Sanding ProceduresBefore beginning the sanding procedure, carefully sweep all dirt, dust and other debris from the floor.
"Set" all nails that may be protruding either in the floor or baseboard so that the sanding machine will not be damaged. Sometimes, only two sanding cuts are needed on a new hardwood floor, but if the floor is at all uneven or if a particularly smooth finish is desired, three cuts will be necessary. The first cuts should be done with a coarse or medium abrasive, always ending with a fine abrasive.
A smoother finish will result if the final sanding is done with the floor polisher or disk sander. Of course, more passes with finer paper will result in a smoother finish. The number of cuts required to restore an old floor is largely determined by the condition of the floor and the thickness of the finish being removed.
If the floor is badly scarred or warped, use as many cuts as necessary to get a smooth, unblemished surface. Make the first one or two cuts at a 45 degree angle with medium grit paper, and then follow the instructions given for sanding a new floor. If the surface is in good shape and has no thick build-up of old finish and wax, one pass with the disk sander and extra-fine paper may be sufficient.
Just be sure that you have removed all the old finish. Old finishes may also be removed with a non-aqueous (no water) varnish remover, after which the floor should be sanded as for new flooring. If the floor is less than 3/4 inch thick or if it is made from hardwood plywood, care must be exercised to prevent sanding through to the less desirable wood beneath.
The floor thickness can usually be determined by removing a floor heating register or the shoe mold and baseboard so that an edge of the floor is exposed. When refinishing these floors a chemical varnish remover may be useful. It will also help to use a floor polisher or disk sander rather than the drum sander.
Do not remove more wood than absolutely necessary.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.
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