Removing Paint from Wood Floors
We’re seeking advice on wide-plank wood floors that were painted just before we bought our house. We want to remove the paint and refinish the wood. Can we use a drum sander for the job? Or do we need to remove the paint some other way?
We’re seeking advice on wide-plank wood floors that were painted just before we bought our house. We want to remove the paint and refinish the wood. Can we use a drum sander for the job? Or do we need to remove the paint some other way?
if they are wide plank – 8 to 10 inch wide, it may be heartwood pine which is beautiful wood you would hate to screw up. The cost of someone who knows what they are doing is not often that much and goes a lot faster, though a good job should take minimum 3 days and yours probably 5 with the paint. Keep the floors matte or satin poly, or wax as well – high gloss is often cheap looking IMHO
Forget the Paint Shaver. You will hit nails, guaranteed. They will may short work of that thing.
Haven’t used Paint Shaver, but we have removed multiple layers of oil paint from our floors, and it’s no big deal if you get A Guy With a Drum Sander to do it (although one dumb sander guy botched a spot, proving what commenters above say about trickiness of it). It was the most bang for the buck of any reno chore we jobbed out. We had the first couple of rooms polyurethaned but got tired of the fumes, uniform dark gold color (I guess you can pick tints, we just went with straight-up 2 coats of poly) and high gloss; most recent sanding job (yes ALL our floors were heavily painted, oxblood red no less) we followed by hand-rubbing tung oil, which is nontoxic and leaves a mellow glow.
Thanks to everyone who has commented, giving us lots of conflicting advice to consider (; How about this: we’ve seen advertised a gadget for removing paint from wood siding (brand name Paint Shaver) that looks pretty amazing and has been used in This Old House projects. In a few years we intend to restore the siding and will likely invest in it then, but does anyone have experience w/ such a tool or know if it could help us w/ the floors now?
you can certainly sand paint off, but you are way better off letting a pro do it..i sanded my yellow pine subfloors which had sections with four or five coats of oilpaint, and worse half of it had been covered with glued down tar paper. leaving a rich coat of tar to sand off..i went through tons of paper that resembled rocks glued to paper for starters, and probably took two years off my life..while i love the result, it would have cost less to hire someone
You can sand paint off. I did it, get 20 grit paper and a sander and edger, you will go through tons of paper. But it is doable. It is hard work and some guys will not do it, probably because it is not worth their time to deal with such a screwed up floor.
Sanding and refinishing floors isn’t a terrible ordeal, but you can’t sand paint off.
I sanded and oiled floors in one apartment and couldn’t even get paint *drops* up. It is inconcievable, even with Steve and his experience / equipment, that you’ll be able to get paint up.
There are wacky chemicals that will do the trick and give your future children six or seven testicles, if you want to go that route. But sanding? Not going to happen.
Test out a few chemical strippers, but start getting used to the idea of your lovely painted floors.
call me. I have the equipment and the experience. Steve 347-813-9635.
call me. I have the equipment and the experience. Steve 347-813-9635.