Floor Snader for Parquet
Hi, We would like to refinish our parquet floors ourselves. I heard that with parquet it is best to use an orbital sander, as opposed to a drum sander, because you are working over several different pieces of wood with grains facing various directions. Is this the case, does it matter what kind of sander…
Hi,
We would like to refinish our parquet floors ourselves.
I heard that with parquet it is best to use an orbital sander, as opposed to a drum sander, because you are working over several different pieces of wood with grains facing various directions.
Is this the case, does it matter what kind of sander you get for parquet?
I appreciate your input.
We were not able to handle the task ourselves and instead went with http://www.designerflooring.com for our floor installation in Durham.
Hi Steve,
I’m thinking that the usuable surface on T&G would actually be more than face nailed parquet, only because while you may have more actual sanding stock available on parquet, once it gets below 1/4 inch or so, it seems like it would split very easily. You also have the fact that on older T&G flooring, as well as premium newer stuff, the tongue isn’t actually centered, but set a little below center line to give you more sanding stock (if you look at T&G shaper cutters, they usually have a larger cutting surface on the top, specifically for that purpose). It’s been years and years since I did floor refinishing with any regularity, (my back thanks me for that decision), but I just remember all the old timers talking about parquet being tougher (they also claimed you should sand on opposite diagonals, followed by one last straight run with a fine grit, I don’t have enough experience with parquet to claim one way or the other).
I rented a random orbital floor sander ( I think it was four pads) from the Home Depot on Hamilton Ave. about two years ago when I was doing some old Eastern White pine and was worried about it being so soft. I think the rental was around $75 for a whole day, the disks were comprable to belts when all was said and done. It also had the added benefit of getting closer to baseboards, cutting out a lot of edge sanding, which is where I always get impatient and make mistakes.
Bond, I’ve actually been wondering about this since I replied to this post, is the usable surface on T&G actually less than on face nailed strip flooring?
Also, a sander will pass over nails fine so long as they are imbeded in the wood where they belong. It is the errant nail head sticking out above the wood surface which causes the problem.
Also, if you expose nail heads and do not knock them back down and fill them and then use water base poly, you will invite rust.
Still, sanding a parquet floor is really no more difficult than sanding a straight T&G floor; it takes a little more time.
if you are going to use an orbital, I think you need the three head machine not the pad machine. The three head is really made to remove the old finish. At last check, HD does not have them. They are kind of a new machine and I am not sure who has them in the city. I have never used one myself. You can read about them on line.
Steve
I still say why risk it? As those of us who have hit nail heads with a drum sander can attest to, the belts can literally explode, which is not only scary as hell when it happens, but the belts aren’t cheap. Lots of older parquet was installed a strip at a time and is loaded with nails (on top of only being 3/8″ thick to begin with, if it’s been sanded a time or two before, it will start to crack and split).
As Steve points out, some old parquet is tongue and groove which means you have even less stock to work with. With 60 grit, you’re really going to remove a lot of stock and unless you’ve done it before, it’s super easy to get “drummers” or cylindrical gouges, especially at the end and beginning of each run where you don’t move the sander quickly enough. Why risk it if a random orbital flooring sander is only 20 or 30 bucks more and so much easier to use?
The sanding thickness on parquet flooring is no thinner than the workable surface on t&g flooring – roughly about 1/4-5/16ths of an inch new. There is also t&g parquet flooring, but if you are writing from Brooklyn, I doubt you have that; I have worked in 1930’s coops in Manhattan that have t&g parquet.
The thickness issue aside, you will run the risk of exposing nail heads. run the risk is an understatement; you will expose nail heads.
In so far as the sanding technique, a drum sander will work fine. I would make one pass with the heavier grit going in one direction. Successive passes should be made in each direction of the grain (2) with each grit (60, 80, 100). If you can, you may wish to get 120 grit paper for the final pass, but not all places carry this and most people would not finish to 120.
Be careful when sanding. With a straight run floor, you may miss a spot when making a pass and successive passes will take care of it. If you miss a spot on the parquet, it will show, even if you hit it later.
Also, anytime I have done a parquet floor, i have screened it off with a 100 grit screen. I answered a question about screening on here last week, so I will spare everyone the details here.
Steve
Parquet is VERY thin and an inexperienced use of any type sander could easily lead to dosasterous, or at best, really ugly results. Most of these thin floors are screened, not sanded…Scroll down for a post last week about sanding recommendations. Aside from recommending contractors you’ll find some useful info.
Good to know UPW, apparently keyboards and/or spelling are still a problem for me.
@ Bond thanks very much for the info.
I’ve heard snaders are easier to use than sanders.
Parquet is tougher to refinish not only because of the different grain directions, but also because it tends to be much thinner than most flooring, and you can take off too much if you’re not careful. An experienced flooring intaller can do it with a drum sander, usually sanding on an angle, but if you haven’t done many floors (which sounds like the case), I’d recomend going with the circular sander. It doesn’t cost much more to rent and it’s much, much easier to control.