[Red Squirrel]

I have a hardwood floor like this in my new house, it's in fairly decent condition but I'd like to get ideas on what could be done to "finish" it. I got a quote to get it done professionally and it would be 2k to do the whole house.

I thought of trying it myself, is this something I should attempt if I never did it before? The trick is to sand evenly which can't be easy.

What if I just did a basic sanding by hand / palm sander and put a few coats of varnish, would that be enough? Of course a full blown sanding job would be better.

I'm not living there now so if I want to do this, now is the time.

Also what is the best way to deal with large cracks like this? They had very thick baseboards that hid all that, but they don't make baseboards that thick anymore, well I'm sure they do, but they are harder to find.

 

[Just Bill]

Over time, floor boards warp, shrink, move etc. The sanding process does more the get the old finish ready for new, it smooths everything out again. There are new disc sanders for redoing flooring that are more user friendly, available at some big box stores and rental places. DO NOT try to do a floor with a drum sander if you have never used one, you can ruin a floor in a hearbeat. For doing the edges, there s a special sander that does that nicely, and it should take care of the problem you showed.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah had a feeling a drum sander is not something i want to use for my first time in a production environment. I ended up getting a professional to do it as i should have enough money by that time. it's 2k to do the whole house, everything but the kitchen and washroom is the same hardwood flooring. The old 1 inch wide type so I want to keep it.

I'll post before/after pics when the job gets done.