[KitleyKrew]

We are trying to redo the hardwood floors at our new house using an orbit sander. A mere 10 feet distance traveled after beginning we noticed that the sander used was not hardly sanding anymore. Upon inspecting the four 40 grit sanding pads we noticed the following build up on it, apparently preventing most of the pad from reaching the floor effectively.



Here is a shot of the floor after I took another orbit sander to it briefly just to see. You can see how it is smearing what appears to be wax and lacquer?



This is our first time redoing a hardwood floor and I really have no clue how to deal with this or even what it is. At the rate the pads are getting used up, it is going to cost us over $100 a room as a result of having to replace them so frequently.

Any ideas what we could do for this? Thanks!

 

[jcalvin]

Try stripping the old finish off the wood before sanding. They make come commercial type stripper for flooring. I have used it before and it is extremely messy. But it works.

 

[canuck88]

Probably wax... they used to wax wood floors before polyurethane came along. You'll need to strip them first.