Floor Sanding in Your London Home

If the wood flooring of your London home suffers from being tired, dull and worn you can transform and rejuvenate any type of hard or softwood flooring back to its original state without forking out a fortune. London houses, notably Central London terraces, were often built with solid wood flooring which would cost a fortune to install now. So those lucky homeowners are in the best position to restore these floors without spending even a fraction of a full installation cost today.

Original floor sanding in London property built at the beginning of the 20th Century right through to the 1960s will probably discover the wood planking is thicker and wider than modern floors, making them more robust and versatile than their modern counterparts.

No matter what the current condition of the floor, it can be visibly improved by some TLC in the form of repairing, sanding and refinishing. Of course the more neglected the floor has become the more care it will require. But in the main it is fair to say that repairing and replacing planks where necessary, along with sanding and refinishing, goes a long way to returning any solid wood flooring to its former beauty.

To DIY or not to DIY?

Many homeowners will feel the restoration of an aging wood floor in their London home to be a project they would like to get their teeth into. If you have a more-than-average skill of general DIY and is in good health then there is no reason why you shouldn’t do it yourself. However, if spending periods of time on your knees and bending is a no-no for you then you can obtain a free quotation from a specialist London floor sanding company and hand the job over to the experts instead.

The advance of technology has meant more refined and less messy floor sanding tools have evolved over the past decades, although there will always be a degree of dust in the air when using a sanding machine. Bearing this in mind, it would be wise for any asthma sufferers to be away from the home whilst you are working.

It is highly likely that you will require to hire an industrial sanding machine, propelled either by a belt or a drum, as well as using an orbital to get into small corners, fire surrounds etc. Don’t be daunted if you have never used a large sanding machine before, but make sure you read and understand all operating instructions before attempting to sand the floor. You will need to use a large sander that you will walk along the length of the planks, sanding as you go, unless you are sanding a tiny box-room or landing, when you will be unable to use a hand held sander to complete the floor sanding process.

Depending on the current state of the floor it will require two or possible three sandings, and each time you pass across the floor you will affix a finer grain of paper to the machine.

You will know when you have completed the final sanding as the floor will feel smooth with no splinters, cracks or clinging bits of old veneer. The colour of the floor will also be several shades lighter with a scrubbed look. Don’t worry if this is not the colour you want your floor to be, a few coats of finishing will darken it down to a more natural shade as will natural daylight, traffic and normal wear and tear.

The choice of finishing will affect the colour of the wood and you can change the colour completely by using a coloured wood stain. On the other hand if you like the current colour you can use a clear varnish finishing.