A FEW MYTHS:
I need floor sanding every few years.
Being told that a home floor needs to be re-sanded every two or three years. Commercial properties with heavy traffic have re-sanding every 2 years, because they need it. No household has this level of traffic. Look at having the floor re-sanded every 10 years to 20 years or so.
I can get Dust free sanding
If you are told the sanding will be dust free you are being misled. New equipment massively reduces the amount of dust, but nothing has entirely eliminated it. There is less dust, but still enough to cause cleaning issues.
Limits to how much the floor can be sanded.
There are limits here, but if you have re-sanding every 10 years the floors will last 60 years or more. This is a lifetime of service. If there are nails protruding you might have a problem, but nails can be driven in further; you may still have another 10-20 years of life left in the floor.
A FEW FACTS
The floor sanding is all there is to it.
There is more to the floor than just the sanding. A New floor will require little work other than the sanding and polishing. Older floors shift over time, and uneven surfaces or damaged wood need to be fixed. The positive side of this is that floors that seem badly damaged can often look new again with a few days of hard work.
Stains and finishes have to be compatible
Yes, there are compatibility issues, though they are hardly complex. We know not to mix oil based products with water based products. We know to wait at least 24 hours between coats. Failure to do these things will cause peeling and necessitate the whole thing being redone.
Hardwood sanding can be dangerous
This is only true if contractors don’t follow safety precautions. Improper sanding of wood can cause fires. This is exacerbated by the flammability of wood dust and the lacquer or floor polish. Cigarette smoking in these situations is potential disastrous. The pilot light for water heaters or gas stoves is also highly dangerous.
Never smoke near floor sanding. There are a lot of flammable fumes and substance.
Extinguish pilot lights, lest they ignite fumes.
Decking timber sanding in Sydney weather tends not to use the same level of treatment. Outdoor timber decking is rarely polished, just levelled and treated for Sun and rain. Sydney is lucky that any floor sanding is not subject to extreme weather like snow.
