Refinishing Hardwood Floors Yourself (powerful) 

I respond to 98% of comments, feel free to ask a question. Or better still, tell me if I made sense about the surface areas of the sanders! I Waffle a lot so if you think I did OK let me know lol. Edit: Im sorry that the audio is horrific in this video lol.

I will probably never sand or refinish a floor in my life but I am here at 5:30am in corona quarantine learning how to do it right and why you do it this way.

This guy is the real deal!! I do it professionally as well and this guy definitely knows what he’s talking about ! The rest of the guys need to drop the subject cuz they ruining people’s floors 🙄

That VVVV illustration of sanding peaks and valleys should be a poster in every wood shop and paint shop everywhere

So I've been installing,sanding and finishing floors since 1978 and I can tell you. This is an excellent video

Thank you for this. You’ve saved me from ruining 105yr old fir floors with overconfidence I haven’t earned.

Really saved my butt- I’m about to rent a drum sander and unfortunately watched a lot of the videos you call “fails” until I came to yours 👍 I’m a believer in not skipping steps if you want the best outcome- thanks for the very helpful info.

Unfortunately Home Depot didn't have any drum sanders available for rental, so I used a finishing sander despite watching several of your videos advising me not to. It took me nearly 10 hours of constant work just to get the floor sanded in a single room. The whole time I was thinking to myself "damn that guy was right"

I'm a professional floor refinisher, and you do very good videos. You've got a good way of presenting the information, and it's the *right* information, according to my experience. I explain the drum sander technique by comparing it to an airplane landing and taking off- the plane is always moving as it lands, or as it lifts. There should never be a "thud" as the plane touches down! Most people can visualize that. Your idea about using 120 grit as a training grit on the big machine is great!

This is fantastic! I totally would've skipped grits, just because no one's been able to tell me why I shouldn't. I love that you explain the theory behind refinishing. Thank you!

Ben, you are a life saver. I really really appreciate your fact-based, highly credible explanations. love the whiteboard. Also your willingness in another video of yours to call out the ridiculous stuff that's out there on the internet while somehow not being a jerk about it. constructive criticism is a good thing. the world needs more people like you at the top of youtube searches (which is where i get all of my information / disinformation these days for my myriad DIY projects). i made the mistake of watching somebody else's video that suggested using a square buff, when i was trying to take off multiple coats of paint and shellac primer from a wood floor. the floor laughed at me. then i saw your video and went and got a proper drum sander with 24 grit paper (36 wasn't enough for me). keep being yourself. and please clone yourself if you can.

F@#$!!!! Why does this video not come up first?!?!?! I literally watched all the videos, rented all the wrong equipment (in the wrong order anyways) before finding this one. What a waste of 8 hours.... found this and literally sanded my floor the right way in about 2..... I wish RU-vid could filter out all the crap and get quality to show up first. Thanks a ton!!!!

This is such important information that everyone attempting their own floor work definitely needs to know - Thank you very much!

Your breakdown of why it's necessary to step up with grit was excellent. I'd sort of implicitly known this just from doing some woodworking, but hadn't quite grasped the whole peak removal concept behind it. I'm watching the rest of your series and reading your blog before I dive into this myself.

Following your advices & knowledge I did one of my rooms , came out nice& beautiful! Thank you for been there for us

I will probably never need to sand a floor in my life, but hey I learned how to do something correctly. Thanks for the uploads.

Just tonight found your channel. Boning up on floor refinishing as it’s about the only home building/remodeling projects I haven’t yet tried. Your explanation is very well put, clearly shown and logically explained. (Handy tip for practicing btw). I’ve had all sorts of technical training in industry and yours is very well executed. I’m sure I’ll watch many more upcoming. Cheers and Thanks!!!

I'm currently remodeling my half bath. It had peel and stick over hardwood and I finally got the adhesive off and am working on sanding it down before finishing it. Thank you for the video, very informative.

I only use Trio Lägler but 4pcs extra weigth in all 28kg then grid 40 to start and 60 80 120 as fast as drum, better quaiity. THE Electric motor is powerful enough.For many years i took away dust filter, can and plastic bag.Instead a separated big dust collector. Now it.s almost dustfree working.I do not use my drumsander anymore, very happy with that after more than 20 years as a proffesional floor entrepreuner. Thanks for your video and stay safe. Greets from🇫🇮Finland. 👍👍

Love the vids man. Been a installer/refinisher for over 12 years. Love the Galaxy and Clark Sanders.

This is great information that I wished I found sooner. Unfortunately I've sanded my floors already where I have skipped some grit and did not use a square buff to even out the marks. Oh well, you live and you learn. Thanks for the content.

You're an excellent teacher, I can actually envision the procedures as you describe them..probably because I have witnessed this process before but I did not personally use the equipment..if only we had virtual "hands on" !!

Fantastic video! I loved the explanation of how grit skipping ultimately pans out. Great job, and THANKS!

excellent explanation of sanding grits. I use the same explanation when explaining how to sand and polish metals from a cast part to a mirror finish

1 tip i would have loved to hear years ago is to... Depending of the age... check if its a nailed floor because you need to hammer them down first, learn that the hard way

great video, thanks for making it, great insight from a professional to keep us DIY'ers from messing up too much.

Th, anks for the well needed info. I restore antique furn., and have taken on restoring the oak flooring in a house built in 1882. It has never had a restoration done in the past, just multiple,(to say the least) layers of wax, oil, and varnish. Your video reminded me , there is no short cut if you expect quality results. This will be the third floor I've ever done, and by far the worst. Thanks again .

Thank you for the video. So far I trust yours over others and the proper steps and equipment I need.

An excellent video, a natural teacher, loved it, thank you.

I had no idea when I started that the drum could take so much off in such a small amount of time. I had read about drum marks before I started thankfully so I made sure to be cautious but it definitely isn't as easy as it looks. Refinishing pine floors from old houses built in 1948 right now. I am using dark walnut stain and satin poly and they are truly gorgeous. Bonus: they are saving us almost a thousand dollars since we don't have to buy carpet.

not sure I have the confidence necessary to do the job myself, especially after watching this video. It's great to know this information when we select someone to have the work done, otherwise. Will check out your other videos, thanks

Again perfect video start to finish. Who ever has a hard time understanding your videos should just stop trying to be a DIY... Thanks for the videos.

thank you so much for all the time and effort you put in to this video. it is highly appreciated.

I don’t have a wooden floor (LVP) but I watched this whole thing. I notice I do this a lot, watching professionals talk about things in depth on things I normally I have no interest in, and I think I realized why I like them so much. It demonstrates that almost anything can be more complex and detailed than you give it credit for. Sometimes not researching results in more work, sometimes the quality suffers. Videos like this reiterate for me that if you want to diy something effectively, proper research is a necessity. Great job.

Thank you for sharing your hard earned experience and know-how with us!! Excellent content and commentary on video, including your replies in text. Truly nice work. Many thanks.

I will follow your lessons and once I feel ready, I will take my chances to renovate my mountain cottage's floors! Thanks, mate!

Nice job all around bro, thanks for the information my friend. You RocK!

Thanks for the 120 grit practice tip!

Perfect instructions sir! Def will be saving this video.

Thank you sir for your professional coach that is so important for me since I will rent tools in the couple days👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Hope more and more people will see your videos getting your great coach! Good luck for business sir!👍🏻

Why didn't I find this video earlier? Best explanatory video out there, thanks!

Thanks for the info and your peaks/valley’s illustration really clarifies the process.

I already watch few of your videos , very helpful Im motivated now to do my floor Thank you , love the accent BTW

I was going to tackle my floors myself but looking at your workmanship. Defo gonna message you later this week for a quote.

Comprehensive and well-explained. Good practicl detail - well done!

Im sanding my own floors now as we speak and yoru tips have been amazing so far,. i have sanded p34 and p40 so far. onto the p80 !!!

Yep. Thank you for confirming for me that I need to hire someone to do this. I only want to do this once and have it done right the first time.

Great video. Very useful. Most rental companies will only rent out the drum and edger. This leads most to think that only the two will do the job.

Floor genius, i learned a bunch thank you for sharing your knowledge.

this is actually your best video

Very helpful to explain the difference in machines and uses

Can't tell ya how much I appreciate this video. Moving into a house soon with a nice small woodfloor area in the living room, the previous tenants put a good bit of traffic across it, finish worn away in parts, scratched on about 50% of the surface area, and black patches (their dog enjoyed taking a slash in there it seems). Thought to myself, yeah, I can take care of this, sand it, seal it, get it looking awesome. And some of the youtube vids I watched confirmed that thought, even the one with a guy using a hand belt sander. Even better I thought, I'll just buy one of those for the price of renting a drum sander, perfect. I'm still going to take on that room myself, but it's going to be done as close to the way a pro would do it as possible. It will mean dropping money on rentals for 2/3 days, not just the 1 I'd hoped. Screw it though, your vid will cost me some extra cash, but the education it gave will hopefully allow me to sit back and enjoy looking at that floor for years to come :) Or at least until my own dog turns it black :/ Also, I don't know why, but I really want to rewatch Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels right now. Cheers chap!

Now I’m really impressed this is freaking hard.

Great Video! I apricate that you are sharing your in depth knowledge. Thank you!

this is the best info I found!!! looking forward to sand now :)

So I had installed Unfinished Red Oak (Solid) Hardwood Flooring through my house (large renovation, been doing this for a couple years, learning each trade on weekends for...idk.. knowledge?). Background before asking the question: - Everyone of the planks for the Unfinished hardwood flooring were ran through a planer, only about the thickness of a 'stain' was taken off (These are 'new' unfinished flooring, this was because I already owned the planer and I was given the advice of it potentially being a good idea. So far I live in this house without sanding the floors and they feel incredibly smooth already). - I filled the knots that were present in some of the planks with blue hot glue (See KnotFiller). - Doing this myself, about 500sqft of flooring total around the house (May need to convert that from Imperial; Square Feet). My question: Since this is 'unfinished' hardwood floor and it was ran through a planer already for surface imperfections, should I skip to a finish sander or would it be a good practice to start with a drum sander and go through the grits?

Very helpful info man, thanks!

Thanks so much for all your information, wish I would have seen it BEFORE I started sanding my wood floors! Went to Home Depot and rented a sander, the rectangular one. My son sanded for hours on a patch of the living room floor, about 4' x 6' with the 20 grit sand paper. It was taking so long that we went back and got a second machine! We worked all day on the living room and dining room floors and still there was a lot of finish left in lots of the seams. I watched your video and several other ones that night and then realised we were using the wrong machine! So I took them both back and got an Easy 8 drum sander which has a lever to lower the drum and raise the drum when you get to the wall. It works much better but only part of the sand paper is hitting the floor so I get an uneven section of the floor sanded, not the full width of the sander and when I try to go diagonal it leaves dig marks in the floor 😢

If the previous owners of my house saw this video, my floors would look a lot better. There are start and stop marks ALL OVER the floors. So much so it looks like a exotic species of oak 😆. It’s gunna be a good time straightening that mess out. Been casually watching your videos here and there. When it comes time to get this done I will take a deep dive to learn how to do this right. I’ve always had a curiosity about this process, like any trade, trying to find information with integrity is so hard to find. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience over the pond.

Thanks for the info. We have our work cut out for us. Ours is an old pine floor and it has some areas that are buckling

Found your channel via your “what not to do” videos. For a fairly experienced worker in various aspects of the construction industry I really appreciate that you give the “WHY”, and not just “do this.” The why really cements the good habits IMHO. Good stuff brother. Btw it also shows that you know what you’re doing. Edit: I’m about to tackle a really nasty hardwood floor upstairs in my house. I may be back with questions lol.

Ok. This was really useful!

As a retired autobody painter I understand and appreciate your advice on sanding and grit progression. When it comes to my floor, which is red fir, I fear I did a stupid thing. I gutted my house because of water damage, so I pulled up all my boards very carefully (dry and splinters easily) and they were in good shape for the most part. But I had to destroy some boards which had black adhesive from tiles that were glued over. An abandoned house next door had the same flooring so I took some boards from there. I re installed all the boards only to find that in some areas, boards were about 2-3 millimetres lower than adjacent boards in a section usually about a foot long or less. There seems to be about an average of 7 millimetres of the top lip of the groove left. What I want to do is use a router with a big base, and take these low spots down another 2 millimetres , and then glue on a thin strip of fir onto the now uniformly low surface ( a strip planed from other boards and about 6 millimetres thick) ...a sort of a thick veneer instead of cutting the board out and replacing those small areas.. Then my plan is to sand these areas flush with a belt sander , and then refinish with a drum sander. The areas in question are usually no more than 12 inches long. What are my chances of success ...I'm sure you've seen it all. Cheers from Canada!

Thank you for this video and all the tips! Wow have been so nervous to DIY our hardwoods but all your videos and giving my confidence! Thank you!!!!

Thank you very much. Very helpful.

I wish this video was out 8yrs ago. I damaged my floors with the drum sander because I didnt let up off the floors. Soo many uneven grooves. I really stands out with a darker Stain.

Excellent video, very clear instructions and explanations, happy to find it before making a mess haha

great video! thanks for posting

Brilliant suggestion about practicing with the drum sander and 120 grit

Omg I am so glad I found you. Thank you for your wonderful advice.

Brilliant video thank you!

Great information. I just finished 600 sqft for the first time every. Unfortunately, I saw this video after we finished. It was a badly abused multi layered old poly and carpeted areas on pine boards. The floor boards were not tight, had cupping and plenty of unevenness. We used 36 grit, but one of the sander's disk broke off probably because the grit was too aggressive and it was hopping! LOL We managed to set it on under the machine to finish. Then we used an edge sander, but my son went nuts cleaning up areas were the poly was. It is definitely making for an interesting grain patterns! Good thing my son loves wood and to him all wood looks nice. His girl friend hasn't seen it yet though! LOL It was her idea to remove the rug so we figure it is her fault how ever it looks! I wish we had watched your video prior to this 4 day grind!

I am not watching this to DIY but to know what to expect from next floor sander

Luckily have parquet floor, as fail clips popped up first but kept going till you appeared you star, woffle is good my friend, you keep going. :) x

Amazingly informative video for anyone starting to refinish their own floors. Your information was exactly what I needed. Way beyond other common youtube videos on the subject. Thank you very much -- very greatful.

Thank you for the very informative video

Gd I wish I had seen this video before getting talked into a square box finishing sander. Going back to get the drum and edger tomorrow and do it right. Thanks for the amazing information. Excuse me while I binge watch every video you have and like everything to show my thanks cause you need a LOT more attention.

such helpful information! Thank you!!!

Very informative video

Thanks a lot very informative

Wow. This is a fantastically informative video. Where were you when I was redoing floors this spring?

Great video. Thanks very much!

Freaking great video man! Very educational. I especially love the theory behind graduating grits appropriately. Im looking at refinishing/staining our red oak. Will be the first refinish. Floors are going to require some love but I'm ok with that as I used to install hardwoods. Having said that, I've never refinished a floor in my life and wed like to take them much much darker, almost an ebony color to contrast our gray kitchen floor. Is it just a matter of multiple coats of stain with light finish sanding in between, once we've removed original material with a drum sander/edge sander? Thanks so much in advance. Think Im going to buy your video series. Wes

I started with a square buff because Home Depot told me it was safe. What they didn't tell me was it would do nothing to my floor. I went to random oscillating. I think it got the job done ok enough, but took forever. I'm too stubborn and lazy to redo it all (800 sq ft). And the floor wasn't in terrible condition to begin with, so i think i can get away with what I did. I will definitely take this into consideration if I'm ever crazy enough to sand hardwood again.

Thats a great explanation of how grits work!

Thanks for the videos

This was helpfull, thank you!

You're da best bro!

Fantastic video man, i only have a small entrance hall , would it be possible for me just to use a hand belt sander and a mouse sander for the edges , its 2.3 x 1.3

Well said all the way around.... A+

I have a question! I am moving into my first home. Someone painted the living room knotted pine floor with what seems to be 2 or 3 coats of a thick gray paint. Any advice on lifting this as much as possible? Going for a distressed but hopefully revived wood look!

Thanks so much!!

Hi, we have beautiful original unpolished unfinished wood floor boards. If I clean any stuff off the floor boards would I be able to just use the edge and finishing sander on these floors? Very informative video ✌

Great advice. I am finishing 3 floors, just finished floor #1, I wish I watched this video first. On June 15, I will be refinishing a hard wood floor that was painted by a previous owner. I watched some videos that advised sanding at an angle then with the grain. The layer of paint seems to be one coat. I have an orbital floor sander for the finer grit sanding. Do you have any hints for finishing this painted floor?

I'am fron Brasil, and would like to know mor about it! great job,

Hi, I'm starting a project with some wood floors that have been painted on and covered by carpet for years. There's a framing pattern in the floors, so it will be impossible to move in the same direction of the grit. Any suggestions? Thanks so much for the awesome video by the way! A few years ago I did this same thing at another house. Rental company convinced me to use an orbital sander. It. Took. Forever. I actually pulled an all nighter to get the sander back to the rental office at the end of the weekend. I'll definitely be using a drum sander this time. This video is so helpful!

Hi Ben Greetings from Oz. Thank you for your time and the effort you put into your videos. I'm about to attempt sanding and refreshing my herringbone jarrah parquet floors. You've given me the confidence to try drum sanding. Due to the apartment being under renovation and cluttered with furniture in the same room that I am going to be sanding I have no option but to do the sanding and the application of the water based satin polyurethane finish in 2 stages I guessing with 6 inch overlap.I was hoping to complete one section and then transfer the furniture and go again. Is it likely there will be a noticeable line where the two sections of polyurethane meet? Am I better off using an oil in this situation for that reason as it could possibly offer a more seamless transition? Your advice would greatly appreciated. Thanks and all the best

Thanks for the great video! I have a quick question and it would be awesome if you could share the advice. Would the process of sanding with 36/60/80/100 grid apply to newly installed unfinished hardwood? Also, which tool and what grid would you recommend for sanding in between finishing coats?cheers!

I work refishising and installing all types in floor. All I can say is nothing is light on hardwood floors. I've had to pack a Clarke American sander into a house by myself more times than care to think about I only weigh 165lbs. Bulldog it out the van carry it. In I think the motor might weigh more that the body. Lol. Great tips thanks.

Great video! I have an oak floor laid 12 years ago with 3 coats of Bona HD. The floor is good condition and even, but has heavy wear in a couple of places so I dont need to take off too much with a drum sander. Would a finishing sander be enough to take me down to bare wood to refinish? Thanks in advance.