ᐅ How many times can hardwood flooring be sanded down? Experiences?

Created on: 3 Mar 2009 13:10
L
Lily
L
Lily
3 Mar 2009 13:10
Hi,

some friends of ours have a beautiful old parquet floor in their living room. It seems it has been sanded a few times already, so my question is, how many times can it be sanded, or is there no limit?

Thanks
S
Schakal
3 Mar 2009 16:29
Hello,

I would say it is definitely not unlimited.
The parquet flooring has a certain layer thickness that can be sanded multiple times without problems. However, I can’t really assess how much of that layer is on top.
I would say your friend has only two options:
1. Simply try sanding it and hope nothing goes wrong.
2. Which I would recommend, is to have a professional or someone who really knows about this take a look.

Best regards
J
JOERG24
5 Mar 2009 21:15
Every two weeks instead of cleaning

For regular hardwood flooring with a wear layer, I would say sanding by a professional is needed about 3-5 times.

So roughly every 7-10 years. You usually don’t want to deal with the dust mess more often than that. It’s best to carefully tape off all the gaps and use a very good vacuum system. The dust ends up everywhere afterwards.

If you’re not completely confident using the sanding machine, it’s better to have a professional do the sanding. With floor sanders (belt sanders), it’s easy to sand through the wear layer very quickly. Replacement flooring is often unavailable or varies due to aging.

Solid hardwood flooring usually can’t be sanded much more often either because they often don’t have a common base layer, and with a thin wear layer or poor adhesion, aging can cause sections to come loose. These are usually small strips or patterns, at least with the older common installation methods.

What you can quite well sand yourself are solid wood planks. Thicknesses of 20-25mm (0.8-1 inch) tolerate many mistakes. This is also the only type I have sanded myself so far.
J
JOERG24
12 Mar 2009 18:45
A brief follow-up

Supposedly, there are now sanding machines with optimized dust extraction systems and fine filter stages, so dust is much less of a concern.

Still, this doesn’t prevent the need to clear out the room.