Bona Flexisand Powerdrive 1.5 Wood Floor Sanding Machine Review

Hello and welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations blogpost.

Today I'll bring to your attention the latest floor sanding machine to be released by Bona, who as anyone in the floor sanding trade know produce world class floor sanding machinery.

We were asked several months [Nov 2012] ago by Bona to test and trial a new wood floor sanding/finishing machine which they [Bona] were going to be releasing in early January 2013.


We were proud and honoured to have been asked to undertake the testing for Bona, and started using the machine pretty much 15 minutes after it was delivered to us.

Before i go off on a tangent telling you how good this machine is [and boy it is good] I will link you to the comprehensive 12 page review/article that I wrote on this superb floor sanding machine.

Within the article there are video clips showing the machine doing it's business, plus various pictures dotted throughout.

You can find the review here:

 Bona Flexisand Power Drive Pro System Wood Floor Sanding Machine Review   


Thanks for reading...we hope you enjoy the article.

Bona Traffic HD Wood Floor Lacquer Review

 Hello and welcome to another Woodfloor-renovations blog post.

Todays subject matter is a review of a new product from the mighty Bona stable of world class flooring lacquers.

We are proud to have been asked to test and evaluate the latest version of the rather superb Bona Traffic, the new product is called 'Bona Traffic HD' and is an updated and harder wearing version of the best selling Bona Traffic.

We have written a comprehensive review and evaluation of Bona Traffic HD, which is available for viewing on our website.

We also used Traffic HD on a relatively small entrance hallway which had a very nice Douglas Fir parquet floor which we restored, checkout the video clip below of the completed project.

Hope you enjoy the review...Regards Gary.

Whats The difference Between a Hire Shop Sanding Machine and Your Bona 10 Inch Sander ?

Hello and Welcome our latest Woodfloor-Renovations Blogpost.


This post is our first of 2012 and I'd like to wish all our readers the best of luck and good fortune for the coming year.


What I'm going to write about today is something I get asked quite alot, todays direct question is "Whats the difference between a hire shop floor sander and your Bona floor sanding machine ? "


This question was asked by a client we very recently completed a floor sanding project for, and who had sanded and refinished their own floors 8 years ago. In all honestly the columbian pine parquet block floor was in a relatively poor condition overall, which is pretty typical really when people use hire shop floor sanding machinery and tackle the job themselves.


Many people think that all floor sanding machines are all alike and do the same thing....but when it comes to getting a top quality finish on your pride and joy wooden floor then i'm afraid the quality difference between a battered and misused hire shop sander and a top of the range professional floor sander is quantum.

 

The two pictures directly above this text are both wood floor sanding machines, the picture on the left is an almost new Bona 10" belt Sander,[my own] and the one on the right is a typical hire shop model which i think is a HT7 or HT8. 


I won't go into all the technical differences between the machines as I don't want to be writing for another 2 hours, but I'll just mention the fundamental difference, which anyone who has ever used a hire shop floor sander will know all too well.


The main difference is Dust, professional floor sanding machines genuinely capture around 95% of dust particulates created during the floor sanding process, while the hire shop floor sanders will collect precious little dust, from what I have seen of these machines the dust spews out at a quite ridiculous rate and can quickly fill a room with dust to the point of hardly being able to see where you are pushing the machine....This I have seen myself at first hand.... 


There are many other differences between the two machines such as the ease of changing a sanding belt, changing the machine settings while running....I could go on and on and on, but as a floor sanding professional my allegiance is firmly entrenched with professional quality machinery, it really is in a completely different class to a lot of the hire shop equipment.


Although that being said you can hire professional quality machinery, but it will be more expensive, but if you want a top quality professional finish on your wood floor then you either do your homework and hire the right equipment to give you the quality finish you require, or you get the professionals in to do the job properly for you.....

That does sound a bit harsh I know, but in reality those are, in my opinion the best options  for someone looking to do the best quality job they can on their wooden floors.


The images below are direct 'before' and 'after' pictures from the floor sanding project where the client asked the initial question, a bit of a difference wouldn't you say :-)

I have recently written a comprehensive article on the Bona Belt Floor Sanding Machine at  the Woodfloor-Renovations website.

Hope this article has helped you in some way, Thanks for reading.......Gary

My Wood Floor Looks Orange.....Why ?????

Hello and welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations blog post.


Today we'll talk about another question i've been asked many times, the [full] question is:- "I've got a Maple Strip Wood Floor and it looks almost Orange ? It was only sanded and finished 3 years ago...Do you know why my floor has gone that colour ?? "


I've seen countless wood floors that have turned orange in colour, usually only a couple of years after the floor has been refinished, the culprit is merciless in that it doesn't care what the species is, or whether the floor is Parquet Block or Strip Flooring, the end result will always be the same...in that the floor turns Orange in colour.


The guilty party is almost certainly a floor seal called 'Bourneseal' this product was used very widely in the floor sanding industry for many years as a flooring lacquer, and is still available today, but is no-where near as popular with flooring contractors as it once was.


I don't know the technical details as to why Bourneseal turns wooden floors an orangey colour, the lady who sent in the question mentioned that the floor seal had looked clear for at least two years and then started to slowly turn orange during the third year.


If you want the floor to look clear again i'm afraid the only thing you can do is to have it fully Sanded off and Re-Sealed, as far as i know there is no other way, but if you do have the floor fully sanded make sure your contractor uses a modern non yellowing seal from a reputable manufacturer such as Bona, Junckers or Lobadur...


There are many other Lacquers out there from excellent manufacturers, which will do the job very well, but as I use lacquers very regularly from Junckers, Lobadur [lecol here in the UK] and Bona, I know these products work extremely well and WILL NOT even go yellow, never mind orange.


Hope that helps, thanks for reading.


Regards Gary

Dust Free Wood Floor Sanding...How Dust Free is it ?

Hello and Welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post


Today the question I've been asked is a very common one, but is of great concern to every person who asks....The question is "Is Dust Free Floorsanding really dust free ??"


The very short answer to this is...No, its not 100% dust free.


No-one out there in the big wide world of floor sanding can honestly claim to provide a completely 100% dust free floorsanding service...But...you can claim to provide a 95% dust free service.


I believe there is actually a European Parliamentary Directive that seeks to prohibit companies in Europe from claiming to offer a 100% dust free floorsanding service, well that's what I heard in Nov 2008 at the UK Bona headquarters in Milton Keynes... 


For many people out there who have hired a floor sanding machine and sanded their own wood floors using hire shop equipment, the concept of a virtually dust free experience would seem like something of a far fetched fairy story, I myself have seen these hire shop machines in action, spewing out dust at a quite unbelievable rate, quickly filling even large rooms with never ending amounts of wood dust.


I hasten to add to have only seen the machines working, I have never used one of these lower quality sanding machines [and I never will]


At Woodfloor-Renovations we use Bona floor sanding machinery, its high end professional floor sanding kit that genuinely does collect 95% + of the dust particulates created during the floor sanding process. The remaining few percent is easily Vacuumed up, and right at the very end of all the sanding/vacuuming processes, we always tack cloth the entire floor to leave the area as dust free as possible.


It really is possible to have a virtually dust free floor sanding process, but you will need to use professional quality equipment to make the virtually dust free scenario a reality, and most importantly vacuum the floor frequently during the floor-sanding processes. 


Hope that helps...Thanks for reading.

Flooring Lacquer Application....Shall I Use a Roller or T Bar Applicator

Hello and Welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post


Today I'll try and advise on an issue that can effect if the final touches to your hard work will look any good or not...Yes its the contentious issue of Lacquer application...Do you use a standard Roller...or a more professional 'T' Bar applicator. 


When I first started floor sanding, I was shown by a very experienced floor sanding operator how to use a 'T' Bar applicator, and boy did he make it look easy, in the hands of an experienced pro it looks simplicity itself to put lacquer down correctly...Pahhhhh I thought, what's all the fuss about, its easy - I can do that.


Now I can do it easily, but it took many months before I became accomplished with the Padco Bigfoot, its nowhere near as easy as it looks.

The image on the left is the Padco Bigfoot floor lacquer applicator, the operator is applying lacquer, likely to a large area. The Padco Bigfoot and applicators of its type are just superb for putting lacquer down to large area's, I myself have used this applicator scores of times with nothing but a top class result, in the hands of a professional its possible to get a near flawless finish to large area's pretty quickly.


However, I really wouldn't recommend this applicator for the very occasional DIYer, who is just using it for one or two rooms. The Padco is not at its best in small area's, for a professional its straightforward, but for the inexperienced user this tool will be difficult to use properly, to obtain a high quality of finish to your project.


For an end user who hasn't much [or no] experience I would highly recommend using a roller for applying the lacquers to your wood floor. Once you have the floor correctly prepared and readied, use a 4" foam roller to cut in, and either a 9" or 12" roller and cage for the main lacquer application duties.


The image on the right is a 9" roller and is obviously being used to correctly apply a lacquer product to a wooden floor, in this case a mosaic parquet. For just about all the Sand & Seal jobs I do these days I tend to use a roller, as I find the overall finish that you get, especially in smaller areas is just much better than using a Padco Bigfoot.


We tend to use either a 15" or 18" version of the image to the right. Whichever size roller you use make sure that the pile length is around the 8mm mark, this is pretty much the optimum roller sleeve pile length for applying lacquer to a wooden floor, if the pile is say 13mm, the roller has a tendency to 'splatter' the lacquer over the surface and it just takes a lot longer to apply the product [lacquer] correctly to the floor.


If you use a short pile length roller of around 5mm the roller tends to flood easily and again it takes alot longer to apply the lacquer correctly, many manufacturers supply and recommend their own rollers and roller sleeves, if you are not confident about sourcing the correct roller/sleeve products then I would heartily recommend purchasing the manufacturers own branded roller/sleeve as you are much more likely to get a better finish, especially if you do your homework in the first place, most manufacturers have this type of information on their respective websites.


Plus there is You Tube, which is a veritable gold mine of information on this subject. Type in 'apply bona mega' as an example and you will quickly find dozens of videos showing how to apply flooring lacquer.


Hope that helps, Thanks for reading.


I have recently received an email from JD Floors asking for some advice on how to fix an Alto Floorcrafter, which is cutting too hard to the left, Unfortunately I have no experience whatsoever of this machine, but I did do a quick Google search and it looks a quality piece of kit.


 I myself use Bona floor sanding machinery, Bona have an excellent instructional video which may be of help, as most professional floor sanding machines are built to very similar principles so the clip may just be of use, follow the link below.


Bona Instructional Video 

I'm Sanding a Wood Floor Myself, What advice would you give me ??

Hello and welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post.


Firstly I'd like to apologise for the lack of output from myself the last couple of weeks.....we've been pretty busy pushing and pulling the sanding machine and time has been at a premium.


Today I'll expand on a subject that many people try and do, but few do really well, the question [via email] is: "I'm sanding my wood floor myself, what advice would you give me ??"


The wood floor in the picture was sent in by our man asking the question, the species is also unknown to him and is apparently original to the property and looking a bit on the rough side I must say - I would hazard a guess at either Maple or Beech as the species [actual picture below]

This wood floor could be one of half a dozen or more different species, the orange 'glow' will be thanks to a seal called Bourneseal, which was commonly used back in the day - but any wooden floor it touched would end up this orange colour - avoid at all costs.

The worst mistake the average DIY floor sander makes is hiring poor quality sanding machinery, and by that I mean most of the hire shop fleet of HT7 and HT8 machines. These machines have precious little in the way of dust capture and are an absolute country mile away from the standard of Professional floor sanding kit.

If you are serious about doing the best job you can on your wood floors, then hire the better quality machinery which is available at many outlets nationwide [UK] it of course costs a bit more than the standard hire shop fodder but if done properly the results will speak for them selves.

 The minimum machinery level I would suggest you will need are as follows, [IMHO] if your budget can stretch to the professional kit, then try and hire either a Bona 10" Sanding Machine as the main sander, or the Lagler Hummel. 

These two beasts are arguably the best two sanding machines in the business, I personally have used both of them on several large scale projects, and as i run a nearly new Bona 10" sander on a day to day basis I would have to say its the better machine, but its close, the Hummel is a superb bit of kit also and can tackle the hardest of jobs with aplomb.

You will also need a good quality edging machine, both Bona and Lagler have these machines in their respective armoury's, both will do the job really well, if you have multiple rooms I would suggest hiring the 7" version as it is just more powerful and a little bit quicker than its 6" sibling.

Next on the list is the Buffing/Finishing machine, this is used to put the final smoothness to the floor, it is usually the last 2 or 3 processes that put the most quality into the job. Bona have an excellent buffing machine, cunningly called the 'Bona Buffer' its pretty easy to use and does a great job.

Lagler have arguably the best finishing machine in the business, the Trio - this is a superb machine and can put a world class finish on most floors, although Parquet floors are its forte its also tremendous on just about every Hardwood floor out there. The Trio is an expensive piece of kit and is consequently not cheap to hire, but you will get a superbly smooth finish to your wood floor if used correctly.

Many companies here in the UK that hire the professional standard equipment, will hire out the equipment individually or in a package form, where you can hire the relevant equipment that best suits your particular needs, if you tell these companies what type of floor you have, the size of the area and your time-frame and budget, they will give you the best advise they can I'm sure. 

Anyone contemplating sanding a floor themselves must be prepared to do their homework...and then some...Sanding a wood floor properly and getting a professional finish is not easy, and for someone with no experience or know-how the chances of getting a high quality finish on your floors are slim...even with professional kit...but, and its a big but, if you research the subject in depth, take your time and hire the best machinery you can afford you will give yourself a fighting chance.

Hope that helps - thanks for reading.  

  

Bona Novia...Is it any Good ??

Hello and welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post.

This post is about an enquiry I received a few weeks ago, the person was wondering because this product was at the cheaper end of the flooring lacquer scale that it may not be up to much.

The direct enquiry was "Bona Novia...Is it any good ??" 

The quick answer to this question is YES, it is a good product, in my humble opinion a VERY good product.

Bona Novia is positioned at the 'Budget Sensitive' end of the market, or in easy to understand language the cheaper end, just because the product is relatively cheap by comparison doesn't mean it isn't any good, quite the opposite really.

Novia is from the mighty Bona stable, a Swedish company renowned for it's high quality products for several decades.

I can speak with a little authority on this because in October 2008 I was invited, along with around 25 other Wood Flooring professionals from the UK on a 2 day visit to the Bona HQ in Sweden...

At this time Bona Novia was just about to come to the market, and we were lucky enough to be given a tour of the Bona laboratory where all the formulations are made. It gave us all a fantastic insight into the thoroughness and incredible amount of work that goes into producing a wood flooring lacquer like Bona Novia.

Now I might just be a little biased when it comes to Bona Novia, but after seeing first hand what goes into that product that's hardly surprising news...

I personally have used Bona Novia on many many projects and have nothing but high praise for the product, from a professional perspective its very easy to apply to wooden floors, looks fantastic and has good wear characteristics and given its relatively low price point its good news for the end user of this product.

I have written a more comprehensive product review of Bona Novia which is available for viewing at the Woodfloor-Renovations Website

Hope this helps - Thanks for reading

    

Bona Traffic Review

Hello and welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post.


Today I'll briefly chat about a leviathan of the Wood Floor Lacquer world - the mighty and rather splendid...Bona Traffic


We did a comprehensive product review of this product a few months ago, which is the  Bona Traffic Product Review

We go into quite alot of detail in our product review, and if you are thinking of using a high traffic floor finish for your renovation project then you could do an awful lot worse that have a good read through and see what you get for your money [which is alot]

Bona Traffic isn't a cheap product, to be honest it's quite expensive, but as with most things in life you really do get what you pay for, and with Bona Traffic you get a superb, easy to apply hard wearing polyurethane finish that will look fantastic and last a long time.

Thanks for reading.

Floor Lacquers-How Long Do they Last ?

Hello and Welcome to another WFR Blog Post.


The question today is one which we get asked on virtually EVERY project we carry out...."How long will the lacquer last ??"


Its a fair and reasonable question and one you would expect an easy answer to, but there are many variables which need to go into the answer which determines how long the lacquers will last.


In a typical domestic situation where the wood floor lacquer has been correctly applied and is reasonably well looked after...in that the correct cleaning/maintainance schedules are used on a regular basis, you can expect something between 3-5 years of good service before the area may need a light sand off and further coats of lacquer applying. 


You must also bear in mind the type of foot traffic going over the floor, in a busy household with young children and pets, the lacquer is not going to last as long as in a quieter household with say just two adults living in it..... other things to bear in mind are.....is the area a busy Hallway/Lounge ?  Do the family members take off their footwear on entering the property ? Do you remove small stones and grit from the floor surface regularly ? Do you use the correct cleaning and maintainance products on the floor ?


These things might not sound important but overall they can make a huge difference to the longevity of your floor lacquers, just using the proper cleaning products makes a massive difference, all the lacquer manufacturers have their own maintainance products that are designed especially for the lacquers, so my advice would be to do your homework and use the recommended products and follow the manufacturers maintainance schedules to get the best out of your flooring lacquers.


Thanks for reading.....

Wood Floor....Rough To The Touch

Not too long ago I had an email from a lady who had recently Sanded & Refinished a Wooden Floor at her home....She had put a fair bit of detail into the email about the processes she had employed in her DIY Floor Sanding attempt.

The room was her lounge, and the material of the floor in question was original pine floorboards which had been hidden under carpets for many years. She had used hire shop floor sanding machinery and had been shown [briefly] how to use the equipment. The room was approx 15m2 in size and the Sanding part of the project took her 2 days. The hire machinery consisted of a Main Sanding Machine and an Edger machine.

She had stopped sanding the floor at the 60 grit stage as in her own words she said 'the floor didn't feel too bad' the Edging had been completed to the 40 grit level, and she didn't sand right into the corners as she didn't know how to...The area had been Vacuumed twice before the lacquer was applied.
 

Two coats of a good quality water based Lacquer [Bona Resident] were applied with a paint pad, and the floor was not 'cut back' after the first coat of lacquer had been applied.....The lady was not too happy with the overall finish and asked what i thought the reason for the rough finish/appearance might be.


First of all i have to say that the level of equipment she had used would in my opinion be nowhere near good enough to achieve a professional quality standard of finish, also as a minimum the floor should of been sanded to a 120 grit with the HT7 sanding machine that was used, and the Edging should of been done to 80 grit as a minimum. The corners should of course of been properly sanded and then the whole floor should of been buffed to a smooth 120 grit level with a quality buffing machine such as the Bona Buffer. 


In short I feel that there had been no-where near enough preparation work done before the coats of lacquer had been applied, when a floor is sanded using coarse grit levels, the grain of the wood is opened [widely] and the subsequent passes with the intermediate and fine sandpapers will help to close the grain back up, the process with the buffing machine then helps complete the job....In this case the grain of the wood had not been sufficiently closed before the lacquer was applied, hence the grain 'popping' heavily leaving the material feeling rough to the touch and visually looking poor as well.


I would say that without question the Lacquer had nothing whatsoever to do with the floor ending up feeling and looking rather poor, if the correct amount of preparation work would have been carried out the overall finish would likely of been a lot better......But if you want a professional quality finish....Use a Professional


As i say to alot of clients both prospective and actual....' its all in the prep '


Thanks for reading....