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.

Can Engineered Wood Flooring Be Sanded and Refinished ?

Hello and Welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations blogpost.


Today we'll be touching on a subject that many end users are unsure of.


The question I have recently been asked is:- "Can my Engineered Wood Flooring be Sanded and Refinished ? "


This lady had contacted us with regards to having her floors restored, but had heard from someone she knew that Engineered wood floors couldn't be sanded and sealed.

So she got in touch with us and asked us to quote for the restoration works. On our site visit I was able determine that her Engineered Oak strip flooring was in fact more than good enough to properly sand off and refinish.


The single strip flooring did have a 4mm wear layer which hadn't been sanded before, so even though our sanding processes took off about 1mm of material, there is plenty of oak material left on the wear layer for at least one more sand off.


The floor overall wasn't in too bad a condition, and didn't really have bad gauges in the floor, more small scratches and indentations in 2 or 3 high wear areas of the two rooms that we restored. The trouble is with some Engineered floors that the wear layer may only be 1 or 2mm in thickness, and the indents and gauges are literally scratched through to the plywood core of the material.


This is when trying to sand off an Engineered wood floor can be problematic, because if you sand through the wear layer to the plywood core then the floor would be ruined, and almost certainly the floor sanding contractor would be liable for the damage.


So in answer to the original question...Yes an Engineered Wood Floor can indeed be Sanded and Re-Finished, but who ever is doing the works must be completely sure that the wear layer of the floor is thick enough to be able to take a full sand and seal.


Hope that helps anyone who reads this blog...Forewarned is forearmed.


Thanks for reading - Regards Gary

Gouges in my Oak Floor...Will they Sand Out ??

Hello and welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post.


Today's topic isn't something I get asked alot to be quite honest, usually 4-5 times a year at most, but if it happens to you then its good to perhaps have some solid answers.

The question is "I've got gouges in my Oak Floor, Will they Sand out ??"

I did a Floor Sanding job a few days ago for some clients who had an issue with their oak strip floor, a company had delivered a large 'American Style' fridge freezer, but when it was in transit along the Hallway it unfortunately fell off the trolley and put several bad gouges/scratches into a small area.

The gouges in the wood floor were approx 1mm deep and although it took some time to detail sand out the marks, the finished floor looked excellent, and when we called the client back into the area to see what we had done to the gouges...she couldn't find the area, we had to point out where they were, there was one very small mark which didn't sand out but it really was minuscule and the client couldn't find that either, so all in all it was a good result.


The pictures underneath detail the gradual disappearance of the marks during the sanding process, and the last picture is a wider shot of the Hallway after the last coat of Lacquer Had been applied.

Sometimes no matter how hard you try, some marks just will not sand out of wooden floors. In our case the floor we sanded was Solid Oak which hadn't been Sanded before, so we knew we had alot of wear layer to play with, and that the damage was a fairly recent event, so the odds were in our favour.

If you have a similar issue/problem with your floor I would strongly advise to consult a professional as to the best course of action for you, also don't be fobbed off by your insurance company, our clients had been offered a derisory amount to settle, but as the floor ran into another room they were well within their right to ask for both areas to be put right...Answer to the question...yes in this case the marks sanded out....sometimes they do, sometimes they don't...but it won't be for the lack of trying.

Hope this helps you in some way...Thanks for reading.

You can plainly see the gouges and scratches....

After a few passes with the Bona 10" Sander the marks are diminishing....

The marks are gone....the floor is now prepared and ready for lacquer

All done and completely finished....with a very happy client...

Wood Floor Withering ??

Hello and Welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post.


Firstly i'd like to apologise to our regular readers for our lack of blogs over the last couple of weeks, we genuinely been very busy on two quite large scale [and difficult] projects for one of our regular corporate clients.

These are now finished so there will be more regular updates.

A few weeks ago a Mr TM Cleverley posted a question which I have yet to answer, so here goes....."My Wooden floor gets withered with time, I am considering to repair it but don't have any idea what and how much it takes"

In my experience when a wood floor starts to look/feel withered this is usually associated with very dry and warm site conditions...EG. Central Heating turned on too high over long periods of time combined with low humidity levels, or more commonly the Sun shining in through windows/large double doors with no vertical blinds, directly onto the surface of the wood floor, literally cooking it...Also when underfloor heating is turned up too high over long time-frames, this can have the same same detrimental withering effect on solid wood flooring.

Repairing a floor which has withered can be a difficult process and normally involves increasing the humidity levels in the effected area, this is a process which is best left to experienced professionals to undertake, this is not an area of my specific expertise so I will not be going into any more detail on this.

Mr Cleverley didn't mention what part of the world he lives in, so its difficult to quantify costs, but I would recommend contacting a reputable tradesman or Company in your specific area to properly ascertain any issues you have with your wood floor, the likelihood is even if the tradesman is not 100% sure what your issues are he will know someone in the trade who will.

Hope this helps...Thanks for reading. 

How Clean does my floor need to be before applying floor lacquer

Hello and Welcome to another WFR Blog Post.

Today we'll touch on a general cleanliness question of when a floor has been sanded and properly prepared in readiness for the first coat of seal.

The question I've recently received from a DIYer who has sanded his own floor is "How clean does the floor need to be before I apply the lacquer ?"

Pretty straightforward answer this one, 'As clean as possible'.....the cleaner your floor the better overall it will look, its a very simple equation really, as a general rule of thumb on a standard parquet block floor of say 20m2 we would vacuum the floor probably 5 times over the course of the day.

With floor sanding you really can't vacuum enough, but on occasions no matter how carefully the floor has been hoovered there ALWAYS seems to be the odd bit of debris that is in the way just as you are starting to apply the first coat of seal.

Personally I advocate the use of 'Tack Clothing' the floor just after the final vacuuming has taken place, it never ceases to amaze how much dust and crud the tack clothing process picks up, for a 20m2 room I'd advise using 2 cloths, tack cloths are very cheap and the process is ridiculously easy to do and will take less than 5 minutes for a 20m2 wood floor, it will make a tangible difference.

If there are any Pro's who are reading this thinking 'yeah right'..... just try it once and see what a difference tack clothing makes......I was converted many many moons ago and now make sure we tack cloth EVERY floor we do.....Remember the cleaner the floor the better the finish will be....its that simple.


The proof is in the pudding....well the pudding in this case is the two pictures below, the first is our brand new tack cloth just before we used it on a 10m2 Mahogany Parquet Block Floor, the second picture is just after it had been used on the said 10m2 floor.....PS....The floor had been thoroughly vacuumed with a very powerful vacuum just prior to being tack clothed....Don't they say a picture speaks a thousand words.....I shall say no more....

The Tack Cloth Before Being Used

Tack Cloth after being used......

Thanks for Reading. 

High Heel Damage and Wooden Floors....What Can I Do ?

Hello and Welcome to another WFR Blog Post.


Today's question is a contentious issue which happens every day to someone's Wooden Floor, follow a few of the following simple steps and it may not happen to you.... 


The question is..."High Heel damage to my wood floors, what can i do ??"


The quick answer is Not alot the damage caused by High Heels can be really bad, I myself have seen indents of well over 5mm into a hardwood floor, this kind of damage cannot easily be sorted out.



High heels concentrate a person’s weight on a small point (estimate: 125lb person = approximately 2,000lbs per inch when taking a normal step). This kind of force can damage many types of flooring, fracturing ceramic tiles and perforating vinyl, as well as denting wooden floors. While high heels in good repair may not damage wood floors, we recommend a ‘no high heel’ policy.


NEVER feel guilty about asking your friends to take off their high heels on entering your home, better that than having marks and indents all over your wood floor....


We have Sanded and Refinished numerous wooden floors of various species that have had high heel damage, very often the marks are removed during the floor sanding processes, but sometimes these marks CANNOT be removed with floor sanding as the indents are just too deep, these indents can be filled with a gap filling mixture, but its likely that you will still be able to see the indents, but to a much lesser degree, sometimes this is the best option.

• As I mentioned earlier, if people are coming into your home with high heels on, politely ask them to take them off, A NO HIGH HEELS policy will keep your wood floors looking good for many years.....
• If you wear high heels around your own home make sure the heel tips are in good repair, heels without tips are almost certain to cause damage.....
• Damaged wooden floors are not easily repaired, consult a professional for advice if you are in any doubt.

Thanks for reading......We'll be back soon.


Checkout our website at Woodfloor-renovations

How Do I Fill the Gaps in my Hardwood Floor ?

Hello and Welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog post.


This subject really is the one I get most correspondence about, its a fairly simple process really but if its done badly or you don't know what you are doing or what products you should use then things can go very wrong very quickly. 


This Blog is about Gap Filling your wood floor, it doesn't matter if you have a beautiful hardwood Oak Parquet Block floor or old softwood Pine Floorboards, the principles are the same as is the method for getting the job done. The Gap Filling part of the Sanding & Sealing process is carried out shortly before applying the first coat of seal to the floor so it really does need to be done correctly otherwise your floor could easily look a mess.


Two main components are needed for Gap Filling are some nice clean fine sanding dust from the floor/species you have been sanding, and the Filler itself.

 There are two distinct product types in the Filler market, Solvent Based Fillers v's Water-based Fillers, both have different properties and behave differently, for example the solvent based fillers have a quite pungent smell when used, and the Water-based fillers don't, with solvent based fillers you have a quite short working time whereas the water-based fillers have a  long open time.


I can tell you are leaning towards the water-based products already :-) but before you make up your mind read on.

 From a Professional standpoint I personally almost always use solvent based fillers, this is because a solvent based filler dries really quickly [10-15 mins] and most of the filling I do is for relatively small area's in respect of the overall job. I need the filler to go off quickly to be able to move onto the next phase of the operation which would be to properly Sand off any residues and to finish the preparation on the newly sanded floor.

The two above pictures are of the exact same area from a recently completed job, where the pictures clearly show the dramatic difference that applying filler can make, in the top pictures your eye's are drawn to the 'black gaps' that can be seen pretty much everywhere in that picture. In the lower picture you can clearly see the difference that the gap filling has made - believe me that particular floor took some gap filling :-(( 

Click on the link and you will be taken to the complete Gallery of that project - the before and after pictures are quite startling   Conwy Valley Pitch Pine Job

The main component of gap filling is the dust, make sure it's nice and clean and at least 80 grit and finer, meaning 120 grit dust is better again, mix the filler into the dust, to the consistency of a thickish custard, don't worry if you pour on too much filler and it goes very runny, simply add more dust and mix well.

When properly mixed you basically scrape the mixture into the gaps, somewhat similar to grouting tiles. I would advise using as wide a scraper as possible as gap filling can be a very time consuming and tedious job if all you have to use is a 4" wallpaper scraper.

As soon as you apply the filler mixture to the area you are filling, make sure you scrape off as much of the residues as possible, as when the filler dries, it dries hard and can be difficult to remove if thick residues have been left on the floor to dry.

Remember - Solvent based fillers have an approximate 10-15 minute working time, while the water based fillers have a much longer open time, and can be as much as an hour or more before it is properly dry depending on how wide the gaps are...the wider the gaps the longer the drying time and that refers to both filler types.

Hope this article helps - Good Luck with your project.

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....