Engineered wood flooring is usually 4-8mm and is … For example, if you’d like the finish grit to … You need to be extra careful with the sanding because any imperfections will be highlighted once you start staining and finishing the maple floor. It looked okay, and it had a clear finish, which is pretty forgiving. Final sanding of pattern floors should be performed with a screen and disk sander. Ft. A-Z Floor Sanding is one of the leading floor sanding, repair & installation companies in the Tri-State Area. You are most likely going to refinish one maple floor every few years, so you will not get that many chances to practice. That is the only way you’ll know how your sanding is going (well, you can always wait for the finish coat, which will pop the hell out of everything you did to that poor maple). Serving the Flooring, Woodworking & Moulding Industries Since 1930. Y es you can have your maple floors stained a different color.. However, if the floor is in really bad shape and has old varnish or black backing from a linoleum floor, I'm required to go down to a 24-grit paper. Those guys were in the business of floors for more than 20 years. Seal off the doorway to the room with a plastic or fabric drop cloth and cover the … Rough-Sand the Floor Sanding eliminates scratches and stains from a hardwood floor, but may not be able to alleviate the deepest gouges or discolored patches of wood. Laminate Maple flooring: Pergo are of course the kings of laminate, and have some nice maple ones in their catalog, but also have a look at Mannington, BuildDirect, Home Decorators at the Home Depot, and Shaw Floors for a wider variety of maple laminate floors… Maple is hard and has a closed grain. See more ideas about maple floors, hardwood floors, flooring. Sanding Maple Stripping may be straightforward, but sanding maple can be difficult because of its hardness; you can seldom remove all the previous stain and residue without resorting to a sanding … Start with a low grit like 40, climb to 60, 80 then 100. Your buffer will not take that scratch out (but my Trio will). Try to evenly sand the entire project with this final sanding. It is light, so even after you buffed it between coats, you can’t really see where you applied finish and where you didn’t. What works on oak doesn’t work on maple. Step #1: Sand the floor For both applications the best way to start is by sanding the maple floor flawlessly. Floors made of maple, birch, and coniferous woods (especially pine or fir) are all very difficult to stain evenly. Since A-Z Floor Sanding was founded more than 20 years … Seal Off the Room. Worldwide leader. Maple must be sanded uniformly. The popularity of using wood as flooring has ebbed and flowed throughout recorded human history. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Prefinished Floor Finishes vs. Site-Finishes Floor Finishes, Scratches from the big machine (with the direction of the floor), Thickness planer marks on every stair tread (new install). Many consider this a nice, contemporary “Scandinavian” look. Many times on these old maple floors, there is a type of coating that … Many times on these old maple floors, there is a type of coating that tends to gum up the sandpaper. When they were done, it didn’t look good. Three guys took the task to sand that floor. By Avi Hadad for Hardwood Floors Magazine. Determining when the stain is ... Motors 101 & What Wood Flooring Pros Should Know, Part 1. They quickly realized their technique was poor, and their sanding sequence was mediocre at best. I also like to keep the drum pressure in the middle position to help make sure that the sanding peaks from the last cut are all taken out. Depending on the finish being … Your email address will not be published. You can leave the baseboards in place … Because maple is so light, scratches will not be so easy to spot like on oak floors… Sweep or vacuum all sanded … Unfortunately, sense is not that common, so focus on attending schools and having good machines. This old maple differs a bit from newer maple floors. The exact same way you would with floor sanding machines, but with a lot more elbow grease! Robert Higgins, an Ormond Beach, Fla.-based independent consultant, answers: Hard maple floors offer a nice, light, bright look to a room, and are often paired with matching cabinetry when the home is built. When sanding a new floor, you’ll often want to define the finest grade you want to use and then work backwards, skipping a grade of grit between each sanding. To detect nails, drag a metal snow shovel across the floor … Because maple is so light, scratches will not be so easy to spot like on oak floors. What Does ‘Baseline Moisture Content’ Mean? Most hardwood floor companies won’t stain maple, the usual reasons being that it will be blotchy and uneven. If you have an engineered wood floor with a real wood surface, make sure the real wood surface is more than 1mm thick—sanding usually takes at least this much wood off the surface , so a thicker layer is required for a complete sanding. A few years back I attended a floor technical school. Sand & 3 Coats $1.50 Per Sq. it is a good idea to have one or two guys just checking you while you’re applying the finish. See more on this topic: Wood Floor Sanding. I've found that, the older maple floors become, the harder they seem to get. However, they tend to leave a deeper scratch pattern in the floor because the mineral particles are tougher and do not wear down as fast. Generally, I have noticed that the newer hybrid minerals like zirconia or ceramic variations tend to not cut as fast and kind of skate over the surface. Using a drum sander or an orbital sander (most likely a drum sander), begin sanding your floor. You can’t put 36-grit scratches in it and expect to be able to remove them. Now You Know. A step by step video for a home owner on how to use various wood floor sanders, and how to apply the finish. Avoid sanding maple too smooth. Even at 3mm, if the floor is lumpy, you risk sanding through to the ply substrate. Typically, the installation sanding will remove a full 1/32" of maple thickness above the tongue. There was only one panel that was made out of maple, the rest were red and white oak panels. If you happen to hit a nail, change out your belt. If you understand these three factors, you will sand a maple floor very successfully. Stain absorption rates of maple can differ greatly as a direct result of sanding technique. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Well, guess what? When I sand maple, no matter if I'm doing it natural or staining the floor, I finish off with 120-grit paper on my big sander. Sometimes, even if you check the floor with a moisture meter before applying the finish, stain that sits in the cracks isn't dry. When you're sanding, nail heads will rip the sanding belt (which costs you money) or gouge the sanding drum (which costs you more money). Pull up all the heating grates and any old carpet tacks before you sand. Here in the area where I do the majority of my work—central Wisconsin—there are a lot of old houses with original maple flooring. When fine sanding maple floors, always reduce drum pressure to its lowest setting and slow the drum speed if your machine allows for it. Start your sanding at 60. On these old floors, you want to be careful of bleedback from stain that sits in the cracks. The 13 steps to sanding your floors: Determine your grit sequence. Translated this means that either they don’t know how to do it, it takes extra work to do or they think that it is supposed to look like a stained oak floor … Repeat floor and edge sanding with a fine-grit sandpaper. A 1,149-Square-Foot Medallion Made for Dancing, https://www.nortonabrasives.com/en-us/markets/floor-sanding?utm_source=Wood%20Floor%20Business, Five Tips When Resanding Super-Hard Old Maple Flooring, A Wood Flooring Timeline: Ancient Times to Today, Q&A: Removing Stain and Finish Spills on Concrete, Trick of the Trade: Is That Stain Really Dry? Gradually work … You’re a professional. Because there are so many items available to you, this can be a slow process. Homeowners have several options when the original floor is beyond repair, said Craig Margolies of the Hudson Company, a mill that specializes in reclaimed wood flooring.Reclaimed pine can be sanded and used to re-create the look and feel of old subfloors, new parquet with borders can blend in seamlessly with a brownstone, or unfinished wide-plank oak flooring … A complete sanding removes scratches, but beware: This only works on real wood floors, not bamboo. Ok, so you read that are familiar with the process now we can move on how staining of maple … Begin by using a drum sander or … First read the article “hardwood refinishing” this will get you acquainted with how hardwood refinishing is done so we can move on from there. Sanding. P.S. When the interior designer suggested stone for this dance floor, the client balked. Professionals don’t Google their profession. The safest approach is to first ... Tim Nathan, market specialist/upper Midwest regional manager at Basic Coatings, shared this tip: Use the edger (using the same grit you just used on the drum) to sand all the areas that the drum couldn’t reach. Aaron Schaalma is owner/operator at Signature Custom Hardwood Flooring LLC in Omro, Wis., and is NWFACP-certified in Sand & Finish. Here is how to avoid the list of issues mentioned above: Read wood literature (yes, buy real books, sit down and read), attend technical schools, buy the right machines and use common sense. Required fields are marked *. These are a few tricks I've learned over the years of sanding old maple floors. Use a handheld orbital sander, ideally with a gear-driven … Wood flooring abounds in modern building construction—from apartments to homes to workplaces. When staining a hardwood floor, it's crucial to make sure the stain is dry prior to applying the finish. Because maple floors are characteristically hard and very straight-grained, they show every sanding imperfection. I've even seen this happen when using a water-based sealer. They give me enough life and, most importantly, leave a much better finished scratch pattern in the floor when doing final edging. He can be contacted at aaron@signaturecustomflooring.com or (920) 279-7871. I pointed out everything I saw. Start with 120 grit before moving up to 180, and finally 220. Sanding wood floors & refinishing yourself will definitely save money, and even an inexperienced homeowner can likely do a better job than the lowest bidding handyperson who quotes on it.Once you understand the basics, a quality final result on your wood floor … To a floor technical school using wood as flooring has ebbed and flowed throughout recorded human sanding maple floors!, repair & installation companies in the Tri-State Area being … maple floors become the. 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