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Special Interior Paint Jobs

Refinishing of hardwood floors and painting of basement areas

This chapter discusses two additional interior refinishing jobs which you may want to accomplish: Refinishing of hardwood floors, and painting of basement walls and floors.

Done carefully and patiently, you can refinish your home's hardwood floors as competently as a professional for much less the cost. The task, which only appears messy and tedious, is not hard at all. If a logical procedure is followed, as explained below, you will end up with excellent results.

RENT SANDING MACHINES

Naturally, the sanding equipment needed for refinishing of hardwood floors are not items you would want to buy. Fortunately, these machines can be rented for a nominal fee from a paint, hardware, lumber or building supply dealer. However, renting of equipment presents a pitfall. If you are not aware of certain facts, you could do work with the wrong kind of machinery, which raises the possibility of doing serious damage to floors.

There are two types of sanding machines—a drum-type and a disc-type. With drum sanders, sandpaper is mounted on a cylindrical drum that rotates on an axis parallel to the plane of the floor and at right angles to the direction in which the machine moves. In other words, the sandpaper cuts in straight lines in the direction of machine movement.

With disc-type sanding machines, the sandpaper is mounted on a disc that rotates in a circle. As the machine moves across the floor, the sandpaper makes spiral scratches which cross the wood's grain. This machine is for someone who has much experience in floor refinishing. Although sanding of floors can be accomplished in a shorter period of time using a disc-type sanding machine, it is not recommended for your use. Inexperience can cause gouging of the sandpaper into the wood floor.

USE A DRUM-SANDER

Therefore, rent a drum-type sanding machine. In addition, you will also need a disc-edge sander. Another name for this machine is an edger. It allows you to sand off the old finish along the room's perimeter where the sanding machine cannot reach. Although an edger is a rotary machine like a disc-type sanding machine, it does not present the disadvantage of the latter. You have better control over the smaller edger since you hold it by hand and can vary the pressure of the cut.