Mike,
A few months ago I did this, except I had someone else run the machine.
It depends on just how nice you want to make the floors look.
We used a stripper bought at the local warehouse home supply store to clean off the old finish.
Next,we rented a sander from the local a-z rental place. It was $80 for the day, and it came with all the sand paper pads we needed. (good thing too, the pads where $20/piece)
We sanded the floor down approx. 1/8 inch to bare wood, and then just coated it with some clear finish.
After 48 hours, we buffed it with floor wax, and it looked great.
Where there were stains, we used a bleach and water solution to wpie them clean after sanding.
The whole home (1200 sq/ft) cost me roughly $300 and that was WAY less than carpeting.
It also made it look real nice.
The down side is that you can still see where we did not get the floor real level, but for a first time job, it turned out nice enough.
(especially for a rental)
We also threw in an area rug, ($15 at home depot) for the main living area, and for reducing sound. We just put carpet tape on it to hold it in place.
Good luck, and I hope this helps,
Jim IL
P.S. where the floor creaked from loose boards, we just counter sunk some screws into the floor joists and then puttied over the counter sink holes. (before refinishing it)
I seem to remember hearing that there are machines that one can rent to refinish hardwood floors. I am going to buy a house that needs this done and I would like to do it myself. Where can I rent such a machine and how difficult of a job would it be?
Re: How can I refinish a hardwood floor? - Posted by Lisa in Oz
Posted by Lisa in Oz on June 22, 1999 at 18:08:55:
I have floors refinished often and see the “results” of home handy-people. I don’t think it’s as easy as it sounds to get a nice smooth finish. Get some quotes on sanding from experienced people. You can finish the job yourself.
Don’t want to be negative, just my two cents. Good luck :>
You can get a floor sander a your local equipment rental store. There are national chain stores such as US Rental, United Rental, Grand Rental Stations, etc. There are also TONS of mom and pop type operations.
There are basically two types of sanders: a drum sander and a random orbital sander. The drum sander (kinda like a big belt sander that you walk behind) is more difficult to use (ie if you stop too long in one spot, you will sand too deep), but is good if the floors are in pretty bad shape. The random orbital is almost idiot proof. It looks kind of like a floor buffer that a janitor would use. Because of its sanding action, you won’t get swirl marks in the floor.
They should run you about the same $50-$75/day plus paper (usually about $1-$3/sheet). Most rental stores have weekend specials where you can get more time for less money. Good luck with it!