I am looking to refinish hardwood floors in my house. There is a lot of wood flooring, both upstairs and downstairs. Total, I will be refinishing maybe 2000 sq ft.. Does anyone have any recommendations for consumer grade floor sander? I will use it enough that I think a rental could likely pay for a substantial amount of the tool if I would have just purchased a sander instead. The ones I see online are like 2-4k and I think that is a little steep. I figure I would spend $700 in the cost of a rental so if I could keep it under a grand, I would call it a win. I see a lot of drywall sanders and I am thinking that if I got a 'good' brand, that might do the job that I am looking for. It might take a little longer but I would be ok with that. Does anyone have any experience with floor refinishing or any of the better quality 'drywall' sanders? I would use the drywall sanders to re-do my ceilings too so all of this would be added value. Looks like these are some of the more expensive drywall sanders but I am not sure if they would be the best for the job. Porter Cable drywall sander - $500 Festool 571935 drywall sander - $775 EDIT: The more I think about it, I think it will be worth the risk to get a better-quality sander and give it a shot. If it doesn't work, I can use it for ceilings only and then figure out something else with the floor. I read some of the comments on the sander product pages and people seem to have used them for some floor sanding work.
I'm refinishing a two story house now. Upstairs is Doug Fir, and down stairs oak. I only take on a few floors a year and still rent a sander. It is a write off for me, but I couldn't justify buying a couple sanders for only 12,ooo square feet or so. I really recommend just renting one. If you need to touch up your floor later, you can really just tackle the job with a belt sander, and an orbital. I recommend Bona Mega for the finish. Almost Zero stink, and a couple coats usually does it. So really you only need the big sander once. I'd get a new chainsaw instead.
If he is living in the house, he could probably only do one, maybe two rooms at the same time. So if he rents, that is shlepping back and forth between the rental place a bunch of times (and if his situation is like mine, the rental place may be an hour or more away away - twice that during bad winter weather). Renting means you can't do anything spur of the moment because you don't have the equipment. Renting also means that if you've picked up the sander, you'r paying for the time whether it gets used or not (emergencies happen). Not knowing his situation, I'm just throwing things out there and not saying one way or the other is better. Have you been looking on CL and/or FB marketplace to find a used floor sander JackHammer ? I've gotten several tools / pieces of equipment off CL for half or less than new cost. And every one of them were in really good condition; $350 Craftsman mower that was only 1 year old and hardly used (lady thought she had to provide the mower for her lawn service) for $85, Craftsman leaf blower for $45, small Ryobi tile saw with folding stand for for about $75 etc.
Correct on the convince aspect. Instead of 2 projects, it would be closer to 4 because we are still living in the house. Cl and market place are good ideas, I will take a look.
I did the floors in my house. You need a commercial sander. It take like that thick 20 or 40 grit , I forget what it is to eat through the old finish. You. An use finer paper but it plugs up fast. I did a closet and smaller areas with lowes type sanders. Orbital and belt type and it took forever to get a 5x2ft closet down bare and smooth with belt sanders. Drywall mud is extremely soft and I would think no way they would have the troque needed to cut the floor. Maybe try to find a used commercial one...NOT a ragged out commercial one. Use it then sell it.
Yeah, I picked up a drywall sander and while it looks fine, I agree, it doesn't really seem to have the power to finish a big job. I might go back to renting afterall. The drywall sander might be good to smooth out coats of poly. As far as gumming up sand paper... yes.
