Sanding Engineered Wooden Floors - It's a Thin Line!
Sanding Engineered Wood Floors.
Most people are quite nervous about getting their engineered or semi-solid wood floor sanded and their concerns are quite understandable. After all the wood layer is only a few millimetres thick and therefore easily sanded through by modern belt sanders so here is a short guide to what to think about if you are considering getting this type of floor re-finished.
First off if you need to ascertain exactly what thickness the solid wood veneer is. This can be done by looking at anywhere the floor has been cut such as around radiator pipes or underneath door threshold strips. DO NOT omit this part it is very important to know how much you have to play with, some veneers are only 1mm thick when sold and sanding those will be disastrous.
The second thing to consider is has the floor been sanded before? If it has, then obviously the veneer will be thinner than it originally was and it will probably not be consistent across the whole floor as the central, more damaged areas, will have been sanded more aggressively.
The next factors to think about are the level of damage to the floor, the species of timber and whether the floor is plank effect or three strip and these should be weighed up as one. If it is a three strip hevea floor in poor condition the cost of like for like replacement is probably not much greater than sanding the floor. If it is a plank effect oak with a decent wear layer it is probably worth saving even if the condition is quite poor.
The fourth consideration is the type of finish product you are going to use. If you use oil or hard wax oil you are only using a small amount of liquid and this is good as the ratio of liquid to solid wood is always disproportionate in engineered floors and this can lead to de lamination and buckling of the veneer. If you intend to use water based polyurethane you need to be especially conscious of this.
The final two factors are the skill of the sanding contractor and the type of machine he is using. A skilled contractor with a belt sander will assess all the above and select the correct grit level to do the job but remove as little timber as possible. Better still select a contractor who has the latest generation of planetary floor sanding machine known as the Pallmann Spider which will do the job every bit as good as a belt sander in a much more sympathetic way to the floors structure.
If you have an engineered or semi-solid wooden floor that needs re-finishing and you would like to be confident that the work will be carried out by skilled trained contractors using the most effective and yet sympathetic machinery, give us a call on 0161 8182732.