Floor Sanding /Maintenance SE25 / Croydon

[asimon]

Hi all,

Would anyone be able to Floor Sanding / Maintenance Company I'm based in SE25 / Croydon area, I've been deliberating for a long while whether to lay hardwood floor, or have the Floors re sanded, gaps taken care of and polished, mainly because my wife does not like the cold as the Hardwood flooring would cover up the gaps, along with the underlay (we have a crawl space), which some people seem to recommend and others don't for hardwood flooring. But I myself along with other friends that have visited our house say that the floor would come up really nice if Sanded. I can post pictures if required.

For further reference it's a Victoria semi detached house, built around 1860

Thanks

Allan

 

[Penners]

Before you consider sanding the floor, I suggest that you use a bucket of soapy water and a scrubbing brush to give it a good clean. Try to keep to a minimum the quantity of water that you slosh on to it, and dry off with old towels behind you. Allow the floor to dry thoroughly.

You'll probably be amazed at how much better the floor looks after this clean-up. If you still feel that it needs sanding, however, I strongly recommend that you use a hand-held orbital sander, rather than one of those "walk-behind" industrial machines. They can be vicious, ripping off a considerable amount of wood and destroying the patina of age that gives character to an old wood floor.

Once the floor has been washed and gently sanded, you should be able to finish it.

The floorboard draughts can be dealt with by gluing wedges into the gap (NB: glue one side of the wedge only), or there are various proprietary gap-plugging systems on the market - just google "floorboard gap filling". For example:

http://www.draughtex.co.uk/?gclid=CNvJyc2S97UCFaLHtAodCkQAtg

http://stopgaps.com/?gclid=CKnujrKT97UCFUnMtAodOhkA3g

I have no personal experience of any such systems.