There is a forum for everything!!

I refinished my floors over the weekend. These are your typical Oak hardwood floor you would see in most homes built in the 60's and 70's.

I rented a drum sander and stripped the floors, 2x with 60 Grit, 2x with 120 Grit then hand sanded using a pole sander with 150 Grit.

Its nice and smooth but when I started laying the stain down, I noticed ripples/banding marks the drum sander left behind. These are small half inch wide ripples across the entire floor.

I was very upset after staining a section of the floor then noticing this, I guess I should have used a light to inspect the floor first.

Anyway I was debating to rent a vibrating floor sander and redoing it, but at a cost of another $100 so I decided to just continue staining the floor.

My wife doesn't notice it and I doubt anyone would, but anyone with an eye for quality and familiar with construction/remodeling and a Craftsman would see it.

I am a perfectionist and I don't think I'll be fixing it.

But my questions are
1) Why did this occur with the sander, what could I have done differently

2) Now that I have the first coat of stain on, would it be worth renting the vibrating floor sander and fixing it, or would the stain just clogg up the sander and make things worse in the end? I would be worried about blotching and unevenness. I would probably have to strip it down to the wood again using the Drum Sander.

Help!

Please see the pictures of the floor here. Can't see the banding unfortunately.


https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=87472BF740A1D7CB!137&authkey=!AN2CtHVs7Po72H0

they are called chattermarks...and are caused by numerous reasons...the most common being bad bearings/drum, paper and loose belts.

chances are its the machine..rentals are low quality and highly abused.

belt sanders are less proned to this and if you develop chatter, its usually do bearings or something clogged or stuck on the drum..

fix it now or forever hold your peace..

the square buff will fix it...but you will use a lot of paper..try using a 60 grit...and weight it a bit for good cutting...work systematically and you will be fine..just restain same color..

Thanks for the responses. I called around and a guy told me a few options.

1) Before I stained, I could have put a thin coat of water on the floor, let it dry. This is called Raising the grain and it will help a bit

2) As its stained now, I can mimic the floor finishing by wiping it with a wet towel and see how prevalent the chatter marks are, this would represent semi-gloss or gloss but I am using Satin so it might not be that noticeable.

But yes he also said it was due to the quality of the machine and type of the machine.

At this point I will probably just leave it, starting all over would be too costly and I don't have that much time...

I'll update the posting with some before and afters.

Thanks again for the responses.

water popping wouldn't help chatter marks and if you use water on top of the stain you are going to end up with a nice white spot on the floor;)

a few coats of poky with a satin finish will mask it some through the build..it depends on how extreme the condition is.
Natural hides easier than a darker color.

I was wondering on using the drum sander....

When using the machine it rolls pretty fast when you put the handle down to engage the drum, are you suppose to let it go at its own speed or put any back pressure? I am wondering if this was my failure of not letting it go full speed...?

It seemed so fast that it would crash into the wall pretty quickly.

Here are some pictures of the chatter marks.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=8 ... A1D7CB!385
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=8 ... A1D7CB!384
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=8 ... A1D7CB!383

What does everyone think?

chattermarks are caused by exactly what I said and minor variations of those causes.

"backpressure" or applying pressure to the handle will cause waves.
every machine is different and belt sanders are the best when it comes to preventing these types of issues.

I understand what you meant..

you walk at a normal walking pace without jerking the machine.

the "backpressure" is created on the back pass..not too slow ..not too fast...just right..the baby bear if you would.