Hi all,

I just joined this community and looking for some help on next steps for hardwood floor refinishing.

I started doing a wood floor refinishing project in my home about 2 weekends ago.
This is being done upstairs and covering about 500-600 sq. ft of floor (3 bedrooms and a hallway) not including the stairs which will be up next.

I rented a Clarke American Floor Sander from Home Depot (link here: https://www.homedepot.com/p/rental/Clarke-American-Sanders-Drum-Floor-Sander-07012A/309005831).

Watched some youtube videos and then got multiple belts of 60-80-100-120 grit and started sanding.
Overall I've spent about 10 hours going over the floor and I made sure to go slow and steady with each pass, overlapping each pass half the width of the sanding belt and working 4 foot sections at a time. I practiced and made sure that I lowered the belt down slowly and lifted it up at the end of each pass run before coming to a full stop. I vacuumed after each grit and changed the belt every 100-200 sq. ft. I emptied the dust bag with each belt change, before it got 1/3 full.

Yet, after all that work and 4 passes, once with each incremental grit, I feel like it needs more. Here are the pics of my job so far: https://imgur.com/gallery/EYIe77B

I tested it's ability to get wet by slightly applying a small amount of water and it isn't beading, therefore I would hope it would absorb a coffee colored stain and poly?

What would be the next steps here?
1) Do I rent a drum sander again and keep doing more passes?
2) Do I rent a random orbit floor sander?
3) Do I rent a square buff floor sander?
4) Do I get a floor polisher and do a screen sanding and then finish the edge sandings and apply stain + poly?

Thank you

You have a good start on the sanding process, but all the finish needs to be removed to be able for the stain to soak into the grain.
With the finish that is left on the floor you will need to start over with a coarse grit like 50 to scratch the finish completely off. I start in the middle of the room going with the grain and pick up the belt close to the wall without touching it. Then the 50 scratches are removed with 80 grit, etc. The area near the wall will be removed with an edger. 50 might work on the edger, too. Use the same grit for both machines so you don't have to go back to get coarse scratches out from edging after the drum sander has got the floor smooth in the middle.
Since this looks like a pre-finished floor with an aluminum oxide finish. Sanding will be difficult because the finish is so hard and tough. It takes extra work to sand pre-finished floors. Sanding to 100 grit after 80 will be enough to stain the floor using good technique, but a lot of floor mechanics sand to 120 grit, then use a random orbit sander to blend the edges to the field for staining. You will need to scrape the corners so get a carbide scraper and it will hold up. It will be hard work.Coffee color is a dark color so machine scratches will show prominently if you aren't perfect. A floor polisher (buffer) will help after the belt and edging is done. Use a white pad with a 100 grit screen under the buffer. I hand sand the edges and corners with 80 grit after all the sanding is finished. Then vacuum and stain. Usually a person will just be getting the hang of the machines at the end of the job. It takes practice. Sorry you wanted to change the color.