We have pulled up some stained carpet to discover an original red oak hardwood floor beneath. Worn enough to require refinishing, and with some spots of local damage, but in general pretty good. Found well matched salvage boards from a house dismantler, and replaced those boards which needed it.

Time to think about sanding options. We are methodical and careful DIY types, and we are used to doing difficult jobs that other homeowners usually farm out to a pro. In this case, we made inquiries about rental floor sanders, and immediately flagged one issue as needing focus.

Professionals around here universally use the heavier 220V units (Hummels are popular). When asked, they say that a big part of the reason is that a heavy, powerful machine is less likely to skip and chatter over surface irregularities.

But the rental agencies don't have those pro-grade machines available. They carry lightweight 110V units, and say that DIY homeowners would have trouble using anything bigger. Sensible enough. But the case that the pros make for using a heavy machine is also sensible.

The thought came to mind that we don't have much in the way of surface imperfections as it is. For example, there are a dozen or so spots where board edges are slightly proud of the surrounding wood. Not a lot -- less than a sixteenth of an inch in the worst cases.

We thought we would experiment with pre-leveling those. We have a Porter-Cable random orbit hand sander, and we stuck a 36-grit pad on it and went to work. To our surprise, it did an amazingly good job. Slow and physically taxing, but the test area looked fantastic. Went ahead and did a few more of the problem spots, and they came out equally well.

At this point, we are wondering if it makes sense to just go ahead and do the entire floor (about 470sf) with the hand tool. At the rate the test spots went, it would probably take the two of us from seven to ten days total, staging grit on each successive pass from 36 to 60 to 80 and on up to 220-grit for the final.

Apart from the time invested (and we have the time available), and aside from the physical burden of working 4 to 6 hours/day on hands and knees, are there any reasons why this would *not* be a good idea?

More than likely your floors proud edge is due to moisture underneeth the floor causing the edges to raise away from the source. If you sand it flat then come winter and the moisture is pulled back out , then you will now have a crowned floor(higher in the center) if it relaxes back down. If its dry and the edges are still higher a sanding will be neccesary. If you do have the time to sand down the edges then have at it. For a dyi I would rent one of those square buffer machines, it will take a long time, not as long as by hand, but will give you a more even sanding. Also oil based finish with a natural stain will be most forgiving for a diyer.