After I sanded with a vibrating sander, it created alot of wood dust.
I heard that vacuming will remove the dust that got underneath the strip flooring. I used my regular vacum and it did not seem to suck up much. So, I removed one strip of floor row, and I saw alot, I mean alot of dust underneath the strip flooring.

So, I have two questions:

1. Does big accumulations of wood dust underneath the strip flooring cause any problems ? Copuld it cause crackling/popping, squeaks, etc
2. Am I using the right vacum cleaner ? Or do I need to use a high-powered one ? Any recommendations ? I will also need to buy one suitable for vacuming the wood floor.

thanks for your help,

First how did you pick up one strip of flooring?????
The first thing to do is to have your flooring nail down and NO the vac will NOT pick anything up from under any thing.
Jeff

I pulled an entire row to see. Yes, I had to crack one or two strips.

What I didn't do before sanding is to re-install the wall base trim. I guess that woudl reduce the amoutn of dust from sanding. But how does all that dust get below the strip flooring few feet form the wall ?

What do you do to prevent this from happening when you sand ?

Le me rephrase my question:

I put in hardwood floor. After I sanded it it started crackling and popping when I walked over it. I had not yet vacummed it, since I planned to re-pull it to fix the crackling/poping noises.

When I started to pull it, I noticed the wood dust from sanding being in between the wood strips (where the tongue and grove meet). My question is:

1. Could this sanding dust be causing the crackling and popping sound ?
2. Do I need a special vacumm cleaner to remove this sand dust ? My regular house vacumm (old one) was not effective.

Any help/guidance would be appreciated.


thanks,

Cracking and popping noises are from the lack of enough fasteners and the substrate not meeting flatness requirements.

Saw dust should not be getting under the floor, unless there is a big hole sucking it into it.

The sanding dust is actually in between the strips...above the tongue and groove connection. I guess it squeezed into the small gaps, etc..

What type of vacum cleaner do you gusy recommedn to remove teh sanding dust ? and can the same vacumm cleaner be used to clean the hardwood floors ? thanks

I would suggest hiring someone. In our area, the proper tools (ie harwood floor vacuum) are only available to contractors. Also, you shouldn't have any gaps in a newly installed floor.