Do You Understand the Difference Between Floor Sanding and Buffing?

If in your home, you have hardwood floors then after a few years it may look a little dull and lifeless. However, you have got an option to restore it back. Due to this versatility, you must have been attracted to choose hardwood floor in the first place.

You can easily maintain the look of your wooden floor with regular use of floor sander

However, do you understand the difference between sanding and buffing that can be performed on your wooden floor to maintain its appearance? If this sounds like something you can DIY, then all you need is to hire quality sanding machinery and tools. If you doubt you have enough skills for this job then it is better to hire a suitable professional that you can easily find here at FlooringDomain.

Let us discuss a few points in this small article. 

What Is floor sanding?

You may be taking very good care of your wooden floor, however, in due course of time, you will find a little change in the appearance of your floor. To deal with such an issue, you need to remove completely the protective coating of your floor. This is usually done by using a piece of special equipment.

First, the protective coating of the floor has to be removed completely by stripping it with certain specialized equipment and by applying a new finish. However, such refinishing cannot be completed unless you do not level the floor, fill any gaps that are appearing between them, remove the damaged and warped floorboards, and stain the floor before applying the finish.

Typically, this procedure will include 3 machines:

1. A belt sander for most of the work
2. An edge-sander for those difficult to reach areas and polishing
3. Buffing equipment to offer the final touch.

So, sanding is a process of thoroughly removing the previously existing finish needed for very distressed hardwood surfaces. After every few years, this floor sanding must be done to maintain the look of the wooden floor.

What is buffing?

Buffing is usually not meant for the entire floor. Normally buffing is applied to those areas where a scratch is developed. Buffing can be done by hand as well as by a machine if a larger area needs to be buffed.

You may prefer to buff your floors only if the floor finish is looking scratched or dull. You can buff floors made of any other materials other than wood.

If you want to buff out any small scratch appearing on your floor then polish by hand, first rub brass wool over the scratch until the scratch is leveled out and you can no longer see it anymore. After that, re-polish that area by applying any hardwood floor wax by using a  terrycloth towel and then rub it into the area.

Finally, you can finish off by rubbing the area using a buffing pad so that it becomes shiny like the rest of the floor.

If you want to buff your entire floor, then you must have a buffing machine that you can get from your local store. If you have polished the floor before, then remove the wax polish before you start.

Thereafter, thoroughly clean the floor and allow it to get dry completely before starting the machine and start buffing a new polish coat on the floor.