Should You Hire a Pro to Sand Hardwood Floors?

Deciding whether to sand a hardwood floor by yourself or to hire a pro requires honesty about your abilities. Hire a professional to sand floors if you have any doubts about tackling the job yourself. The required drum sander can be hard to control — sanding a wood floor can restore it to beauty or destroy it in one afternoon.

Using a drum sander can be challenging. The sander runs continuously, so you must keep the machine moving at a uniform speed. If you stop the machine in one spot for too long, it’ll grind its way right down to the basement. Okay, maybe not, but anything less than an even pass across the floor can gouge the wood at that spot and make the sanded floor uneven.

For example, one guy was sanding his dining room floor and blew a fuse. He went to the basement and threw the switch in the fuse box. When he got back upstairs, the sander had started up and was running wild, sanding gouges in the floor as it moved around. This example isn't to scare you but to underscore the serious damage that not-so-handy homeowners can incur when they boldly choose to sand their own floors.

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