Summary - Dust Free Sanding !
Last done by our builders during part of some refurbishment work - circa 20 years ago, our dining room floor was starting to look a bit jaded. Some areas of higher traffic had lost whatever covering they'd put on and some areas were inexplicably also lacking any finish. I tried to refurb them with Briwax but the colour mismatch was too great. So decided to bite the bullet and hire a floor sander.
This baby was brand new in the hire shop and spot on for what I wanted to do. It's called a Sand Glider.
What is it?
It's a grown up orbital sander
Four 150mm velcro pads, grits supplied were 24, 36, 60, 80and 120. It also comes with buffing pads but at £8.50 (£34 for the whole machine) I think I'll get on my hands and knees as the area is small (17' x 13'). The orbit is about 20mm, I'd guess.
It comes with a HEPA dust bag.
and a replaceable dust skirt, held with Velcro, seals the bottom of the unit and prevents the dust escaping.
How well does it work?
Superbly, in a word. I ended up starting at the coarsest grit and it easily removed the top layer of finish. Some of the floorboards are a bit convex as you can see here.
and one option would have been to carry on sanding until they were flat but these are reclaimed boards and, TBH, don't really justify that degree of effort. I knew that I could use the Sand Glider to do the bulk of the work and then use my Ceros to do the dips that lay below the main level.
But I've saved the best bit 'til last. Floor sanders are notorious for creating huge clouds of dust. Not the Sand Glider.
Almost zero dust in the room.
I'll say that again.
Almost zero dust in the room.
The manufacturers claim that 90% of the dust is contained within the machine and HEPA dust bag. Based on my experience, I'd say that it's closer to 99% especially for the dust from the coarser grits. There was a little bit more dust with the finer 120 grit paper but you would expect that given the nature of the dust. I'd still put dust collection at 95% for the 120 grit and I'd happily use this in a room with curtains!
The lack of dust is, frankly, nothing short of amazing.
There are two minor niggles :
1)the shortness of the mains cable but the suppliers tell me that newer models will have a fixed 5m lead so that addresses that minor niggle.
2) on the unit I was using, There was a 2" strip around the periphery of the room and so it doesn't quite get up to the edge. The suppliers say that 10mm is the norm. It is only a minor niggle as the Ceros made light work of that strip. You can see how much was left in this picture. Ignore the gouge marks left by the ham-fisted builder and his belt sander all those years ago.
Would I use one again? You bet I would. It's a brilliant bit of kit.