Sanding Vs Scraping Floors

Sanding vs scraping article november 26 2008.

Sanding vs scraping floors.

In this instance the goal of sanding isn t to remove every last speck of. Which method is better. For example if you have a shallow nick or small scratch on your hardwood floor you may be able to buff it out by hand without refinishing the entire floor. As for results it depends on the final finish.

That s not to say you can t get a killer finish prep with a well tuned scraper its just not my preferred way of doing it. It uses a disc of sandpaper rotating at high speeds. Unlike sanding which requires tackling the entire floor you can buff only small areas of your floor if needed. These are capable of very fine cutting over a variety of grain directional changes characteristic of parquet floors producing a finer finish than sanding.

An edge sanding machine allows us to sand right up to the walls and get in small tight places like corners and closets. When floors were first laid cabinet scrapers left which have two handles and a tiny hook edge were the scraper of choice. You can avoid this dilemma by screening and re coating a procedure that refurbishes the old finish without. Call me lazy but i would much rather sit there and let the sander.

Scraping actually cuts the wood fibers leaving a sharper contrast of the grain in porous woods like oak and walnut. When we sand hardwood floors with a belt sander we also have to use an edge sanding machine because a belt sanding machine can only get so close to the edges of the room. But i don t really like the surface they leave behind when compared to a nice 180 grit sanding. Sanding abrades the surface leaving scratches everywhere.