Ask Mr Sanders

Engineered wood flooring comes in various thicknesses of the top layer, ranging between 3mm and 6mm, which defines the number of times it can be sanded. You mention that your floors have already been sanded once, which means that if your flooring has the thinner top layer there might be a limited opportunity to sand it again. Having said that, if the previous sanding was properly done by a professional sanding company, this means that another sanding should be possible.

Because your floors are in a bad condition, as you describe it, cleaning and polishing might not be applicable. This is a service that is used to maintain the existing sealant in order to extend its life until another sanding is required. Unless this is done before the condition of the flooring gets really bad, and before the sealant is actually worn out, it is not recommended. Cleaning and polishing is done to apply an extra coat of sealant, where the new coat bonds to the existing varnish and not to the bare wood. If the existing sealant has disappeared, then a proper sanding and re-varnishing will be required.

Hi and I am sorry to hear that you didn't achieve the effect that you wanted. Floor restoration can looks easy before you start doing it and later you may realise that it actually requires previous experience to avoid situations like yours.

From what you are describing it sounds like there was not sufficient and perfect bonding between the different coats of floor varnish or between the first coat of floor varnish and the timber. This usually happens when the floor surface was not perfectly smooth and clean before the application of varnish or when the previous sealant was not completely sanded down before the new varnish was applied. The only solution would be to sand and varnish the flooring again to ensure a smooth sanded surface and a proper application of the coats of varnish on top. However, you need to check to make sure that your floors have sufficient thickness of solid wood as a top layer to allow for additional sanding to take place.

Gap filling is a technique used during floor restoration to fill gaps between floorboards or blocks, achieving a smooth finish. This can be done on pine floorboards, parquet flooring, or solid wood flooring. The gap filling putty is a mixture of clear resin and sawdust collected from the sanding process. The method used depends on the flooring type and gap size. Smaller gaps, typical in parquet blocks, are filled with finer dust, while larger gaps in pine floorboards may require coarser sawdust.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Resin Gap Filling

• Advantages:

  • Popular and reliable method.

  • Effective in resolving gaps between floorboards or parquet blocks.

• Disadvantages:

  • Durability depends on flooring type and subfloor stability.

  • Typically applied twice during restoration for increased effectiveness.

  • Thicker floorboards with tongue and groove installation last longer than thinner pine floorboards on unstable subfloors.

  • Movement of floorboards or subfloors can reduce the durability of resin gap filling.

Strip Filling

Strip filling is another method used for wider gaps, employing small pine slivers. It is more durable and reliable for larger gaps but can only be applied in specific locations, not throughout the entire floor.

Advantages:

• Effective for larger gaps.

• More durable than resin gap filling in certain cases.

Disadvantages:

• Time and labor-intensive.

• May have an undesirable visual effect due to the additional small strips added to the floor.

Hi Richard,

Engineered wood flooring comes in three standard thicknesses: 20 mm, 18 mm, and 14/15 mm. The top layer, made of materials like oak, walnut, beech, or maple, varies between 3 mm and 6 mm. Each sanding process removes about 1 mm of the top layer, with an additional 1 mm needed for factory defects and floor leveling. Consequently, a 3 mm top layer can only be sanded once, while a 6 mm top layer can withstand 3 to 4 restorations.

Generally speaking, bamboo flooring can be sanded and varnished. However, we recommend conducting a free site survey to assess the condition of your specific flooring and its restoration potential. Due to the specialized sanding skills and knowledge required for bamboo flooring, we suggest hiring a professional floor sanding company like Floorworks™ rather than attempting a DIY approach to ensure the best results.

Gap filling is part of our wood floor restoration services. It is common for gaps to appear between the floorboards or between the parquet blocks over time. The smaller gaps are relatively easy to ractify by the gap filling service, where a mixture of clear resin and saw dust, which is collected from the sanding process is used to fill in the gaps. Nevertheless, it should be noted that bigger gaps are trickier to fill. This is where strip filling comes to help.

Strip filling uses small pine slivers between the floorboards and goes together with resin & saw dust filler. While this is often an effective method, it is not ideal solution for larger areas as it can spoil the look of the timber floors.

Important note for both gap filling methods is that they are dependant on the solidness of the floorboards. Stability of both depends on absence of movement in the floorboards or in the joists that hold the floorboards. Therefore, gap filling for floorboards is excluded from the service guarantee of flooring companies.

Yes,

Underfloor heating is ideally installed under engineered wood flooring with a click installation system. This allows for the floating installation of the engineered floorboards, without the need of gluing-down or nailing-down. Engineered floors have been specifically designed to withstand temperature and colour variations and are therefore perfect choice for homes with underfloor heating.

Yes, as part of our floorboards restoration service it is often required to repair and replace damaged floorboards. Therefore, before we do floorboard sanding, we always inspect the floorboards to make sure that, where needed, wood floor repairs are done before that sanding. As part of our floorboard repairs and replacement services, we always aim to secure any loose floorbaord, but where the board is damaged to an extend beyond repair then we supply and installed reclaimed floorbaords to do a replacement. It is very important that the replacement seasoned floorboards are carefullys elected to match the colour and the sage of your particular flooring as much as possible. This ensures a more uniform appearance once floors are sanded and varnished.

Hi and thank you for contacting us regarding sanding, staining, and re-oiling your 3-strip engineered wood flooring.

The 3-strip engineered floorings come with a 3 mm top layer of solid wood, meaning they can only be sanded once. First, ensure your flooring has never been sanded before.

If your floors can be sanded again, you can change the color of the natural oak using colored oils. We highly recommend Osmo Oils, which offer a wide variety of colors and are frequently used in our restoration services for oiled floors.