Which floor sander should I hire?
Drum, belt and planetary machines cut very differently, and the edger matters as much as the main machine. What to hire for your floor, and what to hire with it.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 20 min
- Read
- 3 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
For most domestic floorboard floors, a belt-type floor sander with a rotary edger is the sensible hire — it cuts fast enough to strip old finish and is more forgiving than a traditional drum machine. A planetary or multi-disc sander is far more forgiving still but cuts slowly, so it suits an already-flat floor being refreshed rather than one being levelled.
Hire shops use the words loosely, so what matters is how the abrasive contacts the floor. A single rotating drum concentrates the cut on a narrow line and removes material extremely fast. A belt spreads the same cut over a longer contact area and is gentler. Several small discs rotating on a rotating head barely cut at all in any one place, which is why they are so hard to go wrong with.
Safety
Step by step
- Assess the floor before you phone the hire shop.Bare and reasonably flat, or thick old varnish, or paint, or badly cupped boards? The more material has to come off and the less flat the floor is, the more aggressive a machine you need.
- Match the machine to that assessment.Heavy coating or cupping: belt or drum. Bare, flat, just tired: planetary, or a belt used only with fine grits. Small awkward areas only: your own orbital and a scraper.
- Hire the edger at the same time.There is no version of this job that does not need one. Ask for it explicitly — some shops do not offer it unless prompted.
- Check the power supply.Larger machines can exceed what a standard domestic socket and consumer unit will comfortably supply. Ask the hire shop for the requirement and check it against your own supply before the machine arrives.
- Buy the abrasives on a sale-or-return basis.Most hire shops will do this. Take a full range of grits and plenty of each, and return the unopened packs.
- Ask for a demonstration and take it.Two minutes on how to change the belt, set the tension, engage and disengage the drum and empty the bag saves an hour and a damaged floor.
- Book realistically.A weekend hire is a weekend of sanding, not a weekend of sanding and finishing. Add the finishing time on top, when the room is clean and the machines have gone back.
Tips
- Ask whether the machine takes belts or wraps and how the abrasive is tensioned. A badly fitted, loose wrap on a drum machine bounces and puts chatter marks in the floor regardless of your technique.
- Hire shops charge for damaged drums and torn belts caused by proud nails. Punching the nails properly is a financial decision as well as a quality one.
- If the room is small, a planetary machine and patience often gives a better amateur result than a drum machine and speed.
Alternatives
- Drum sander: One wide rotating drum. Cuts hardest and fastest, strips heavy coatings and levels cupped boards, and is the least forgiving machine in the shop. The classic source of drum marks and dished patches.
- Belt floor sander: A continuous belt over a longer contact area. Cuts nearly as fast as a drum but with a more even footprint and a gentler bite. For most domestic jobs this is the machine to ask for.
- Planetary or multi-disc sander: Several discs on a rotating head, low pressure, cutting in every direction. Almost impossible to gouge and it leaves no directional scratch, so it is excellent for the final grits and for refreshing a floor. Too slow to strip a thick old coating.
- Rotary edging sander: Not an alternative — a necessity. It works the perimeter strip that the big machine physically cannot reach. Hire it with the main machine, always.
- Random orbital sander: Your own DIY sander. Useful for a small patch, a landing, a threshold or an awkward alcove, and hopeless for a whole floor.