[lifehacker]

Has anyone done it themselves?
We are thinking about doing it ourselves before selling, it was done 5 years ago so we don't need to nail down nails or anything it is just to do them again and make them shiny and take out any scratches.
How long did it take? Was it really hard? Where did you hire the equipment? What was the cost?
If you don't mind sharing
TIA

[katpaws]

We renovated last year and had to have new floor boards installed for half the house. We paid a professional flooring person to do the sanding and polishing etc as to us it was the cheaper and easiest option - and gave the best result. It was done a few days. If we had done it, it would have taken ages and cost us in time to do it, it would have been messy etc. We have also seen the work of DIYers and heard the stories of how professionals have to come in after the DIY is done as the floor work has not exactly worked out well. It is difficult to fix up DIY mistakes and expensive. I'd recommnd not doing it yourself.

[cinnabubble]

I lived in a rental that had one room unpolished (maybe it'd had a carpet before our tenancy?). The owner was a cheap a*se and did it himself. It looked like absolute sh*t. The dust from the sanding was captured under the thin veneer of ?lacquer and it looked nothing like as good as the rest of the house. I'd be inclined to pay a professional if you can.

[niggles]

I'd also recommend getting some quotes for a professional job. There are so many things that can go wrong ending in an expensive mistake.

Or sell it unpolished and let the new owners do it. How bad can it be after 5 years?

[WhimsicalDragonf...]

We don't have any experience doing the floors ourselves and maybe you've already got quotes and its more than you can spend right now, but thought I'd share our recent experience in case it helps with your decision.

We had three bedrooms sanded and polished and hired some tradies to do it. It took two guys two full days to the three rooms (and they charged a flat rate, so they weren't just dragging the chain for a hourly fee!). We were amazed that just from these three rooms (all about 3.2m x 3.2m) that there were five garbage bags of sawdust! Made us really glad we didn't do it ourselves. Also the smell from the polish was so strong I could smell it as soon as we pulled up in the car out the front and I opened the door, and this was after the house had been aired for a few hours. (We'd been staying elsewhere due to the fumes.)

If you can afford to get someone it to do it, go for it, but as a PP suggested, you could just leave it for the new owners to do if they wished.

Depending on the type of polish they use, the smell can 'get into things'. One of my friends told me that the smell got into their toaster and when they made toast it tasted like polish! After hearing this story we made sure that our kettle, toaster, mixer etc were stored in the car while the floors were being done!

PS Our floors looked amazing when they were finished, and we can't wait to do the rest of the house!

This post has been edited by WhimsicalDragonfly: 06/01/2013, 05:06 PM

[lifehacker]

Thanks for sharing. We haven't looked at quotes yet for having it done, just starting to think about it.
I don't know that we can't sell it not done it's fairly scratched and dull from 8 kids and 2 dogs.
We would be using tung oil, I know it stinks we've used it before for other stuff and that's what is currently on the floors.

I will make some calls tomorrow and see what prices compare to renting equipment and getting it done, just thought someone may have done it themselves recently and have cost breakdown.
Thanks