Hall floor

[Bruciebox]

Hi all ,
My school has an old school varnished wooden floor , which is now scratched and dull and takes a lot of time with the electric buffer and clean and buff polish .
I’m the past the school has had quotes for full sand and re varnish which were astronomical.
Just wondered if anyone on here has attempted to hire a quality sanding machine with dust bag then re varnish with a quality floor or yacht varnish

Many thanks

[gadget300]

I did about 7 years ago at my old school, can’t seem to search forum keeps saying I can’t search @caretaker?

But how bad is the floor, if you chemical strip back you might get away with a light rub with a pad on your buffer then a few coats of polish.

I had a floor that hadn’t been done for years when I arrived, but had layers of polish on top of each other. Took me about a a week of sanding all day every day after I stripped it first, took all the pits and blemishes out followed by a few layers of lacquer then polish and it came up lovely. Had many good comments from the staff as it brought all the colour back out from the wood rather than the dark build up they had been used to. It can be a labour of love though, and keep on top of it……

[Bruciebox]

Ah nice one , I guess it’s going to be trial and error and lots
Of hard work !
I’m sure that it’ll come up nice with a good sander

[Drone]

I was once advised that I would have needed to do a course for sanding & re-sealing. Must admit that I was happy to leave it to the pros.

[Herringbone1]

I was a floor layer and finisher for many years before my current employment,
and i would recommend getting it done properly .
It will last a long time and with modern finishes negate the need to add polish,
just an occasional clean and buff will bring it up like new every time.

[EBJ]

I would try a floor strip of the build of polish from over the years first before the expense of hiring a floor sander and the time to re do a floor polish or hiring a contractor to do it, you might just surprise your self on how much better the floor may look, plenty of youtube filming on how to do it, good luck. [--- (The seasonal word only permitted in December) ---_santaclaus]

[Caretaker980]

Hi,

Most of our class rooms are parquet floors, we attempted to do ours in the October holidays, all I will say is never again! it is very time consuming and very dusty.

[magpie]

I once did a full gymnasium and main hall and it was an awful job to do, the dust collection bag wasn't brilliant and at times it was like working on in a fog( this was in the mid 80s when H&S wasn't a huge thing in schools, no RAs etc). I went through loads of face masks as well. It took the whole 6 week summer holiday to get it done properly and i ended up having to put 5 coats of Bourne seal back on to get it to Look good. After my experience i always refused to do it again and they got companies in to do it. Just shop around, not all companies will rip you off and at the end of the day you will be saving yourself an awful lot of work

[Nigel]

I once did a full gymnasium and main hall and it was an awful job to do, the dust collection bag wasn't brilliant and at times it was like working on in a fog( this was in the mid 80s when H&S wasn't a huge thing in schools, no RAs etc). I went through loads of face masks as well. It took the whole 6 week summer holiday to get it done properly and i ended up having to put 5 coats of Bourne seal back on to get it to Look good. After my experience i always refused to do it again and they got companies in to do it. Just shop around, not all companies will rip you off and at the end of the day you will be saving yourself an awful lot of work

Yes I have always left it to the professionals, and the dust gets EVERYWHERE [--- (The seasonal word only permitted in December) ---_shocked]

[Bruciebox]

Thanks again , some good advice there .
I’ll look into some professional help