Parquet flooring - around since the Baroque era of 1625 to cover some of France's most illustrious royal homes - doesn't have to be the nightmare some have thought it would be to refinish. The main concern lies with how the wood grain in parquet flooring lies at ninety-degree angles from one square to the next and how sanding these squares affect the grain.

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Patience is the Key!

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The secret to sanding parquet flooring so that the grain doesn't become marred lies in patience. That's right - patience. Most of us want to hurry up and get the job over and done with. Renting a big drum sander and making a few passes over the floor, swabbing on the stain, adding polyurethane to protect everything, and boom... you're finished! But if you want to achieve the best results, patience will need to be taken, as well as some good, old-fashioned, hard work.

Although drum sanders get the job done fast, two potential problems exist in using them. Number one, unless you're a real pro at using one of these big guys, you run the risk not only of marring the grain of your parquet flooring, but also of actually making large gouges in the wood that no amount of sanding can fix. The big orbital sanders you can rent also pose this danger, although they are somewhat easier to control than the drum sanders.

Use Smaller Sanders for Better Control, Less Dust

As an alternative, one suggestion is to use a handheld orbital sander. The job make take you quite a bit longer, but the potential for ruining your beautiful parquet flooring by gouging it is next to nil. By maintaining a much better control over the machine, you can also do a better job. These smaller sanders also produce less dust, so that's one less thing you'll have to contend with when doing this job.

Many come with bags (like a vacuum cleaner!) to catch the dust, so all you need do is periodically empty it. Smaller, 3 to 4-inch belt sanders can also be used for the main, open portion of the floor to speed things up a bit, but you'll need to use the orbital for the edges and probably even a paint scraper (hand tool) to get the last vestiges of old finish out of the corners.

Decrease the Sandpaper Grit

Another tip to refinishing parquet floors that has to do with patience: Use sandpaper in decreasing degrees of grit for the finest finishes. Depending on how bad your old flooring is, start with a fairly course grit, perhaps even 20 grit for deeply scratched floors. For an average refinishing job, however, it's most likely you can start with 60-grit sandpaper. From there, move on to 100, then 150, and finish the job with 120-grit sandpaper for a smooth-as-possible surface.

Stain, Polyurethane, Wax, or Oil

After sanding, the choice is up to you whether to stain or not. You can then either apply polyurethane - three coats is advised for the best results - or, you may decide to go with the simple application of tung oil or wax. You've got the hard part, the sanding, out of the way, so what you do next is up to you, but the most important thing to remember is to enjoy that great, new finish on your terrific parquet flooring!

Refinishing A Parquet Floor: Sanding

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