Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Stripping stain from wood floors

Hi we just closed on our house Thursday :) and are furiously trying to get our wood floors refinished before our furniture etc arrives next week. Unfortunately our house's final appraisal left us with no equity against which to borrow so we are on our own here.

We are using a drum sander with 24 grade paper to strip the stain (24 was the lowest we could find). The problem is that this house is old and the floors are very uneven making for uneven stripping. We would like to just polyurethane the floors without staining however this is not going to be possible if we can't get the floors nice and "clean."

Is the solution to this problem to run the drum sander with the 24 grade over the floors again until it gets all of the stain? We've tried removing some of it with a stripping chemical but there has got to be a better way.

Stop what you are doing right now and call a pro. Most good floor guys will come out and look at your floor to help you decide the best action for the floor. Starting with a coarse grit is fine if you know what you are doing. You can do damage to the floor that may not be able to be removed. I know you want to get it done but please call someone in your sare to look at the floor. I would hate to see you decrease the value of your new home with a bad floor job.

Phil

Thanks so much for this good advice. It was actually my original plan since it is clear we don't know what we are doing. After your post I went to my husband again explaining that we are probably damaging our floors beyond repair but he is being stubborn.

Typical.

The first cut is crucial!

Make sure the wheels are clean on your sander. If they have trash on them, they will cause ripples to be sanded in the floor. Which are a nightmare to get out.

My smart husband finally conceded that, yes we would need a professional to get this job done. I'd like to share with you some befores and afters.

Here a glimpse of how the floors looked before we started
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v253/paislee/diningroombefore.jpg

Next is the floor once we were finished with our "work."
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v253/paislee/ourattempt.jpg

Finally we have the finished floors.
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v253/paislee/FinishedFloors2.jpg
(As you can see, the walls are a completely different matter.)

It may have something to do with the fact that we were no longer responsible for finishing them, but I think the floors look beautiful. I also think the price wasn't too bad at $3600 for 2000 sq. feet.

Thanks for your advice here. :D