When repairing, wooden surfaces are usually sanded. This is done in order to eliminate all unevenness, remove deep dirt and renew old coatings. It is absolutely impossible to imagine that such work was once performed manually using scraper-cycles. It is quite possible that similar techniques are still practiced today when restoring parquet floors in the homes of nobles, but a sanding machine, a miracle of modern engineering, allows the above work to be completed with better quality and much faster.

The need for scraping work

Parquet flooring requires periodic maintenance. Despite the durability of such a floor, during its long-term use there is a need for minor repair work: replacement of mastic or varnish coating. It is customary to scrape a parquet floor immediately after installation, when they are restoring the varnish coating of a parquet floor or replacing it.

As a rule, scraping work take place in two stages: the first - rough processing, which consists of leveling the coating, removing stains and eliminating traces of old dirt and legs, as well as removing old varnish; the second is finishing grinding and preparatory work to apply a new coating.

The tool for scraping parquet is a grinding tool. Such a machine can be successfully used to work on parquet flooring and on another wooden floor: for example, on deck flooring. This is true if the board was fastened using hidden staples. Using a parquet sanding machine is considered convenient for working in corners, areas near heating radiators and walls, and other “blind spots.”

Concept of a scraping machine

When performing work on large areas, a serious sanding apparatus is required, which is called a three-disc parquet sanding machine. In this case, the work will be done faster and the result will be better. In conditions of home work and small rooms A manual sanding machine is quite suitable, with the help of which it is no less convenient to grind “blind spots”.

Manual scraping machines are of vibration, belt, eccentric, delta and other types by design. All designs are equipped with connections for connecting a vacuum cleaner and allow you to easily change working sanding attachments. Parquet scraping machines can be designed for different periods of continuous operation, since different models have different power. Household Appliances In terms of supply voltage, they are designed for 220V, while professional ones require industrial power supply of 380V.

Equipment for scraping

The following equipment is used for sanding and sanding parquet:

• Looping drum machine. In most cases, for household floor scraping, it is customary to use machines with a drum width of 200 millimeters. Before starting work, you must carefully inspect the floor for protruding nails and foreign objects, and remove all construction debris from the room.
• Single and three disc grinders. These devices are usually used for professional work for high-quality finishing sanding of floors high level with increased requirements, new solid wood and parquet, as well as before tinting the parquet or floor. This equipment can be used when varnishing for intermediate interlayer sanding.
• Devices for grinding hard-to-reach places and edges. Previously, for scraping edges and hard-to-reach places that were inaccessible to large grinding machines, cycles were used, and then “grinders”. But technology does not stand still and today special machines are produced - the so-called “boots”.
• Abrasive materials. Different equipment requires different abrasive materials - sandpaper in rolls of different widths and grits. The length of one refill is usually 700 millimeters. The consumption of abrasive material varies greatly, depending on the differences in height between the boards, the age of the parquet, and the type of previous protective coating- stain, varnish, paint, drying oil and can affect the final cost of the sanding machine.
• Auxiliary materials and equipment: scissors for cutting abrasive material, keys for installation sandpaper for a drum machine, putty, tray, roller, broom, vacuum cleaner, respiratory respirator.

The device of the scraping machine

The parquet sander has a compact body, usually with a hinged cover over the drum and handle retractable type for carrying the device. The sanding drum has a simple device for attaching sandpaper. To secure the skins in the drum, a groove is made and 2 clamping rollers with flats are installed.

By combining the flats with the groove using special keys, it is customary to tuck in the ends of the sandpaper, tighten it by turning the clamping rollers one towards the other and secure the sanding paper. The surface of the drum of sanding machines has an elastic coating, which will ensure tight and uniform tension of the sanding skins to achieve high quality treated surface.

For sanding, sanding paper in a roll 200 millimeters wide on a twill backing is usually used. The grinding drums are driven by an electric motor through a V-belt drive. The V-belt is tensioned by moving the rotating plate of the motor. The side wheels have a polyurethane coating that prevents damage to the floor when moving the machine.

Modern sanding machines have a mechanism that allows you to adjust the level of pressure on the floor surface, and a mechanism for adjusting the remaining distance from the machine to the wall of the room. The design of the sanding machine allows you to process the surface near the walls with the skirting boards removed, and is also responsible for the ease of operation and excellent maneuverability of the device.

The control mechanism, which is located on the stand, ensures the transfer of the machine from the transport position, in which the drum is raised above the floor, to working position, When sanding drum touches the surface. IN modern devices Mechanisms for quick lifting of the drum are installed, which make it easier to control the sanding machine during operation.

Homemade scraping machine

Previously, when processing wooden surfaces, labor-intensive manual actions were necessary to achieve desired result. Today, various grinding machines have appeared on the market. However, the price of scraping machines from the manufacturer is quite high, and therefore developers use them infrequently.

You don't have to buy something so expensive grinding machine, because you can do it yourself. A homemade scraping machine consists of electric motor, which is installed on a mobile frame, a flexible shaft and a grinding wheel.

You can use a round motor from an old one washing machine. Cut a frame measuring 180 by 500 by 20 millimeters from a thick sheet of iron. One long side cut straight using milling machine on metal, because the flat side is necessary for attaching the platform with the engine.

Choose the dimensions of the platform for your scraping machine with your own hands - 160 by 180 by 10 millimeters. Make a mark and drill three holes with a drill. Then mark the end of the frame, which is cut evenly, along the holes, drill holes in it and cut the threads with a tap. Attach the platform to the frame with three bolts and place the holes for fastening the engine to the platform along the studs.

Grinding wheels can be ordered from a turner; select them in the following sizes - width 38 millimeters, diameter 55 millimeters, sides of 4 millimeters and a groove depth of 4 millimeters. Drill the first roller to fit on the motor shaft. In the second, make a groove for 2 bearings. Heat the roller to a temperature so that the water that gets on it hisses, you can easily insert 2 bearings.

The last stage of work will be drilling a hole in the corner and creating markings in the frame. The rollers must be located on the same line. The distance between the centers of the grinding wheels in the future sanding machine should be close to 300 millimeters. Be sure to tension the rubber on the rollers, like modern grinding machines. The width of the tape and rubber is approximately 30 millimeters. Rubber can be taken from the inner tubes of a moped or bicycle.

Now you know how to make a scraping machine and what it is needed for. To make your work easier, you can, of course, buy a grinding machine in a retail chain in your city. However, if you want to save money, then make a sanding machine yourself. It's not that difficult!

None of existing materials can't compare with natural wood neither in quality, nor in external attractiveness, etc. Of course wooden house with a wooden floor is environmentally friendly, aesthetically pleasing and as comfortable as possible, but in five years there will be no trace left of its former beauty.

And if the walls can still be somehow “brought to life”, covered with a new layer of varnish, then what to do with the floor covering, which is subjected to heavy loads, is completely unclear. But experienced builders know a fairly simple way to return wooden floor its former beauty. We are talking about sanding a wooden floor.

The name of the process - scraping - comes from special tool cycles that for a long time filmed top layer wooden covering. A scraper is a small handle with metal plates attached to it.

Cycling was carried out until the first grinding machine was invented, which has now completely replaced the cycle.

Such a machine can be of two types:

• drum;
• disk

The use of drum machines is advisable only in cases where a large area of ​​wooden flooring is to be processed. The disadvantages of the machine include the unevenness of scraping, which is why even the most experienced builder will not be able to maintain the entire floor surface at the same level. For this reason, today such a device only removes old paint and carry out rough sanding of the wood.

Disc machines, unlike drum machines, do not have such disadvantages. Having appeared relatively recently, this equipment has already gained popularity thanks to its absolute flat surface, which remains after processing, without any stripes or differences. The cost of drum machines is quite high, so they are used mainly by professional and repair teams.

Pay attention! According to the manufacturers, scraping machines are capable of restoring a wooden floor by 90%.

First, find out whether the old wooden floor can be sanded. To do this, conduct a thorough inspection. If you find that there is too much space between the boards big gap or they are damaged, first replace the defective coating elements. Only after this start working.

What will be required at work?

For scraping you will need:

• scraping machine;
• screwdriver;
• curb sander or hand scraper;
• abrasive sheets of varying hardness;
• polyethylene film;
• mineral alcohol (necessary for removing varnish).

Pay attention! If you plan to scrape parquet, then the sanding machine must be a disk sander (1 or 3 disks), but, for example, for wooden planks A drum-type device is also quite suitable.

Stage one. Preparing the premises

First, remove furniture and carpets from the room. Take down framed photographs and paintings as well bookshelves It is better to protect it from dust by covering it with a large piece of film.

Remove the interior door. Cover the opening with film, securing the edges with tape to prevent dust from penetrating into adjacent rooms. On the contrary, open the windows so that all the dust comes out.

Stage two. Preparing the floor covering

If there are minor gaps between the floorboards, then they need to be filled with filler, for example, sawdust. To remove old varnish, use mineral spirits and a scraper.

After this, wash the floor and let it dry thoroughly for 2-3 days.

After preparation, all that remains is to purchase good headphones and a respirator. When scraping, the noise level and dust generation increase significantly, so think about safety measures.

Stage three. Cycling

There is an opinion that scraping is an extremely complex and labor-intensive procedure. In reality, the hardest part is keeping grinding machine in the required position.

1. Start of the process

Start by using coarse sanding sheets. This will help remove the remnants of the old coating, remove all defects and unevenness of the material.

Pay attention! When working, always hold the wire from the scraping device on your shoulder so as not to accidentally damage it.

Before starting the machine, tilt it slightly, then carefully lower it to the floor. You will notice the work of the tape immediately, since the device will be more difficult to hold in your hands. Move across the room, holding tightly to the handle of the device. Having reached the opposite wall, smoothly lift it and turn it 180ᵒ.

Cycle twisted boards a little differently. Move diagonally, that is, from one corner of the room to another. Do this several times, then repeat the procedure, but in the opposite direction. The smoothness of the floor will be perfect after this.

3. Sanding with medium-grit sheets

After sanding the twisted boards, replace the previous sheet with a medium-grain one. Move along the boards. Start with this if the floor surface is not too damaged.

When you have finished processing, make sure that no areas were missed. Then take a fine-grained sheet and repeat the entire procedure.

After treating the floor, all that remains is to scrape it off near the walls. A curb scraper is perfect for this; start with medium-grain sheets and end with the finest disc.

Pay attention! A regular sander won't do this because it doesn't have the same precision as a border sander.

5. Shutdown

This is where the looping ends. Sweep the floor and wipe it with a dry cloth, then apply the topcoat.

Pay attention! You cannot leave a wooden floor untreated after sanding, as it will quickly become damaged during use.

It’s worth talking about this separately important stage preparing the floor covering, such as filling cracks. Use special putty pastes for this, which can be:

• ready;
• those that need to be mixed with a special putty composition.

Pay attention! You should not follow the advice of would-be specialists who insist that you only need to putty on cracks and other damaged areas - this will not give the desired effect.

Mix the putty thoroughly and apply it to the required surface. Wait until it dries (this will take about an hour), then follow the instructions.

Pay attention! Do not immediately arrange the furniture! Wait until the varnish is completely dry and crystallizes.

Pay attention! Varnish coatings on water based have no odor, but this cannot be said about polyurethane ones, for example.

As a conclusion

It is worth noting that not in all cases a wooden floor can be restored by scraping. It is recommended to entrust the process to specialists, but the work can be done independently.
For a detailed introduction to the scraping procedure, watch the proposed thematic video material.

1. What is looping and why is it needed?
2. What will you need?
3. Which varnish is better to use?
4. Performance of a rented scraping machine
5. Getting started
6. How to cycle further?
7. Floor cleaning
8. Floor priming
9. Applying varnish
10. Final works

Old parquet has a worn or completely disappeared layer of varnish. Individual parquet boards may become deformed, interparquet seams may crumble, and potholes, cracks, and chips may appear. In such cases, restoration is required. Cycling the floor - bringing it to a condition close to new. To do this, the top layer is sanded (scraped) - the remaining varnish is removed and the surface is leveled.

When sanding is completed, you should end up with a smooth parquet floor, not protected by a layer of varnish. Then the parquet is primed and varnished. The restoration of the old is completed, the surface is almost new.

What will you need for the job?

Manual scraping of parquet is less expensive, but takes much more time, so it is better to trust the technique. The main equipment includes a sanding machine and an angle grinder. For a sanding machine you will need sandpaper.

You should take it in different grain sizes: to perform rough work for manual sanding, sandpaper with grain number 30 is more suitable, and for finishing, final stages– with grain number 120.

If the parquet is in poor condition and you have to restore it manually, you can purchase 60-grit sandpaper for better sanding.

Bought for an angle grinder grinding wheel for wood processing. The diameter should match the saw rotor. During the work process, a large amount of wood dust and debris may form, so prepare in advance necessary tools– dustpan, broom or brush, vacuum cleaner.

Which varnish is better to use?

For household needs, the most preferable option is water-based matte varnishes. They are practically harmless, dry quickly and do not form a shiny surface. Semi-gloss varnishes are also used. The use of glossy varnishes is undesirable. Firstly, in bright, sunlit rooms, shiny surfaces give glare and reflections, which further strains vision. Secondly, such a coating is subject to rapid abrasion.

If there is an uneven load on the floor surface, abrasion will be different, which will sooner or later affect appearance the entire floor. Some places will remain fresh and shiny, while others will be slightly worn out. For example, there is relatively little movement along the edges of the room and in the corners, but intense movement in the central parts of the room.

Where can I get scraping equipment?

It is not necessary to buy a scraping machine. It will be much more effective to rent equipment from rental companies for several days. During this time, one or two craftsmen carry out the entire volume of work as in small room, and in the apartment as a whole.

Performance of the scraping machine

The rental company should check the car for its suitability for operation. To begin with, pay attention to the rubber band of the drum. It should only be new. If the part shows signs of use, ask for a replacement. A worn out rubber band may break during use.

Then you need to make sure that the air passages are clean - they should not be clogged with debris.

Ask to attach a dust bag to the air duct and turn on the machine. This must be done carefully so that dust does not get into your eyes.

Electrical equipment and network load

The scraping machine has a lot of power and consumes a lot of energy. You need to make sure that the wiring in the apartment - sockets, internal and external cables, electrical extension cords - can withstand such a load. All electrical equipment is rated at 16 A. Otherwise, you will need to connect the car directly to the electrical panel in the entrance, bypassing the apartment wiring.

Preparing the premises for work

All objects and things located on the floor must first be removed from the room. Wall paintings, clocks, shelves are well protected from dust and debris. Sockets must be freed from other electrical appliances.

Then you begin to inspect the floor: the skirting boards are removed along the perimeter and the parquet is thoroughly cleaned. All objects made of metal and hard material, such as nails or screws, are removed. If these rules are not followed, there is a risk of tearing the rubber band of the drum when using a scraping machine.

Getting started

The correct technology for scraping parquet begins with the fact that a piece of coarse sandpaper is cut out with scissors to fit the width and length of the drum circumference of the sanding machine with some margin and overlapped into the drum. Then a dust bag is tied with a rope.

The regulator sets the height of the drum above the floor. The smaller it is, the deeper the scraping of the floorboard goes, and the larger it is, the finer it is. If the floor has significant unevenness and potholes, then deep scraping is required on the first pass. Subsequently, the scraping is made finer.

The equipment is placed at the edge of the room and connected through extension cords. The principle of passages is as follows. The car is driven from one end of the room to the opposite. Then they return to the place where the scraping began, move it to the already covered width of the parquet and repeat everything. This is done until the entire room has been passed from one side to the opposite.

If the room is large, then more than once you will need to replace the sandpaper in the drum. The direction of scraping should be different from the direction of placing parquet flooring on the floor. Best option– angle 45 degrees.

Working with an angle grinder

After sanding the floorboard, you need to perform work in places that are inaccessible to a conventional machine. Such places include the edges of the room, its corners, parquet under heating radiators.

First, a disc is inserted into the angle grinder to sand the wood. The grinder has high shaft rotation speeds - about 11,000 rpm.

The disk must be positioned strictly parallel to the floor surface. If it is located at an angle to the parquet, then you can easily leave a deep scar on the floor. Such a mark is then extremely difficult to level with the rest of the surface.

Carrying out the floor putty process

You can use the most regular glue on wood. There is also a special putty for such work. If you use glue, after scraping you need to collect some sawdust from the floor and mix it well with the glue until a thick consistency is obtained.

Then, covering the entire area of ​​the room, rub the putty with a spatula into the cracks, holes and other irregularities in the floor that could not be cut off, and remove using a sander. After completing the work, a pause is made to give the putty time to dry.

How to cycle further?

After puttying, they move on to sanding again. This time the drum of the machine is filled with fine-grained sandpaper and the entire floor is covered with it in the same way as the first time.

The only difference is the direction of scraping relative to the placement of the parquet itself. The directions of the parquet flooring and the sanding must match, as in the photo. At this stage, the final leveling of the entire floor area occurs. In addition, the surface is cleaned of excess putty mass. This is the last step that required the participation of a sanding machine.

Cleaning

The surface should be cleaned very carefully after sanding. To begin with, use a dustpan, broom or brush to collect all large debris - sawdust, wood chips, sandpaper scraps, putty residues, etc.

Then wait the time it takes for the dust to settle on the floor. Then use a vacuum cleaner to remove all dust from the floor. Only dry cleaning is carried out in the room, since wet cleaning can negatively affect physical properties parquet

Floor priming

You can use the inexpensive and familiar to many primer "Birch", or other universal or specially designed for wood processing products. Primer consumption can be read on the container. Treating the floor surface will make it harder and reduce the amount of varnish during further manipulations.

The primer is applied in the same way as paint - using a roller or brush, sequentially passing from one wall to another over the entire area of ​​the room. Upon completion of the work, you need to give the floor time to dry again.

Applying varnish

If there is a possible shortage of varnish to complete the work, it is quite acceptable to dilute it with the appropriate component - a solvent.

In this case, the applied layer becomes thinner, but this method will allow you to complete the work without purchasing an additional container. Apply the varnish using a regular brush. Further steps include sequential passage of all rooms - this is not difficult to do.

The floor is usually varnished twice. In this case, each layer must have time to dry completely. The entire room must be isolated from drafts during varnishing. The windows are closed. This will allow you to maintain the microclimate in the room at the same level, which will contribute to obtaining a better result in the end.

Final works

The last thing you need to do is to ventilate the room well. You can then bring in furniture and reopen wall items that remained wrapped up in the room during scraping.

The cost of a high-quality wooden floor or parquet is quite high, and when after a few years the boards begin to fade and wear out, there is a desire to update them.

It is quite expensive to completely re-cover the flooring, and the procedure for laying the boards takes a lot of time. In this case, manual or mechanical scraping of the wooden floor is carried out - a quick and economical way to restore your flooring to its original appearance.

During the scraping process with wooden surface a layer whose thickness does not exceed tenths of a millimeter is scraped off. The treatment allows you to clean and return the original color to the parquet or floorboards and renew the appearance.

Purpose of the procedure

When sanding an old wooden floor, cracks and sags, stains from oil and other stubborn dirt are eliminated, which ultimately extends the life of the coating. After sanding, a floor made of any wood looks much better. You can scrape not only parquet, but also simple floors made of pine boards.

Pay attention! The wood must be thoroughly dry before sanding. This is especially true for new floors.

If the boards are very worn out (thin), rotten, or loose, then they need to be replaced. You can carry out scraping with minimal material costs if you rent a machine and do all the work yourself. Let’s figure out what the sequence of actions is, whether it’s possible to repair the floors yourself or whether it’s wiser to invite specialists.

The most inexpensive way is to use a hand scraper, which is a scraper with a metal tip. An alternative is to use sandpaper sheets attached to a holder. These methods require virtually no money, but are very labor-intensive. Therefore, they are usually used for cosmetic spot repairs, and when comprehensively updating a wooden floor, machine options are preferred.

Equipment

The scraping technology involves the use of the following types of devices:

• drum (tape);
• disk;
• peeling;
• corner (border).

Drum-type machines allow you to process a large area in a short time. However, they cannot ensure a uniform thickness of floor covering removal. Therefore, they are usually used only for removing the top layer of paint or varnish, when quality can be sacrificed for speed.

Disc-type devices are available for household and professional use. Disc machines allow you to process wooden floors qualitatively, without leaving any unevenness on the surface. The disadvantages of using it include the high cost. Typically, sanding machines of this class are used by teams of professionals involved in finishing the premises. The device is equipped with discs with fine, medium and coarse fractions of abrasive material.

A stripper is used to remove old coating from a surface. The device is equipped with a roller with wire pile, which is used to clean a painted floor or parquet from a durable paint layer.

Thanks to its design features, the curb scraper will allow you to clean wooden floors in hard to reach places. The device cleans areas adjacent to the wall, as well as corners and joints in the room.

You may need a screwdriver as a tool for the job. It is used to deepen the heads of self-tapping screws deep into the surface of the boards. This must be done to avoid damaging the disks of the scraper.

It is not necessary to purchase all of the listed tools, but a complete set will significantly speed up the repair process. An alternative to buying is renting necessary equipment. At a minimum, you can get by with a disk machine and a device for scraping borders.

Modern devices make it possible to carry out sanding without dust, but after work, debris may still remain, so cleaning is an integral stage of the procedures.

Old floor scraping technology

They begin scraping the old wooden floor by preparing the room, completely emptying it of furniture.

It is better to protect paintings and shelves on the walls from dust using film. Interior doors removed from the hinges, the doorway must be covered with film so that dust does not penetrate into other rooms. On the contrary, it is better to open windows wide before starting work. It is necessary to purchase headphones as the device produces a lot of noise. A respirator is used to protect the respiratory system. Scraping process wooden floors consists of four stages.

The first stage is preparation of the coating. It is necessary to eliminate defects by replacing damaged parts of floor boards or parquet strips. The gaps between the boards are filled with sawdust. Residues of varnish are removed by treating them with a solvent followed by using a scraper. The floor prepared for sanding must be washed and dried for a couple of days.

After this, you can sand the wooden floor. The sanding procedure begins with the use of coarse-grained sanding sheets. They will allow you to remove remnants of the paintwork, remove unevenness and protruding defects. After turning on the machine, you need to carefully place it on the floor and move across the room, trying to keep the device level. Moving straight from wall to wall, you need to treat the entire surface of the room.

Wood with grain (winding arrangement of fibers) is less amenable to mechanical processing. For sanding twisted boards, medium-grain sanding sheets are used. You need to move around the room diagonally, this will provide more smooth surface. After pre-treatment For curled boards, you need to change the sanding sheet to a fine-grained one and repeat the processing of the entire area with its help.

Sanding the floorboards near the walls is the final stage of the procedure. To do this, they usually use a special curb apparatus, with which they scrape the areas of the floor adjacent to the wall. The procedure begins with medium-grained discs, and then the surface is additionally treated with a fine-grained disc.

After completing the work, it is necessary to remove all scraping products by vacuuming and wiping the floor. Next, you can begin applying the varnish coating to the surface of the parquet.

Floor treatment after sanding

After removing the top layer of the floor covering, you must immediately prepare the wooden floor for applying varnish. First, the gaps between the boards are puttied. The putty composition must first be prepared according to the instructions. The paste is applied to all visible holes by hand until they are completely filled. This prevents the subsequent penetration of moisture and dust between the parquet elements. The composition needs time to dry and settle. If necessary, repeat the procedure, leveling the putty layer in areas of subsidence.

Repeated sanding of the seams where the putty was applied is carried out using fine-grained discs to remove protruding excess. After it, you also need to sweep up the dust or vacuum the room.

The first layer of varnish is applied to give the wood strength and durability. The first layer dries within two days. After this, it is necessary to carry out light sanding again for better adhesion and cleaning of the surface.

The last stage of work is applying a second layer of varnish, which will provide a shiny texture to the wood and protect it from premature wear.

Pay attention! On the floors from coniferous species It is not recommended to use water-soluble varnishes, as they are highly absorbed.

Up to five layers of varnish are applied to expensive, rare types of wooden parquet. The flooring updated in this way will serve its owners for at least another five years. If the floor is pine, it is advisable to distribute the furniture evenly over its surface to avoid overload.

Important Notes

To ensure a high-quality scraping result, you should adhere to the following recommendations. The sanding machine must move continuously and very smoothly along the grain of the wood.

The direction depends on the pattern and method of laying the dies or boards:

• laying herringbone parquet is scraped at an angle of 45 degrees;
• with a rectangular pattern, scraping is carried out at a right angle;
• decorative parquet should be scraped in circles or in a spiral, from the wall to the center of the room.

The final finishing is carried out with a surface grinder along and across the parquet flooring.

In general, sanding should be carried out by specialists, since it will be problematic for a beginner to level the floor over the entire area and evenly apply paint coating right the first time. However, if the budget does not allow attracting specialists finishing works, then it is quite possible to repair wooden floors yourself.

There is a saying: “Once started, repairs cannot be completed, they can only be suspended.” But it’s true that keeping up with fashion is almost impossible. Almost every day new construction and finishing materials. Having not had time to enjoy the renovation we have just completed, we are surprised to discover new wallpaper or flooring that would fit much better into the interior than the one we chose just a month ago. Fortunately, there are materials for which fashion never goes away. If we talk about floor coverings, then this is definitely wooden parquet. Even after many years of use, ordinary scraping of parquet will help restore it to its former beauty. Carrying out this procedure with your own hands, although troublesome, is quite possible. After restoration, your parquet will become a real decoration of the room.

What tools and materials need to be prepared?

For high-quality scraping of parquet, special equipment is required. It is not advisable to buy it for personal use due to high cost(unless, of course, you plan to do scraping professionally), but renting such a tool is quite affordable.

So, you will need:

• Drum-type sanding (parquet sanding) machine – rental cost is about 600 rubles/day.
• Surface grinder for scraping parquet – rental cost from 1,500 rubles/day.
• "Boots" - equipment for sanding corners. It should be noted that such equipment appeared relatively recently, and before that, corner processing was done with a hand scraper or a grinder with a special attachment. So you can easily get by with the “old-fashioned” methods and save a little.
• Sandpaper in rolls. You will need several types of abrasive: for rough processing P40, and for sanding P80 or P120 (depending on the type of wood).
• As auxiliary equipment You need to prepare scissors for cutting sandpaper, keys for the clamps on the drum of the sanding machine (usually they come with the machine, but anything can happen with rented equipment), a powerful vacuum cleaner.

Remember that the weight of a scraping or grinding machine can be about 70 kg, so it’s not worth it for a fragile woman to carry it alone. But the dimensions of the unit allow it to be transported in the trunk of a car. As a rule, renting a car for one day is enough.

After making simple calculations, you will understand how much it costs to scrape parquet with your own hands. The number he will ask for the job construction company will be several times larger.

Preparatory stage - preparation of the base

Before you begin the scraping process, you must carefully prepare the room:

• We take out the furniture;
• Vacuum and wash the floor;
• We examine the base for loose or falling out dies. If such are found, they must be re-glued;
• Carefully remove the baseboards. In many old houses, the baseboards are nailed to the base, as they say, tightly. In this case, when dismantling them, you risk damaging the parquet. If you cannot remove the baseboard carefully, it is better to leave it in place;
• We check for any protruding nails or screws. If we find it, we drive it in or delete it.

Don't forget to also check the condition of the wiring. The fact is that during operation, a parquet scraping machine consumes up to 2.5 kW of energy, and the starting power is even more. Make sure that the wires and circuit breakers are designed to withstand this load.

Step-by-step floor treatment technology

If you plan to use rented equipment, then it is better to go pick it up when the store opens, and then immediately start scraping. Be sure to stock up on protective equipment: a respirator and glasses for dust, earplugs for noise.

Stage #1 - scraping

First you need to make a rough sanding of the parquet. At the same time, scraping old parquet will allow you to remove old varnish from the surface, and when processing new parquet, you will get rid of unevenness and dirt. At this stage, the top layer of wood up to 5 mm thick is removed.

• Place a coarse sanding strip on the drum. In most cases it is P40, sometimes P60.
• We pass the first row diagonally across the room;
• We shift the machine half the width of the drum and go through the next row;
• In this way we sand the entire floor, changing the abrasive as necessary.

The pressure of the drum on the floor is usually adjusted with a special screw. If you see that the engine cannot gain the required speed, reduce the pressure. If the machine removes too small a layer and the engine is working normally, increase it.

Stage #2 - grinding

The next stage of processing may be the last if your parquet is not too damaged. But scraping dead parquet will require at least three passes.

For the second stage of processing, you will need P80 sandpaper for heavily damaged parquet or P120 sandpaper for the final treatment. Now passes must be made along the dies, that is, along the wood fibers. A fine abrasive will help remove scratches and streaks from rough sandpaper and make the wood completely smooth.

Stage #3 - processing corners and hard-to-reach places

After sanding is complete, you will see that there are untreated areas along the walls and in the corners - the machine simply did not reach there. This is where the “boot” comes in handy - a border scraper. If it is not there, pick up a sander and remove the old varnish, and then use a grinder and a sanding attachment to “finish” the surface. Manually sanding parquet is a very hard and unpleasant job. So if possible, it is better to find a “boot”.

That's all, actually. Now all that remains is to return the rented equipment and begin applying a decorative protective coating - stain, varnish or mastic.