Sanding Engineered Oak

An Engineered oak floor that needed a new lease of life,

oak engineered

flat oak floor in dark oil.

The floor above was very flat and found to have 4mm of veneer, which meant we had plenty to play with, that’s just a term of phrase by the way, veneers should not be played with and the aim of our game is to leave as much timber on the veneer as possible giving maximum lifespan, however this floor was oiled in dark oak, so needed something a little harsh to remove the oil that will have penetrated into the grain of the timber.



It was decided to go with a medium 50 grit sanding belt for this job, rough enough to remove the oil but fine enough not to remove less than a mm in a pass of the machine.

50 grit sanding with belt
Removing old finish with a 50 grit

As you can see from the pic above the 50 grit just about removes the oil although there is some still visible, this is perfect as it shows we are not remove excess timber, just enough, the remainder will sand off easily with a finer 80 grit, which we use next.

sanding using 80 grit
The 80 grit cleans off the remaining oil.

All previous finish removed, we now edge round the edges using just an 80 grit on the spinner (edge sander).

oak veneer sanding
Floor ready for Trio

The floor is now at an 80 grit, we bring out the orbital Trio sander and go over the entire area with a 50 grit, 80 grit and finally with a 120 grit and rotary sand edges at 80 grit and again at 120 grit.

Vacuum twice and the floor is now ready to receive the desired finish.

Diamond Glaze finished floor
Oak Veneer Planks finished with 3 coats of Water-based Buzz Uno Polyurethane varnish in clear satin

We took less than a mm off this Engineered OakĀ  floor which equated to one dustbin liner of dust for 30m2 of flooring

Nothings set in stone with the floor sanding process, we adjust and adapt for every floor to give a beautiful result that give the best protection and maintain lifespan