Refinish/Replace Pine Floor

 The small (4/X12') kitchen in 50 year old beach house has 3 1/4" wide
solid pine stained flooring on 16" joists with no subfloor. It had
layers of linoleum on it which I removed. (Fortunately, bottom layer was
nailed in place, not glued) and then discovered some water damaged
boards (I know how it happened, and fixed water problem). I replaced the
boards and now have to either sand and refinish the new and old boards
OR install a new pine floor over it (or pull it out and put new floor
altogether in).

Because house is far from civilization, it would be hard to rent a big
orbital floor sander, I don't know how to use one anyway, and area is
small.

So I was going to buy a belt sander (can use it for other projects) and
do it that way. Or should I get a small orbital sander? Or should I
simply replace entire floor.

Any advise on
1. What sander to buy
2. What grits to use
3. If I am better just replacing the whole floor.
4. how to refinish it (without renting a buffer)
5. Anything else someone who is trying to do this and doesn't know what
he is doing should know is appreciated.  Thanks.

  Wow.  Sanding that much by hand will take for-ever, like days, and
getting it to look right will be difficult because the small sander
will leave marks that a big sander (esp run by a pro) will not.
Sanding and finishing floors is really hard to do and get right if
you've never done it, it is really frustrating.

If I had money and the house was worth a lot of money (enough to
warrant the expense of a new floor), personally I would put in a new
floor on top.

If I didn't I would leave paint the floor white and put a coat of poly
on top.  Very beach-house looking.

 Thank you very much for your advise. I think I am killing the idea of
refinishing, and going to paint.

Any tips? What kind of paint? Stain? Don't I have to sand anyway before
I paint? If so, what am I gaining?  Won't white paint show heel marks,
dirt, etc.
Any tips on how to do this is appreciated. thanks.
dj

 On Tue, 10 May 2005 00:54:15 GMT, someone wrote:


Since there is nobody else living downstairs (I'm serious about that),
go ahead and refinish it.  If this was in an apartment building, or
even a house where there was concern with noise transmission from
upstairs to downstairs, I said put another layer of floor over the
current pine - like using the pine for the subfloor.

With only 1 layer of board floor and no subfloor, any cracks or gaps
allow greater transmission of sound, or even dust sand grit and small
objects to fall through.  But for a beach house kitchen, doesn't seem
like a deciding factor.


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