best floor coating?

Thanks, I think for me wear and shine is what I want. Because we have a dog, I need a hard coating especially with pine (new house). We have hardwood floors at the moment (current house), and its water base polyurethane and it seems to be ok except its not as shiny as I would like.

Would it makes much difference having a professional coming into do the job (quoted $4K) or hiring a sander from Bunnings ($90) + 2 x 10litre of paint @$200 = $500 all up.

Obviously a professional does it all the time.... but surely, if i put some elbow grease on it and use the right polish then it should have similar results? Have people tried and got a good result?

$500-so that bloody floorsander gets $3500 for 2 1/2 days work. Not bad coin for calling past bunnings-

Hire machine $90 per day + papers
20 litres of poly $190
edger $45 per day + papers
Mohair roller $25
Solvent-need extra to defluff new roller cover $50
Rotary sander $90 per day + papers
2.5kg aqua putty $27
Sandscreen discs $48
Mate to help him $250 per day
Petrol
Insurance/Public liability if that bunnings sander catches fire
plastic bags

Is the $500 saving worth it?
Why not ask a pro a price to sand only

I have gone the DIY route once, if your short on cash and have lots of time then nothing wrong with giving it a go, just take on board the other comments, it will take you much longer than you think and the costs add up.

However if you are doing a full house reno then floor sanding falls into the same category as setting plasterboard joints, you can do it yourself but it is much more cost effective to get someone else to do it so you can work on other things.

If you do decide to go DIY make sure you test out the machines and get the hang of them in a small area before you tackle the full rooms. When I was doing it I didn't have the screws in the drum tightened enough so they were protruding, in my first 90 seconds of using a floor sander I covered the room in gouges that then took hours to sand out

Also some of the coatings will raise the grain so you will need to sand in between coats, which means more rental time to consider.

While I'm all for DIY, floor sanding is one area I think it's better to go with a professional. To DIY, chances are it'll cost you more than you'd think, take you longer than you'd think and give you a result worse than you'd think.

If I were you I'd get a few more quotes for the entire job, get it properly punched, sanded and finished. If you have dogs inside then I'd probably go with an oil finish and just do the maintenance when required. Long term I think it will be the best option to keep your floor looking nice. A poly finish is hardwearing but once you get scratches they are there until you strip it again, and there is always the potential for edge bonding. For pine boards in particular I think oil would be best, pine is fairly soft so a really hard finish like a polyurethane might just create issues for you, particularly if you go the DIY route.

So yes I'm just repeating what everyone else has said, but go for a professional with an oil finish IMO.

thanks for the advice fellas. We have taken possession of the house yet so still trying to do the planning and weighing up the costs. My problem is that I have to paint the walls first. Also, I need to move into this place as soon as possible to reduce my costs. Therefore, I'm considering doing the floor first and then making sure I cover the floor fully when I paint the ceiling and the walls. The problem is that the ceiling is flaky so it will be messy. The alternative is to move in, do it room by room which makes it hard plus lots of lap joints.

So I'm in a bit of dilemma... another thing to consider is that floor isn't that bad at the moment as it has been repolished couple of times before, so I don't want to take anymore off. I'm considering doing a very light sand and then recoat. Speaking of recoat, I've looking at youtube, a lot of people seem to be using the rollers rather than the sheepskin applicator which I think is a bit odd...

Is this way of filling in the gaps normal?

Filling gaps in wood floors during renovation and restoration - YouTube