When sanding prefinished floors there are two important things to keep in mind; choice of paper, and sanding sequence.

The ideal product to use is Norton SG Red Heat. It was originally designed for cutting through Aluminum Oxide finishes. It’s razor sharp ceramic grain and micro-fracturing properties give it a long life and fast cut rate when sanding the hardest surfaces.

When sanding pre-finished floors common sense would say to start by using the coarsest grit available to sand off a very tough coating. In reality the opposite is true. By starting with a coarse grit you will get decreased product life and performance.

The proper sanding technique for pre-finished floors involves sanding the floor first with a finer grit, usually 80 grit. Sand the finish lightly with 80 grit on a medium to low pressure setting, just to scratch the surface. Then come back with a coarser grit, usually 40 or 50 grit is coarse enough, to remove the finish and flatten the floor. Using this technique will greatly increase product life and cut rate. This works for both the edger and the belt sander.

With coarser grits you have larger pieces of grain, but less grain on the paper. There are fewer pieces of grain contacting the work surface at any one time. This puts a lot of pressure on each piece of grain. When all that pressure on those large grains hits the very tough surface of the UV cured finish it causes the tips of the grain to shear off and not fracture like it is designed to. When the grain shears off you are left with dull cutting edges that cause the paper to wear out prematurely.

Finer grits like 80 grit have smaller pieces of grain and more contact points on the work surface, leading to less pressure on each piece of grain, allowing the grain to fracture like it is designed to. Once the surface is lightly sanded with the 80 grit, those fine scratches will give a place for the coarse 40 or 50 grit to bite into, allowing it to sand through the finish and flatten the floor. This also allows the grain to fracture properly, maximizing product life and performance.