How do I remove paint from a painted wood floor?

Question

Landlord painted over a great wood floors. I want to remove it and redo floors. What is the quickest/easiest way to do this? Also do not want to use too many chemicals because I have pets and my apartment is loft style so I cannot close off this areas.

Answer 1

Ask This Old House just did a TV segment on sanding hard wood floors. You could check their archives. Might get yourself into trouble if this is a rental however. Be careful ;).

Answer 2

Be very careful about deciding to do this. It's a big job whether you use paint stripper or a sander or both, and it's possible that the paint has soaked into the wood which means you'll have to sand an awful lot to get back to bare wood. Are you sure you want to put that much work into a rental place? How does your landlord feel about it? There must be some reason the floors got painted in the first place. After the paint is gone, you will then have to finish the floor. If you varnish it, you're looking at an absolute minimum of 3 coats and a minimum of about 4 days from the time you start varnishing until you can walk on the floor, never mind put heavy furniture back onto it

Answer 3

You could go to an equipment rental store and rent a floor sander,but this is gonna take some time.good luck

Answer 4

Everyone's right about the time and energy.  I had a similar situation in a rental a few years back.  It's not worth it unless your landlord will let you deduct the cost from your rent.

Renting a sander is a good option.  A slightly cheaper one is to rent a buffer and use sanding heads (but be aware that they can get gunked up easily).  Plus you can use the buffer as a buffer when you're refinishing.  Whatever path you chose, involve power tools.  It's just too big a pain without them