I have a 1965 Eichler-style house with about 1500 sq feet of exposed softwood V-groove cathedral ceiling that I woud like to refinish. The stain looks pretty thin and easy to remove in most rooms, with only one room having been refinished with polyurethane.
Sandblasting or walnut blasting will leave a raised grain so I’m wondering if anyone has tried this followed by an orbital sander to smooth the surface.
Anyone use a Makita Brush Sander? A mop sander?
Any other ideas that will leave the surface nearly as smooth as the existing planed surface? The house has been in my family for 40 years so I prefer to keep it close to the original style.
Replies
Here's a pic
Hopefully someone has experience.
I'm a finish carp and sand a lot of wood every year, and refinish a lot of wood every year. I think you're much better off simply sanding the old finish, but with the propper sander for the job.
You'll grow old with a normal random orbit 5" sander - they aren't very aggressive. Without hesitation the Dewalt DWE6401DS would be my choice. It's not a random orbit, but if you replace the 5" pad with a 6" and use it with the pad flat against the work you'll remove 4x or 5x more material. The finish won't be as smooth as a RO, but if you go to 220 grit, then switch to a 6" RO with 220 for a final pass you'll be sitting good.
The sander uses a 5/16" stud to attach to the sander - the same as the 6" RO sanders from Porter Cable. I use Porter Cable hook and loop sanding pads with this sander and cheaper pad just aren't flat enough. Buy sandpaper disks by the 50 piece box and they are only around 50 cents a disk. I mainly use 80 grit then 150, then 220, then I'll switch to a 6" RO with 220 grit and finally 320, but on a ceiling you can probably stop at 220.
For the V groove it will be much harder to sand down so I'd probably try a chemical stripper followed by a profile sander with a rubber pad altered so it matches the V groove (it's probably not a 90 degree groove).
Jobs like this will work out muscles in all sorts of ways - better start going to the gym to work out the muscles used in holding things over your head.
There will be no good substitute for scaffolding - you'll be up there a long time and a ladder won't work - I wouldn't even attempt it without a section of scaffolding that could be moved around.
Another option is to not remove the old finish, but go over it with a wiping oil that will even out what's there - the "refinishing" oils are often just a lightly tinted seed oil of one kind or another. The finish won't last a long time, but it's easy to apply and often looks pretty good. Try a small section and decide if it's good enough or if you need to strip and restain.