You must sand the floor completely several times over with progressively finer sandpaper in order to make sure the floor is as smooth as possible before refinishing it.
A place that you can rent a hardwood floor sand.
A walk behind sander like a drum floor sander and a floor edger to get into the corners and smaller nooks and crannies.
If your floor is thinner than 3 4 you may want hire a pro to avoid accidentally sanding down to the subfloor.
At the home depot tool rental center you can find everything you need to keep your floors looking beautiful including polishers and floor sander rentals.
If you choose to refinish keep these things in mind.
The groove overlap is typically about 1 4 inch thick.
Solid hardwood boards are 3 4 inches thick and each has a groove milled in its side that overlaps the tongue of the adjacent board.
Sanding removes on average about 1 16 inch of material and sometimes more so you can safely sand a solid hardwood floor two or three times but no more.
Unless you plan to sand many floors in your lifetime the best choice for do it yourself floor refinishing is the random orbital sander.
Typically you would do this with a drum floor sander a large piece of equipment you can rent from home improvement stores.
To achieve professional quality results you must start with the proper equipment to get the job done right.
A tongue and groove floor cannot be sanded as many times as a plank floor.
Once you re done sanding you can stain the floor.
Since the sanding process can remove a lot of surface your floor needs to be at least 3 4 thick.