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Over the last few years, renovating old houses and apartments has been in vogue. Most of these buildings date back to the period between 1960 and 1980, meaning there is a lot of work to do – every surface needs to be renovated and the related subsurfaces indoors must be prepared.

Sanding is required when renovating and restoring old structures ‒ in all possible configurations. It's not uncommon for certain parts of the building to remain occupied during a renovation, making clean work with low volumes of generated dust all the more important. Due to the increasing demands that customers place – with regard to the quality, durability and sustainability of the surface and materials – the requirements for painting businesses are also increasing. Ultimately, a surface is only ever as good as the preparation of the subsurface. To meet these demands, the ideal subsurface preparation and professional sanding are gaining increasing importance. In this article, sanding expert Philipp Stahl (master painter and application engineer at Festool) explains how this is interpreted in practice: "With all sanding work, a harmonised sanding system is key to quality and working progress". Painting businesses usually encounter these sanding requirements: Sanding off unsound old coats, or those that are incompatible with new coats, adapting and smoothing surfaces and removing unevenness, as well as intermediate sanding of layers of repair compound. A harmonised sanding system helps to complete these tasks to a suitable standard. It consists of the ideal abrasive paper for the sanding requirement in question, the right sanding pad and the compatible sander in combination with the optimum dust extraction system. With sanding systems that can be combined in a variety of ways, everyday work becomes more effective, delivers the required result more quickly and is also more healthy ‒ for employees of the painting business as well as for the customer, who often remains living in a separate area of the building during the painting work. For every requirement there is an individual solution. You just have to know the best way to use it.

Many sanders – which one to choose?

"There is no single, universal sander – the same is true when renovating. It always depends on the main requirements to be met," explains Philipp Stahl. For example, is a high material removal capacity required, or a particularly fine sanding finish? Or do large wall and ceiling surfaces have to be sanded right into the smallest corners? There are specific sanders for every task: Long-reach sanders in various configurations, numerous eccentric sanders with different sanding strokes, rotary sanders with eccentric motion and different sanding disc diameters, as well as orbital sanders. "Every painting business works differently. This makes it difficult to recommend a specific one to choose. In general, I would give the following recommendation: For painting businesses that often perform drywall construction work, it is worth buying a long-reach sander. For smaller surfaces on walls and ceilings such as in guest toilets or in stairwells, I recommend the handy ETS EC 150/5 eccentric sander. For renovating windows with damaged old paintwork around the weatherboard, it is worth using a Rotex RO 90 geared eccentric sander. It has four different functions: Coarse and fine sanding, polishing and triangular sanding. The RUTSCHER RTS or DTS orbital sander is suitable for corners and smaller surfaces. The RTSC, DTSC or ETSC cordless compact sanders are extremely practical for jobs performed outdoors or on scaffolding – where there is no power source. And if there is no power source for corded sanders, the new SYS-PowerStation is there to help," explains Philipp Stahl.

Woodwork: Proper door preparation

If historical doors which are worth preserving need to be prepared in order to maintain the special character of the house, meticulous refurbishment is important in order to preserve the design of the door for many years to come. Every door is one of a kind. Is the door in question an interior or an exterior door, an entrance that shapes the building's external appearance? If so, it's all the more important to think about the correct approach in advance. This often poses the question as to how much of the original material can be preserved. This is not only true of the doors, but of course of the frames as well. The doors are first examined, meaning old coats are checked and damaged areas in the wood are determined. The existing paint layers can be sanded smoothly and reliably with the ETS EC 150/5 or ETS EC 125 eccentric sander, to name a couple of tool recommendations. With the right speed, loose pieces are removed without too much pressure and intact surfaces are roughened. "We recommend that you use abrasives with a grit from P180 for water-based paint, and a grit from P150 for alkyd resin paint for lightly sanding the surface," explains application engineer Philipp Stahl. Hard-to-reach areas on profile grooves and transitions can be resanded using an especially adaptable abrasive sponge. After lightly sanding the old paint, you can fill small holes and damaged areas. Of course, dust extraction is a must when lightly sanding. After sanding, you can vacuum the sanded surfaces thoroughly with a mobile dust extractor, and, if necessary, you can clean up with an anti-dust and tack cloth. For intermediate sanding with the ETS EC, we recommended using GRANAT abrasives with a grit of P240 to P500. The speed should be reduced to avoid sanding through or heating up the primed surface. Hard-to-reach areas on profile grooves and transitions can be resanded using a manual abrasive. Renewed splendour for old windows. Renovating old window frames and casements made from wood to a professional standard is a challenging task. This is true in the conservation of cultural heritage as well as in the modern and sustainable handling of existing materials such as wood. Meticulous refurbishment with the appropriate expertise can make a window construction usable for many more years.

Perfect lighting conditions: And underestimated issue during sanding

During sanding in particular, the important of a well-lit surface is often underestimated. But light plays an essential part in the quality of your work. Professionals achieve the best results in well-lit working areas. That is why Festool has identified this requirement some years ago and uses modern LED technology in its working lights, namely the SYSLITE DUO working light and the SYSLITE STL 450 surface control light. Their numerous advantages make them stand out from conventional lights. The SYSLITE DUO working light, for example, combines an illuminating power of 8000 lumen with a daylight-like colour of 5000 Kelvin. Thanks to specially arranged LEDs, it achieves homogeneous illumination across 180° and also radiates evenly across large workspaces. Its robust design makes it an ideal light source for all trades, both on and off the construction site. In particularly tight spaces, the KAL II SYSLITE working light ensures optimum illumination.

You can find more information at festool.co.uk/knowledge/refurbishing-furniture

and on the Youtube channel Festool Quick Guides