4 Steps to Sanding a Wall With an Electric Sander

Contents

    – Step 1: Prepare your work environment

    – Step 2: Make an initial sanding of the wall

    – Step 3: The finish sanding

    – Step 4: Do the finishing touches

Before installing a wall covering, you must sand the wall to obtain a flat surface without any roughness. Filing a wall is tedious if done by hand, so to save time, use electric sanders, starting with coarse-grit sandpaper and finishing with fine grit. This post will guide you through 4 easy steps.

Here are the materials and steps for sanding a wall.

Warning: sanding a wall covered with paint containing lead or asbestos is dangerous for your health! Lead paint is forbidden, as well as paint containing asbestos. If your house is older, call a professional who will carry out a diagnosis of your paintings. These diagnoses are mandatory when buying or renting a property.

1. Prepare your working environment

Before you start sanding the wall, you need to repair it. If you have removed the old coating from the wall, it may be marked with cracks and holes. To do this, you apply wall filler to these cracks or holes.

Before sanding, protect the floor and furniture from the dust generated by sanding.

    – Spread polyethylene film or tarps on the floor (over the entire room) and secure it with masking tape.

    – If you haven’t cleared the room of furniture, protect it with old sheets or tarps.

    – Wear a mask to avoid inhaling the dust from sanding.

2. Proceed to a first sanding of the wall

4 Steps to Sanding a Wall With an Electric Sander

This first sanding will consist of roughing up the work on the wall.

Use an angle or disc sander. These sanders are equipped with self-gripping shoes, making it easier to change the sanding paper. Choose medium-grit sandpaper if the wall has wallpaper paste residue and coarse-grit sandpaper if your wall is covered with tile (for example).

For ease of use, add a 5- or 10-meter extension cord to the sander’s outlet.

Sand the wall as follows:

    – Choose medium or coarse grit sandpaper depending on the condition of the wall.

    – Plug in the sander.

    – Using circular motions, proceed to sand the wall.

    – Start with the upper parts of the ceiling and work your way down to the baseboards, working in a 1 m² area.

    – For the corners of the walls, use a triangular sander on which you will have fixed triangular sandpaper of the same size.

3. Do the finishing sanding

Replace the coarse sandpaper on both sanders with fine sandpaper, then sand in the same way as for the rough sanding.

Caution: if your wall is made of plaster, do not stay too long in the same place: plaster being a malleable material, the sander could create level differences on the wall.

4. Finish the job

You have now finished sanding the wall.

Remove the dust from the floor with one of these vacuum cleaners to prevent dust from clinging to the wall when you install your flooring. Then wipe the partition with a dry cloth to remove the last traces of dust.

After applying a plaster, you can use a coating on the wall.

Keep the polyethylene film on the floor and the furniture protected. These protections will be removed once the wall covering is installed and dry.

Equipment for sanding a wall

Vacuum cleaner

Tarp

Cloth

Protective mask

Sanding paper for sander

Disc sander

Angle sander

Electrical extension cord

Masking tape

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