You ll need two kinds of sanders for the process.
A place that you can rent a hardwood floor sand.
Typically you would do this with a drum floor sander a large piece of equipment you can rent from home improvement stores.
You have to remove the finish on the floor before you can properly sand out all the scratches and imperfections that have accumulated over the years.
If your floor is thinner than 3 4 you may want hire a pro to avoid accidentally sanding down to the subfloor.
A tongue and groove floor cannot be sanded as many times as a plank floor.
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.
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.
Once you re done sanding you can stain the floor.
A walk behind sander like a drum floor sander and a floor edger to get into the corners and smaller nooks and crannies.
If you choose to refinish keep these things in mind.
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.
Unless you plan to sand many floors in your lifetime the best choice for do it yourself floor refinishing is the random orbital sander.
The groove overlap is typically about 1 4 inch thick.
Since the sanding process can remove a lot of surface your floor needs to be at least 3 4 thick.