Different Sanders for Flooring

Portable vs. Walk-Behind

• Floor refinishing professionals use both portable, or "hand," power sanders and walk-behind floor sanders. The term "walk-behind" refers to a wheel or track-mounted piece of sanding equipment pushed from behind by a waist-high handle. Walk-behind sanders' sanding attachments are wide, powerful and suitable for large-scale sanding projects. Although powerful, hand floor sanders have relatively small sanding attachments and require workers to bend over or kneel during operation. However, working close to a floor with a hand sander allows refinishing professionals to perform precise detail or touch-up sanding.

Drum and Belt Sanders

• Often used interchangeably, the terms drum and belt refer to band-like sanding attachments that mount around a power sander's cylindrical or oblong track. Like the continuous turning of a tank's track, the drum or belt continuously rotates around a central point. Drum sanding and belt sanding equipment are available as both portable, hand-held tools and walk-behind floor sanders.

Orbital Sanders

• Like drum or belt sanders, orbital sanders are available as both portable and walk-behind models. While most disc-shaped tool attachments, such as saw blades, simply spin around a fixed point, the orbital sander's disc revolves in wide arcs around a central point, similar to planetary orbit. Also called "random" orbit sanders, orbital sanders' unique movement pattern encourages even sanding by preventing the sanding disc from lingering too long in a single spot.

Edgers

• Floor edge sanders, or edgers, are designed to butt against walls and sand the extreme edges of a room. Edgers typically accept a disc-shaped attachment. Available as both portable and walk-behind units, the defining characteristic of an edger is an opening along the side of the tool's body that allows the sanding disc to push directly against a wall. As an alternative to edge sanding with specialized equipment, do-it-yourself builders sometimes use angle grinders equipped with floor sanding discs.