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Floor sanding is a long, hard task and if you don’t have the proper machines for it you’ll not only take days to complete what could be done in hours but the results will be far from perfect. Due to this, today I’ll be showing you my personal picks for the very best sanders for floors that you can get. They’re all large, potent beasts that can take on huge surfaces quickly while also being comfortable to use and best of all – they deliver a gorgeous finish.
It’s also one of my favorite sanding jobs because I leave people in awe at how fast and perfectly I can sand their floors but truthfully it’s all thanks to my wonderful machines. Without further ado, here they are!
Top 5 Best Sanders for Floors
These are, in my opinion, the top 5 best sander for floors you can get – with no particular order.
Bosch OS50VC 3.4-Amp 1/2-Sheet Orbital Finishing Sander
Large, powerful and easy to use, Bosch’s OS50VC is a beauty of a machine. From the top-notch construction to the stunning performance and variable speed function, it’s one of the greatest sheet sanders on the market. It features an ergonomic grip and a handle, giving you full control, and the dust collection is impressively effective even without a vacuum hose plus the vibration control is next to none, allowing you to use it for extended periods of time with comfort.
Large 1/2 sheet sanding pad
Fantastic construction quality
Super comfortable to use for long periods of time
Makita 9403 4″ x 24″ Belt Sander
This Makita, famously named “the best 4 x 24 belt sander in the world”, is an absolute beast of a machine and its strongest features are perfectly suited for floor sanding. It’s incredibly powerful, giving you a potent 11 AMP motor that runs the belt at a stunningly fast 1640 FPM even with its large 4″ x 24″ size while the robust body ensures that it can handle the heat and last a lifetime. With great dust collection and comfortable handles to boot, this is an excellent machine that has a truly unusual amount of power, making sanding large floors an absolute breeze.
Renowned worldwide
Will last a lifetime of use
Beastly 11 AMP power and performance
Extra wide belt turns long sanding tasks into quick ones
Bosch 1250DEVS Random Orbital Sander
As you probably know by now if you’ve been a reader, this is one of my all time favorite sanders. It’s vicious, it’s raw, it’s built like a tank and can handle anything you throw at it. It’s one of those old-school tools that just never quits and I love it for it. It features variable speed (max of 6,650 OPM) and the large 6″ sanding pad coupled with 6.5 AMPs of power and insanely aggressive turbo mode makes this a force to be reckoned while the random orbit motion delivers a smooth, swirl-free finish. The fantastic handle makes using it a perfectly comfortable experience and it comes with 1 year of warranty to boot. Couple all of this with a guaranteed lifetime of service and you’ve got excellence.
Built like a tank
Large 6″ sanding pad
Viciously powerful turbo mode
Festool 571810 RO 150 FEQ Rotex Sander
Taking the concept of random orbital sander to its maximum level of excellence, Festool’s super popular Rotex 150 is known as the best in the business. It has all the quality and features you could ask for, presented in an incredibly well designed and superbly crafted machine that will undoubtedly last a lifetime. Its potent 6 AMP motor runs the large 6″ pad at a variable speed of 3,300 to a stunning 6,800 OPM and all the parts and materials are equally as powerful to ensure they can handle the performance. It also has a dual mode switch on top, allowing you to use a gear-driven aggressive sanding for stock removal or the classic random orbital motion to achieve a perfectly smooth finish. With comfortable grips and one of the best dust collection systems in the game, it’s as close to perfect as it gets. It’s expensive, but you truly get what you pay for.
Unmatched level of quality
Absolutely superb performance
Able to perfectly sand large surfaces quickly
Clarke Ez-8 Floor Drum Sander
The most focused and appropriate choice on the list, Clarke’s EZ-8 floor drum sander is unmatched in pure speed, performance and ease of use due to being purposely made for floor sanding. It does in minutes what would otherwise take hours to do and you won’t have to bend your back once, adding a lot to overall comfort. With 1-1/2 HP under the hood it has enough power to sand anything, no matter how rough, and coupled with its great dust collection it also has a fully-enclosed motor so it never needs cleaning. Its completely made of cast aluminum, making it both sturdy and lightweight, and its very easy to handle as well due to the great controls. You can get a stunning quality finish on your floors with ease and it also features a long cable so you can go to town without worrying about constant re-plugging. Due to it being quite expensive, I only recommend this to either professionals or if you’ve got a whole lot of floor area to cover, especially since while you can use the other sanders for nearly every job, this one can only be used for floors. Even then, in my view it’s one of the best sanders for floors on the market.
Rugged construction
Unmatched comfort and ease of use
Sands large floors with an insane amount of speed
Best Sanders for Floors – Honorable Mentions
Although these machines didn’t quite make it to the top, they’re still worth mentioning. They’re both multi-tools and one great advantage – their design. You can use them while standing up which is a huge plus but since they go for the “jack of all trades” approach, they are sadly the master of none. For fairly easy work though (non-rough stock), they’re quite capable.
Oreck Orbiter Ultra Multi Purpose Floor Machine
It’s versatile, easy to use and fairly powerful for its size – 1/2 HP – which makes it an overall solid machine. By simply changing the pads below to sand paper, you’ve got yourself a stand-up sander that can deal with large surfaces quite fast and comfortably. You’ve got the bonus of being able to change back to a polishing pad after it’s done so you get a clean and smooth polish too and it’ll be great in the future to keep your floors looking nice and new. It comes with 10 years of warranty as well and it’s quite affordable for what it offers too.
Oreck Commercial ORB550MC Commercial Orbiter Floor Machine.
The commercial version of the Oreck shown above, it trades the large 10 year warranty for a smaller 5 years one but gives you more power to compensate, offering a 3/4 HP motor instead of the 1/2 HP of the previous one. The cable length’s also much longer – 50 feet – but the rest of the machine from the quality to the price stay virtually the same. An equally good choice.
Conclusion
And there you have it folks – my personal picks for the very best sanders for floors ever made. Any of these machines will leave your floors just as good as new or even better than ever. I know just how boring and frustrating it can be to sand floors – God knows how long it took me when I started – but these beauties will make it a fast, enjoyable and rewarding experience that’ll leave you in awe when you’re done due to how gorgeous your floors will look and how easy it was to do.
If you’ve got a wooden deck that needs sanding, feel free to check out my list of what I consider to be the best sanders for decks to get a more focused selection.
Thanks as always for reading and be sure to leave you opinions below – I read them all!