re-finishing wood floors

I have recently pulled up the carpet in my sons room and wanted to refinish the wood floors. His room is 9'x9' and I was wondering if anyone ever tried to so a floor with a hand belt sander?
I am just trying to get off cheap because over the summer I am doing his room, my room and maybe the living room and hallway. I don't want to spend the money for rentals every time I want to sand the floor. My living room may be the only room I have no choice because of size.

Welcome TWGreen:
A small bedroom would be a good place to experiment with the belt sander. From my experience the belt sander would be very difficult to control the amount of sanding over the whole area; It's hard enough with a drum-floor-sander.
First, I would use a stripper on the floor and see if the wood is actually damaged and needs sanding down. It is possible to use a commercial buffer with sanding screens to remove the old varnish, which would be quicker than the belt sander and is fairly easy to control the sanding amount. Also, Lowe's rents a square based orbital sander that is easier to control.
Glenn

I'm afraid you'll have to splurge for the drum sander. There is no substitute. You'll need an edger a buffer and vacuum. To do it right. You can defer the cost of the rentals if you do all the rooms at once this way you rwent everything once.

Yea, the problem with the belt sander would be evenness. If they arent in horrible shape, and your completely against renting, you may want to just use a random orbital sander with a fine grit paper and do a light pass over the floor and re-varnish. You wont be removing all the old finish just really prepping it to receive the new re-coat. Use a water based fast drying floor finish and you can do the entire job in a day with two or three coats of finish.

I essentially did this to a dining room and hallway, only difference was I used the rectangular vibrating sander they rent. I sanded on a Friday night, cleaned on Saturday AM and had three coats on by dinner with a light sanding in between. We moved the furniture back on Sunday. It looked great and held up well.

Howdy; newbie to this forum here, and I have a related question.

I am about to clean up my mother's former home so that it can be put on the market for sale. My parents bought it 44 years ago, and lived continously in it from 1972 until a few months ago. Original flooring was hardwood, but carpet was installed (probably) in the early 70's. An addition, a den, was built on a concrete slab with tiles; it too now has carpet installed over it.

I would like to pull up all the carpet, and refinish the original wood flooring. How involved is the process, and how much per square foot should I expect to pay someone to do this? Do they typically pull up the baseboards before they start? If so, I may want to have the (many times) painted over baseboard replaced.

I'm not certain how the floors line up between the dining area (original home wood flooring) and the den (addition, concrete slab with tiles). The carpet in the den will be removed, and the tile will be covered with inexpensive wood flooring (floating). What are some options I should consider in handling the transition line (other than the matching strips I see sold)? Anything unique out there I should be aware of?

Lastly ... the home will have the floors refinished, some minor work done in the kitchen, as well as have every wall re-painted. In what order should these tasks be completed?

As always, thanks in advance!