Not strictly a green building issue, but an issue arising whilst green building (I have had to have my floorboards refitted for a solar hot water underfloor heating system.)

Anyway my floorboards have been belt sanded before refitting and look good, there is some un eveness between the boards, but I am not sure that I dislke this.

So I was thinking of using an orbital sander to get rid of the more pronounced unevenness and any marks still left on the floor before sealing. My carpanter does not think this is a good idea and recommends using a big floor sander,

Is there anything wrong with what I am planning to do, or am I fool for thinking it?

For extra info my boards are pine.

BTW will be sealing with Kumos Natural Oil Sealer in case anyone has any experience here?

And you can be prety sure to burn out your orbital too.

Hello Moogaloo,
I have sanded all the sandable floors in my house. It is safe to say this is not my favourite job, but I do love it now it's done.
I did it in two batches, hiring the kit from RS.
The trouble with the big floor sander is that you can't get everywhere - plus it's big, heavy, makes a lot of noise and vibration and is not a little scary.
The trouble with edge sanders (i.e. the rotating disc ones, as opposed to the big belt sanders) is that certainly the one I rented was not very effective. The sanding sheets clogged very quickly and it tended to leave far more marks than the big sander did - and the marks were circular so they really stuck out. It gave me back ache, and didn't sand easily. Possibly it is a knack that you need to aquire.
My boards are so hard that a small rotary sander doesn't make much impression, so even tidying up a small area takes ages.
The solution I came up with was to sand the middle to the required finish (my boards are uneven too, so I've learned to love a little bit of discolouration in the dips) with the big sander and get as near the edges as possible - then paint the edges (i've done mine white and will paint a stencilled pattern round whenever I've nothing better to do!).