How can I( a complete beginner) restore my floorbaords fast?

[Chlorinated]

Guys, I have just taken my carpets of and there are floardboards underneath. They are really dirty and have gaps in them. I need to remove the gaps as I am an allergy sufferer and cannot tolerate dust. Anyway I have been doing some reading and just want to jump right in and do a quick job but am worried I am missing somethings. Anyway please read what I am planinng and please address the concerns I have. I am planning on the following steps in this order, any videos giving a detailed guide would be great:

Step 1. Hire any good sanding machine and sand all wood until it becomes clean and looks even.
a) How can I ensure here that all my boards will be even?
b) Do I need to remove any nailing and put them back in or can i just sand over it?
c) i'm not sure what type of wood i have and don't know how to find out. Will I be safe just getting any decent floor sanding machine from a hire company or must I get a specific one?

Step 2. Use a quality vaccum cleaner and hoover gaps and newly sanded floor.

Step 3.Put rubber gap filler inbetween gaps
a) Does the rubber gap lace filler even work? i don't care about the looks, i just want to prevent dust and odours rising due to my allergies. Will this block any harmful particles from rising?
b) should placing the rubber filler be step 1 so that new dust does not go into the ground when sanding? If so if the during varnishing the varnish makes contain with the rubber with this be a problem in any way e.g. toxicity, mold growith?

Step 4: coat floor with any decent varnish.
a) Do I need a machine for this or do I just paint over?

The whole thing doesn't have to be perfect, I just want a clean floor and protection against allergies. Please answer all the question i need to move on this fast my dust allergy is killing me. Cheers.

 

[Dhillon]

i need to move on this fast my dust allergy is killing me.

Are you sure you want to tackle this yourself? Sanding a floor can through up a lot of fine dust no matter how good the machine. If your allergy is very bad consider getting someone else in to do it for you.

Have you considered laying down vinyl or lino flooring? Dust free surface, easy to wipe down, maintain and very quick to do. Or perhaps laminate?

How much of an area are you looking to sand, gap fill and varnish?

 

[JohnD]

you have told us that you have a first floor flat. If you sand the floor you will annoy your neighbours. If you take up the carpets and have bare boards they will hear you walking about, talking, listening to the TV, stirring your tea or coughing, and the constant irritating noise will annoy them so much they will either come up and kill you, or complain to the landlord and have you evicted.

btw if you have a dust problem, buy a vacuum with a Hepa filter, and use it daily. Bosch, or Miele if you can afford it. Until then, give the floor a daily damp-mopping, and wash out the mop after use. This will clean the floor without disturbing the dust.