Over 15 years of managing 9 rental units myself, I have burned through well over 600 sheets of sandpaper refinishing everything from kitchen cabinets to hallway handrails. Early on, I wasted a full afternoon trying to strip a varnished tabletop with 220 grit, thought the paper was defective, and almost bought a belt sander I did not need. The paper was not defective. I just had no idea that grit selection is really about matching the abrasive to the job stage, not picking one number and hoping. Get the sequence wrong and you either gouge the wood or spend three times as long polishing a surface that still has old finish sitting in the grain.
This is the exact system I now use on every refinishing job, whether it is a 1980s dresser left behind by a tenant or a set of exterior deck boards that have not seen stain in six years.
Why the Grit Number Actually Matters
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The number stamped on the back of a sandpaper sheet tells you how many abrasive particles are packed into one square inch. A 40 grit sheet has large, widely spaced particles that cut fast and rough. A 400 grit sheet has particles so fine they barely feel gritty to the touch. Lower number means more aggressive material removal; higher number means finer, slower smoothing. I think of it less like a single tool and more like a staircase u2014 every project needs several steps, not one.
The mistake I made for my first two years as a landlord doing my own repairs was treating 150 grit as a universal answer. It handles maybe 30 percent of situations well. The rest need something coarser to start or something finer to finish.
Coarse Grits (40 to 80): Stripping and Damage Repair
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When I am removing old polyurethane, thick paint, or leveling out a warped section of flooring, I start at 60 grit. On a typical 6-drawer dresser with three coats of old varnish, 60 grit clears the finish down to bare wood in about 20 minutes with a random orbital sander. Anything finer and I would still be sanding an hour later.
- 40 grit: heavy paint removal, deep gouges, warped or cupped boards
- 60 grit: general varnish and lacquer stripping, most of my dresser and cabinet jobs
- 80 grit: lighter finish removal, or the second pass after 40 grit on rough lumber
The tradeoff is that coarse grit leaves visible scratch marks in the wood. Skip straight from 60 grit to a clear coat and every one of those scratches will show through, especially under a glossy finish. I learned that the expensive way on a coffee table I had to fully redo, costing me about 3,000 yen in wasted stain and two extra hours of labor.
Medium Grits (100 to 150): Smoothing Before Stain
Once the old finish is gone and the surface is flat, I move to 100 grit, then 150 grit. This stage removes the coarse scratches left behind and starts opening the wood grain evenly so stain absorbs consistently. For most interior furniture pieces, two passes here u2014 100 grit followed by 150 grit u2014 takes around 15 minutes per drawer front.
This is also the stage where I check for any spots I missed with a raking light held at a low angle across the surface. Shadows reveal scratches and low spots that are nearly invisible under normal light. I catch roughly 1 in 10 problem spots this way that I would have otherwise stained over and regretted.
Fine Grits (180 to 320): The Finish-Ready Pass
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For a smooth, professional-feeling result, I finish with 180 grit on most projects, and go up to 220 or even 320 grit on pieces that will get a clear, glossy topcoat where every imperfection shows. Anything finer than 320 grit on raw wood can actually burnish the surface and make stain absorb unevenly, so I stop there rather than chasing a mirror finish before staining.
Between grit changes, I always wipe the surface down with a tack cloth. Skipping this step and moving straight to the next grit just drags leftover coarse particles across the wood, undoing part of the smoothing work. It only takes about 90 seconds per piece but it makes a real difference in the final texture.
My Standard Progression for a Full Refinish
For a typical piece of furniture that needs full finish removal and restaining, here is the sequence I follow every time, without skipping steps even when I am in a hurry:
- 60 grit to strip old finish down to bare wood
- 100 grit to remove coarse scratch marks
- 150 grit to even out the surface
- 180 or 220 grit for the final smoothing pass before stain
- Tack cloth wipe-down between every single grit change
Following this five-step routine on a standard 2-drawer nightstand takes me about 45 minutes total, compared to the nearly 2 hours I used to spend trying to fix mistakes from skipping grits.
Common Mistakes That Ruin the Job
The biggest error I see, and the one I made constantly when I started, is jumping more than one grit level at a time u2014 going from 60 straight to 180, for example. Each grit can only remove the scratch pattern left by the grit roughly one step coarser than itself. Skip a step and you are just polishing over damage instead of removing it.
The second mistake is sanding with the paper until it is completely worn out. A dull sheet of 100 grit behaves more like 220 grit, cuts unevenly, and burns through your patience without doing the job. I replace sheets after about 10 to 15 minutes of continuous use on hardwood, sooner on anything with old paint or finish still clinging to it.
Get the grit sequence right and the actual staining or clear-coating step becomes almost easy, because the wood is doing half the work for you by absorbing evenly. That is the approach I use across all 9 of my properties, and it is the difference between a refinished piece that looks store-bought and one that looks like exactly what it is.
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15 years of landlord experience u00b7 3 apartment buildings u00b7 DIY renovations that saved millions of yen. Browse all articles at diytosan.com
