Help please! Trouble refinishing old wood floors. Can't get down to bare wood.?

Hi All,

I'm hoping you'll have some advice for me! I posted this in Woodworking too since I wasn't 100% sure where it went. I hope that's okay - we're in a huge hurry and any advice is appreciated!

My husband and I purchased a 90 year old home and are refinishing the floors ourselves on a very tight budget. The floors were very thin already so we were not able to use a drum sander on them so we used a floor orbital sander.

It worked okay at best. The floors were too uneven that the sander couldn't reach everywhere. So there are a lot of spots that are still "shiny" and smooth and have the top coat on it. Obviously these areas will not take stain. We tried a palm sander to no avail and using stripper + a putty knife does not seem to get it deep enough to bare wood that it will take stain either.

Would a random orbital sander (handheld) be better? We tried a regular palm sheet sander and that didn't work. Any advice?? Anyone know of any magic stain that will stain through old top coats lol?

Thanks!

Help please! Trouble refinishing old wood floors. Can't get down to bare wood.?