One sheet of 220-grit SandNet (on long foam block at right) sanded more than 1,110 square feet of skim-coated plaster.
One sheet of 220-grit SandNet (on long foam block at right) sanded more than 1,110 square feet of skim-coated plaster.

My first experience with Diablo’s SandNet came at the end of taping out drywall ceilings and repairing plaster walls in two rooms with 11-foot ceilings. I had jumped into this job looking forward to the end when I could test out a fancy new power drywall sander. Suffice to say that I beat myself up using that fancy sander (a topic for another review); it was a heavy beast, but I kept at it and managed to finish both ceilings. I was determined to take advantage of the vacuum on it and not face that unique hell of staring upward into a rain of drywall dust.

After the ceilings, I still had the skim-coated wall area to sand out and looked for an alternative. On a whim, I had picked up a pack of 220-grit SandNet and a foam block by Diablo. What a dream this turned out to be, especially after wrestling that beast. Sanding walls is easier than doing ceilings; the dust falls harmlessly down the wall to pile up along the baseboard. Best of all, I ended up using just one sheet of SandNet for over 1,100 square feet of wall area.

SandNet is an open-weave nylon mesh with abrasives along the nylon fibers. Impressively, it does not clog. The abrasive sheet will eventually dull, but drywall dust falls away and does not clump on the surface. An occasional shake was all that was needed.

For tough sanding of epoxy floor patches, a foam pad (which is included in each pack of discs) is required on the sander. This helps extend the life of the disc; in this sort of application, SandNet discs last about twice as long as paper discs. But at four to five times the cost, they leave much to be desired.
For tough sanding of epoxy floor patches, a foam pad (which is included in each pack of discs) is required on the sander. This helps extend the life of the disc; in this sort of application, SandNet discs last about twice as long as paper discs. But at four to five times the cost, they leave much to be desired.

Enthusiastic to use SandNet again, I tackled sanding out epoxy repairs on old wood floors with a 5-inch random-orbit sander. (SandNet comes in a wide range of configurations for most hand and small power sanders, excluding belt sanders.)

Epoxy is challenging for any abrasive, as the sticky dust gums up quickly. I can’t say that SandNet is any better than any other abrasive, and at $2.50 to $3 a disc (versus about 60 cents for a paper disc), it’s quite a bit pricier. On the open floor areas (a mix of unpainted and painted wood), SandNet did much better, but not nearly the “lasts 10x longer” that is printed on the package. A vacuum hose on the sander easily pulled dust through the net and clogging wasn’t a factor. But the abrasive did dull and the edges frayed. Curiously, 80-grit discs seemed to fare worse than 120-grit discs, which did as well but lasted longer. I would venture they last two to three times longer than paper. But at their price, that doesn’t net out to a savings. For any hand sanding, I’d choose SandNet; for power sanding, I’ll stick with paper. diablotools.com