hard wood floors

Sting wrote:YOU lost your shop and you retained your humor Hats off to you - wish I could help but didn't you post once your a traveler? That should help.

If I don't keep my sense of humor, I just might have taken a walk with the shotty. Seems like I'm always the one to take the hit and I'm usually the one who picks the wrong lane at the toll both. Yep I have traveled to the East and back. It's just the short notice that sucks the big one.

But I will survive. I've got grandkids that I need to teach some rotten things to so they can terrorize their parents like they did to us growing up.

At least I got to keep my Hyfire from the shop. It will be used again somewhere.


Good luck on the project at keep at it.



Rick

ok everyone like pictures including me - here I am still sanding off the botched stain job --

now what was this about wetting the floor first and then staining???

That's a pretty floor my friend. Well worth the time & energy. I know I'm getting old, but, I've done alot of floors & figure that the wetting the floor is just some new fangled thing that I don't see any advantage too.I know that when my sanding is done, after shop vacuuming I do use a damp cloth to get any surplus dust off the floor. Nice Bay window STING

Sting wrote:now what was this about wetting the floor first and then staining???

I don't know what the advice was but If you wet it that will raise the grain. I do this with furniture I'm about to stain but then I sand it again. When you apply the stain it won't raise the grain as much.

Forgot to mention one thing I did, I sanded with 220 on palm sander after the first two coats of clear but not the last coat. Real quickly, basically moving the sander over the surface as fast as you can. That does a lot to improve the finish. Make sure you let it dry longer than they state so it's really hard and doesn't gum up the sandpaper.

Make sure you use an orbital If you do that

freetown fred wrote:Make sure you use an orbital If you do that

I wouldn't be using rotary sander on wood for anything including this job. Lot's of little scratches against the grain.

HAHAHA the macho world of floor refinishing. 1000 floors and a thousand techniques....

You are talking palm sanders--the reason I use the orbital (palm sander) is that it does not leave any mars--I used it especially refinishing antiques--the concept was new to me--but proved to be tried & true. I was surprised so tried some small test spots.I was happily surprised. Remember, the key words--finish (220) & lightly>

Richard S. wrote:

freetown fred wrote:Make sure you use an orbital If you do that

I wouldn't be using rotary sander on wood for anything including this job. Lot's of little scratches against the grain.

Well first I have to get the botched stain job off

Then the hardware store wench suggested I wipe the 80 grit scratch with Mineral Sprites to raise the scratch to my view - so Ill do that and sand the floor with a roll of 120 I have.

After sanding to 120 I am sure I will loose my ambition to sand it again - but

It Depends

or

I may be in Depends by then


ok --- time to go lite up the compressor and turn up my IPOD. Drinking heavily later

When I think of 'hardwood floors' I see images of Stings avatars......

Good Lord, you have an I-Pod---I'm disappointed ---if it looks good with the 120, have at the stain---good idea the wench came up with--musta learned it off some guy -do a test area

Sting wrote:Well first I have to get the botched stain job off

Then the hardware store wench suggested I wipe the 80 grit scratch with Mineral Sprites to raise the scratch to my view - so Ill do that and sand the floor with a roll of 120 I have.

After sanding to 120 I am sure I will loose my ambition to sand it again - but

It Depends

or

I may be in Depends by then


ok --- time to go lite up the compressor and turn up my IPOD. Drinking heavily later

Sting wrote:I already finished some "less abused" floors with just a red shellac

I like the color

We refinished all of the wood floors in our last house with amber shellac. Many of them had been seriously "abused", but with an ammonia wash (ok, that stuff is nasty, but not intolerable if you use even a homeowner floor scrubbing machine) and a light rinse they're ready to go. With no sanding the job is easier and - as we have proven - can be done by amateurs. Especially considering what we started with, we were very happy with the the results, which look "authentic" in an older home.

It also should be remembered that sanding removes a portion of the "meat" from the top of the floorboards, and moves you closer to needing a new floor. In our experience, shellac can provide good results without extensive sanding, extending the life of the floor. It's also easy to fix any boo-boos.

Mike

I already did three rooms with the amber shellac

I gave up as it was too difficult to apply. As noted the poly clear is a breeze to slick on - but this staining gig is uncharted terratory for me.

I HATE WOOD THINGS

I spent less time - knocking all the 4 inch transmission lines out of my basement when I removed the gravity one zone system -plus I painted the rooms adding an insecticide to kill off all the buggie things that were lurking - I set up my old pipe driver and configured 22 zones on two manifolds. That was fun compared to this crap.

I HATE WOOD THINGS