Sanded a hardwood floor today..

[jake00]

Jake00, what has changed, if anything, in the floor refinishing trade in the last 20-30 years? WEll, Im a youngin, But My dad (owns the BIZ) has been doing it since the 70's. Nowadays lotsa people are installing prefinished floorin, Waterbased Finishes are popular, and we seem to be manufacturing ALOT of hand scraped flooring. Some companys have machines to produce the "hand scraped" look, We actually do It by hand

[jake00]

Should I wax the bedroom and the hall? What with?
Should I wax the newly finished floor? What with?

I would Not wax the floors unless you ARe not going to sand them ever again.
I use Polycare to clean my floors, a dust mop also works.

WHATEVER you do, DONOT use murphys oil soap

[Birdhunter1]

Why not the Murphy's oil soap? I had actually thought about using that.

I will not EVER sand this floor again, I'll probably try to sell this house in a few years.
What is Polycare? How do you use it?

The bedroom floor has sort of a greasy/waxy/film on it from the carpet mat. The floor looks great under it, what should I clean that one with?

[sierraben]

Jake00, is that scraped floor the same thing as distressed wood floor?

If it is, it seems to be the current trend in a lot of homes. Same as furniture.

I've seen new siding with that distressed look.

I like the way Norm Abram takes old flooring and utlilizes it on these old New England homes.

Hey, why not.

[lariat97]

The distressed look is very popular now. I repair & touchup cabinet finishes. My company sells lots of this finish. Its one of the hardest finishes to touchup & hide the repair. I hate it when I have to work in a house that is having the hardwood sanded in it. The dust bad. I do like the look of hardwood floors. I grew up in a house with hardwood throughout the house except the kitchen. Its floors are 54yrs old & still look great. They have been refinished once.

[John2Thomas]

I have 2500 sq feet of wide hard maple flooring in my house, I nailed every single piece. After it was sanded, (only $1/foot, so I let someone else do the dirty work), I applied 5 coats of water base satin finish. 12 years later with 2 kids, 2 big dogs and 2 cats the floors still look good. At least once a week the kids do the swiffer routine and about every 3 months my wife takes a wet mop to the floor. I know water and wood don't mix.... But it's working for us.

The nice thing about water based poly - it's self leveling, dries in 45 minutes and there is no odor. I did all 5 coats with a 4 inch brush. Some folks simply mop it on, but I wanted a consistent even finish, no puddles...

[jake00]

Hand scraped is sommiliar to distressing. We actually take Scrapers and scrape the entire surface of the board, While distressing, we litterly beat the wood with objects such as hammers,, chains, screwdrivers and nails to give it anb "old" look.

[Birdhunter1]

****UPDATE****

Saturday afternoon I applied a second coat of stain.
Monday morning I applied the first coat of polyurethane. It said dries in 2-3 hours. about 5 hours later i lightly sanded the poly with 22- grit sandpaper and applied a second coat.

Tuesday morning the floor will get lighlty sanded again and a 3rd and final coat of poly will be applied to the floor.
Wednesday and Thursday I will be finally moving into the house.

I will have some trim work to paint and some to stain but that is no big deal.
I also have a small hallway (adjoining living room that just got floor refinished) that i am going to refinish to match the newly redone floor that I will be doing in the upcoming month. It's not real big so it will get hand sanded most likely instead of renting the floor sander again. Like I said it is a small hallway, I can work around it and I am not in as big of a hurry to get it done like I was on the living room.

[bigrigfixer]

Sounds like you're on your way. And you know what? The few hundred bucks you put into that floor will make your home worth thousands more.

I helped my buddy redo his floors once. Actually, there was a "nailing party" where we all got a hammer and nail punch, and a jiffy marker. We started off with a one foot square, and drove down the nails. Then crossed out the square and moved on to another square. With 15 of us, we were done in about 4 hours. Would have been done in 2 if it weren't for all the beer consumed...

Anyway, the beauty of it was my friend's dad then went around with wood filler, then knocked it down with the same sander you used. But the important part was there was no smoking allowed from when the sander started to when the shellack was done.

Turned out to be a nice floor. Too bad they don't live there anymore.

[sierraben]

It is rewarding, that much is for sure.

I put down 500 square feet of pre-finished 3/4'' oak flooring some time ago.

Came out good, but what a job. I couldn't afford the rent a nailer, so I had to pre-drill, nail and set every nail every 8 inches on 2 1/2'' wide strips.

Did go through a few drill bits.

But none the less, rewarding.

My hats off to those who get/got down and did the work themselves.

[natsoundup]

don't know how I found this forum..i am usually talking about my expedition.

I have a 75 year old house that has hardwoods throughout that are in great shape.

i found some in the kitchen under 8, yes 8 layers of linoleum, luan, whatever....

anyway... i have a fairly deep "toe-kick" underneath my cabinets.... will professional sanders get under there with the low clearance?

I am going to have someone else do the sanding...i did this job 23 years ago in my first house.... one of the toughest jobs i ever did...floors came out beautifully....

i have about 225 sq feet to be sanded in the kitchen...

thanks for any advice..

[sierraben]

natsoundup, there is a sander that is made to go under low clearance places, like the old steam radiators; and toekicks.

Depending on how far back is your toekick is, an edger may work.

Yes, definitely a tough job. Not for ones of older age with back problems.

[natsoundup]

thanks for the sanding equipment advice...

I am no target with getting this done at the end of March...it will be the next to the last thing in my kitchen renovation.

[jake00]

An edger will work as long as its designed to go under stuff.

[spikedog]

Wish I had that edger when I did a bedroom floor about 15 years ago. The former owner looked like he kept hamsters right on the hardwood, so it was in sad shape.

I spent 2 months refurbishing my granddad's huge old handheld belt sander (about a 4" x 8"), then found out in 5 minutes that was totally inadequate. Rented one of those drum sanders - that's pretty scary to run. If I stayed in one place too long, I was almost thru the floor completely (is that what a "cigar" is?). Lots of putty, then the Varathane satin finish. Looked great - what a sense of accomplishment when it's all done. Would I do it again - hmmmm?