We finished sanding and sealing the floors last week. The process took a little longer than we thought it would at first.
When we originally rented the sander I was concerned about the sanding pads being too aggressive so I bought mainly 80 grit pads. When I tried these on the floor they hardly made a dent in the existing floor finish (4 layers of paint and one of varnish). So I went down to 60...then 36....then eventually 24 grit. I think this is all due to the fact that the fir for the floors was all cut over 100 years ago and came from old growth trees with very tight growth rings.
After finishing up with the rented random orbital sander I had to go around the edges and the lower boards in the middle with the hand sander. This process took another couple of days for the two rooms. We are planning on putting in a 3/4" quarter round at junction of the baseboard and floor so I didn't have to get all of the old finish off right up to the baseboard.
Following this, I had to replace a couple of boards that were broken in the middle of the floor (I used a couple of boards from the coat closet) and use some plugs to fill holes in the floor.
And after all of this...three coats of oil based polyurathane with hand sanding between coats. It is amazing how dark the floors are, almost look like mahogany!
The finished floors look fantastic! Andra and I are checking out your progress and we're quite impressed. We can't wait to come see it in person. I hear you have already been having guests visiting the new home.
ReplyDeleteThis looks absolutely amazing! Just beautiful. I can't believe how much you two have accomplished in just a few weeks!!!
ReplyDeleteMel