Fun with Flooring

So a couple of weekends ago, we decided to restore our 85 year old pine flooring in the kitchen. We had taken two layers of sheet vinyl flooring (circa 1970 and 2000) up & out awhile ago. The original pine flooring was, well, worn…really worn. You could see the life that floor had before it was smothered under icky 1970 faux stone vinyl.

You could tell where people walked. You could see where they stood to do the dishes. You could see where a refrigerator had leaked and damaged the floor boards. Against a lot of advice and tsk tsks, we decided that a wood floor in a kitchen was a good idea. We had no idea what we’d find, but full speed ahead. We didn’t want a floor that looked new, a few dings and nail holes (many) were fine. Some discoloration was to be expected. We discussed the inconvenience of moving ovens, fridges, Hoosier’s, etc. into the dining room. We discussed eating frozen food and take out for a few days.

We discussed the dogs…the dogs. The kitchen is at the back of the house. Our barn (where we park) is at the back of the house on the other side of the alley. The backyard is fenced, the front yard is not…It’s been getting cold here…and rainy. The prospect of walking the dogs around to the back of the house for bathroom duties for 3 or 4 days was not attractive.

We did the home reno dance for a while before taking the plunge. The floor looked tired, but we waited. It was impossible to really clean the bare wood, but we waited. There were areas where that floor was splintering and downright dangerous, we put a rug over it and waited. Finally, the thought of the coming winter – and wet shoes and wet paws and holidays and guests crept up on us. It was time.

We discussed stain or natural, Waterlox or polyurethane, hand sanding or pad sanding or drum sanding. Our discussions lasted longer than the actual refinishing.

Finally, we purchased our shellac flakes, polyurethane, denatured alcohol, mops, sponges, paper towels. We mixed our shellac flakes so it would be ready. Thursday, we moved everything out of the kitchen. You know, our kitchen is really good sized when there’s nothing in it. I mopped the floor with denatured alcohol to remove remaining finish. Friday, we rented a sander. Not a drum sander, but a pad sander. We decided putting more gouges into the wood was a bad thing and felt more comfortable with the square orbital type sander. We got gobs of sandpaper. We rented the edger (which to me looked more like some sort of medieval torture device).

We were ready. Sort of.

We started sanding on Friday afternoon. By the time we stopped for the night, I was not happy. The floor was uneven in color. After years of foot traffic, rugs and other floor coverings in different areas, ground-in dirt, water leaks, etc. This floor looked a mess, and sanding hadn’t evened it out. I wanted to cry, I wanted to run to Lowe’s and look at their tile.

We began anew on Saturday…early. It didn’t help. By mid-afternoon, the shellac was ready to go on. We chose amber shellac. I put in on with a foam brush. After the first coat was down, I wanted to cry, I wanted to run to Lowe’s and look at their wall-to-wall carpet.

Some boards resembled cedar – rich red and light golden brown. Some boards resembled pale yellow pine. Some were a warm light brown. And then there were those that, because of the wear pattern, were half and half. It looked, well, icky.

I applied the second coat of shellac. The cedar-like boards deepened to a beautiful striped mahogany and honey look. The pale yellow pine turned day-glo gold and the light brown deepened to ash brown. It was just getting worse. I wanted to run to Lowe’s and look at their sheet vinyl flooring. I was getting desperate.

Before the third coat of shellac, I pulled out my secret weapon, garnet colored shellac. I reckoned that if I hit those day-glo gold spots with the garnet, blending them in with the darker sections for board, it might not look so…well, icky.

The deed done, on went the third coat of amber shellac. Then another blending coat on the day-glo boards and a final coat of amber. The final result was good. You could still see noticable difference, but they weren’t quite as glaring.

We quite for the day knowing that Sunday brought the polyurethane.

We had the good fortune to meet the owner of a local Benjamin Moore store who was renovating his 1900 Victorian. He too had restored his wood kitchen floors and recommended Zip-Guard as our final coat. He assured us it was not plastic looking and he had been very happy with the result. We bought a gallon (and a quart for insurance since we’d be doing it over the weekend) and took it home. We had decided to spray the poly on instead of brushing for a couple of reasons: 1) it would be a smoother look and 2) Dennis onced worked at an auto-body shop and he liked spraying. I agreed because 1) I like it when he’s happy and 2) I wouldn’t have to do anything.

We got up early on Sunday morning and Dennis started masking off the baseboard. I was in another room when I heard “Ahhh-owwww, sh!t”. I knew that wasn’t good.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked, barely peeking in the room.
“No.” He said.
“What happened?”
“I got a splinter”
“Where?”
“I was sitting on the floor here masking off the baseboard and slid down to the next section” Oh man! This wasn’t good. I knew what was coming.
“I felt it go in, and I think I felt it break off”
“Uh, do you want me to look at it?”
“Yes.”
The splinter had found a home in the center of the left cheek. I could tell where it went in, but there was nothing on the surface. I could feel something in there, and it felt substantial.
“Just get some tweezers and get it out.” I got the tweezers and alcohol, but there was nothing to grab on to.
“Well, get a needle and dig it out”, he said.
“No. I can’t see anything. Not even a indication of anything. It’s in there deep.”
“Well , we’re going to have to go to the emergency room”

Off we went…boy, this was reallly going to put us behind schedule (no pun intended). When the triage nurse asked him to write down what he was there for, it was all he could do to write down a somber ‘splinter removal’. We were taken to an exam room. Almost immediately, the intake nurse came in to the exam room and, after reviewing the triage form, asked where the splinter was. Dennis & I both exploded in laughter. She spun around, and said “Not in your behind!?” A quick recounting of the story sent the nurse out, bemused.

The doctor came in shortly afterward, and after some light-hearted chit-chat, she proceeded with to probe around with tweezers. That lasted maybe 5 minutes. She seemed perplexed. She numbed the area and brought out the scalpel. She probed and tugged for another 5 minutes. Then, voila, she lifts the tweezers to present a one and a half inch toothpick sized sliver of wood. (No kidding, we measured it).

“Wow”, she said.
“Holy Hannah”, I said.
“What?”, Dennis said.

We all marveled at the size of that splinter and how deeply embedded it was, Dennis got a tetanus shot, a prescription for antibiotics, and off we went.

Back to the floor. Three coats of poly were applied. Late Sunday evening. First thing Monday morning and late Monday evening. The smell was nasty,but tolerable.

The floor has a lovely honey color to it on the light boads and a warm brownish-red on other boards. The couple of rough areas are flooded with poly and pose no further threat to feet or rumps.

We have a beautiful floor, we didn’t kill ourselves, and we didn’t kill each other.

It’s all good.

Floor before

Floor after

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