It occurred to me that while I posted a summary of our living room and family room floor refinishing, I really didn’t recount the nitty gritty details of the event nor did I post any photos of the process.
The floor was carpeted when we moved in. It was an grey-beige berber that, as we understand it, was laid in about 2001. The previous owners had three little girls, two cats and a dog. They appreciated the wood floor, and had intended to refinish it, but decided to wait until the house was a little less active.
We knew we wanted to expose the wood floors and it didn’t take too long before I began to peek underneath the loose edges of carpets to see if I could ascertain the condition of the floor. It seemed in good condition based on what was visible. Some time after that, I took a vacation day from work. Without Dennis to watch me (read stop me), I took a razor knife and began sectioning off areas of carpet in the family room. As I started to pull the carpet up, it became clear that the actual color of the carpet was an oatmeal color. It was just that dirty that it appeared grey-ish. Icky. The dust & smell that came up as I cut and pulled up that carpet was scary…especially considering its’ young age – about 2 years.
Dennis was, well, surprised when he came home from work.
The floor was in great shape. There was no structural damage that we could see. The only problems were cosmetic. There were spotty areas where the shellac had soften and taken on the waffle pattern of carpet pad laid long, long ago. Those areas only accounted for maybe 20% of the room. Unfortunately, some of the 20% were in high visibility areas in the room. And, the 85 year old finish looked tired. We decided to plop a room size area rug down that would cover most of the problem areas and address it later.
View into living room
Family room
So later came over the Memorial Day weekend. We decided to refinish to family room and living room floors over our week-long vacation — and still have time to do a couple of fun things! Yeah…. The tree saga set our refinishing project back a couple of days, but once we got started, away we went. Yeah….
Dennis had decided not to reserve a sander because, really, who would choose the Memorial Day weekend to refinish their floor besides us? Well, more people that you would think. After much calling, we located one about 30 minutes away at a Home Depot store that had tool rental. So, off we went. We loaded the heavy beast into the truck and trekked the 25 miles back home. We unloaded. We plugged in. We had every filling in our heads loosened because of the vibration of the sander and every dog in the neighborhood baying because of the high-pitched, metal grinding sound it produced. The thing had a mind of it’s own. It was going where it wanted. It reminded me of the (very) few experiences I had bowling. Those balls just go where they want. The sander was so heavy, I simply could not keep it from floating to the right. Although I told Dennis that this would be my project (he had a lot of outside work to do), I had to relinquish the beast to him.
After running the thing for 2 minute intervals over 30 minutes, saying plenty of bad things and thinking worse, we called Home Dept. Did they have another one? Yes, bring it back. We did — another 30 minute ride there. Took it in. They would exchange for another, but not extend our time because, you know, we had been using it. Oh, pu-leeze. It didn’t make sense to argue, we were just wasting time. Drive 30 minutes back. Plug in. Much better!
We sanded quite a while. The oak floor held on to the shellac in a way the pine floor in the kitchen did not. Additionally, the pattern of the floor, concentric rectangles, made it difficult to get into the nooks and cranies between the boards. We didn’t want to sand too surface off the floor, just remove the shellac. We got 99.9% of it off and figured that the remaining would blend with the new shellac we intended to use. I mopped with denatured alcohol and got my shellac ready.
Between sanding sessions.
The problem was two-fold: 1) the narrow boards were not forgiving with lap lines and 2) the pattern made it difficult to easily follow the boards. And, it turns out, there was much more unseen shellac remaining than we thought. After a few feet of shellac, it looked awful. Blotchy and messy. We waited for the shellac to dry to see if it would ‘settle in’.
It didn’t.
We got out the denatured alcohol. We got down on our hands and knees and started sloshing, mopping and wiping. Breathing those fumes for house…reallllllly irritating.
We did that 3 times. While waiting for the alcohol to dry, we stepped outside and tried to regain our vision and remember our names. We might have also questioned the actual importance of hardwood floors.
When it came time to do the living room, our initial salvo was the denatured alcohol. Three mopping and wiping sessions, several sandings, and a couple more moppings.
In the background, our weapon of choice, denatured alcohol. By the door, the area the P.O.s had finished with poly-urethane (along with the dining room). In the foreground, project supervisor evaluating our work.
After the floor was totally clean, we reconsidered our finishing decisions. We decided just to apply the urethane and forgo the shellac. We liked the ZipGuard on the kitchen floor. It provided a subtle amber-gold glow that we thought might be enough.
So, we spent several house taping up the woodwork and lower walls. Dennis got his spray guns ready and started the process. Spray, wait, spray, wait, spray, wait. Three coats spaced about 12 hours apart. After each coat, we peeked in like kids at Christmas. Ooohhhh, ahhhhh, look how pretty.
We probably didn’t wait long enough to move the furniture back in. But we carried it in and set it down gingerly. It did look nice. We decided, for the summer at least, we are not putting an area rug down. We still grimmace every time the dogs run across it, but it is holding up nicely.
Family room
Family room
Living room
Living room
Next on the list: the upstairs rooms. Good news? They are in good shape. Bad news? Most of the shellac is still in tact. Alcohol anyone?
[...] The floor is asking for a drink of denatured alcohol. That is an experience I am not anxious to repeat, but 1) I know it will be worth it in the end and 2) we won’t be doing it in the heat and humidity and 3) I think I have a few brain cells I haven’t damaged yet. [...]