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Post by holmz on Nov 13, 2018 8:05:10 GMT -5
I have an older house which is a ways away from where I am at now and a friend who is interested in moving in and organising repairs.
Back on 29 April 1992, I "chucked a sickie" and sanded the oak flooring with a belt sander. This was an all day effort and I do not recall what grit I used. i remember the date well, as when I finished up around 8pm I ordered dinner from a nice restaurant, I was puzzled when there was no one there and the lady rambled on about riots. Which I found out when I turned on the TV was the LA riots following the Rodney King trial.
So any recommendations? i can either get a floor finishing group in for 3-5 $ per square foot. or I can get some local help from in front of Home Depot and have them use a belt sander and a random orbital on the edges.
And then refinish it with some good marine grade varnish.
Thoughts? Advice? it is a small 2 bedroom, with a dining room and living room and hallway with the oak.
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Post by rizzoa13 on Nov 13, 2018 21:14:01 GMT -5
Do yourself an enormous favor and rent the 130$ drum sander from depot. If you have an RO90 you could do the edges but a real edge sander would work much better and give you less chance of gouging.
I used my old tired Festool vac when I refinished my floors and it was pretty much dust free, just had to empty the bag a few times.
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Post by Tom Gensmer on Nov 13, 2018 21:24:48 GMT -5
I have a pile of 800 square feet of 1.5" wide x 3/4" Red Oak #1 grade Rift+Quartered floor sitting my living room just waiting for me to have a day off so I can start laying it (we're currently living in the basement, so my wife is anxious for my work schedule to slow down!). Once installed, I'm contemplating sanding it myself. The outlet I bought the flooring from also rents sanding equipment. They have several 110v drum sanders that are supposed to be pretty user-friendly (albeit somewhat slow), otherwise they also rent out a 220v Hummel, though that tool will ruin a floor in a heartbeat if you let it get away from you. Either way, you're sanding while standing up, so you'd only need to crouch when running the edger. Anyways, my point being that there is a middle ground between sanding it yourself with a belt sander, and hiring it out. Pete's is a on-of location, but I imagine there may be something similar in your neighborhood: www.peteshardwoodfloors.comAlso, note that if you skip staining your floor it is much more forgiving of imperfections (stain will tend to magnify scratches, particularly across the grain), and many oil-based finishes will be a little more forgiving than water-based due to their slower drying times. For my home, we've agreed to use an oil-based polyurethane and no stain. Best of luck!
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Post by holmz on Nov 13, 2018 21:57:22 GMT -5
Thanks Guys...
Question #2: I am leaning towards Epifanes varnish in gloss . None of eth areas are 'wet'.
??
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Post by Tom Gensmer on Nov 13, 2018 23:10:07 GMT -5
Generally, lower-luster finishes will be more forgiving than higher luster. So, a "Gloss" finish will look neat but it will also more readily show imperfections in the installation and will likely show scratches more readily as you live in the space.
Everybody is going to have a different personal preference. I tend to err on the side of lower-luster paints and finishes, to my eye gloss finishes tend to look "plasticky", plus I personally enjoy the more subdued sheen of a satin or matte finish. I'm planning on a matte finish for our floors.
That being said, keep in mind that anything other than a gloss finish will have particulate matter hung in suspension in the finish, which serves to diffuse the light (thus the "satin" look...). If you build up your layers with Satin finish you'll obscure the grain and beauty of the wood due to the accumulation of the particulates. So, you'll generally want all of your base layers in gloss, then your final coat will be of the sheen you ultimately want to go with. So, for my floor I'll likely do two or three layers of Gloss, followed by a final coat of matte or satin.
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