Floored!

It took all weekend to refinish the hardwood floors in two rooms. I think they will look great!

The living room floor finish was worn thru in the center, and worn or faded or stained all around.
























Bedroom was in even worse shape (pic below), with gouges left by probably years of bed frame moving and sliding around. I won't go any further with that one. The Home Depot drum-sander was $50 for 24 hrs use. Picture BELOW shows part of the original finish, and the lighter wood is what I had sanded thus far. How to sand: Sand by going from coarser to finer grit sandpaper. The drum sander uses special band sleeves that slip over the drum. You can see an unused sandpaper - black thing in front of sander. I used the following grit-sizes: 24, 36, 60, then finally 80 (higher number means finer - or smoother - grit). It took about 4 hrs per room with drum sander, then the edges took 12 hours.



































The edges took TONS of time! Because the drum-sander does only comes to 3 or 4 inches from the wall, can you see? Around and around and around the rooms. I finished 3AM Sunday morning. Here I am covered in saw dust. The orange machine by my shoe is a Black & Decker "Dragster" 3" x 21" (sandpaper size) sander - $40 at Home Depot . Same as with the drum sander, I used 4 grit-sizes. The Dragster has a low profile front, good for getting under baseboard heaters!!!

































After sanding and much sweeping, vacuuming, equipment repair (I accidentally got a drop cloth wound into the sander!), showers, scrubbing the walls, not without chiropractor break then sandwiches with Heather at Plum Tomato, then more sanding, I was ready to lay on the polyurethane. I did not stain the wood, because I am going for a "natural" wood look and feel, and want the floors to be bright and cheerful.

Bedroom after 1 layer polyurethane is shown below. The brand I used: "Pro Finisher by Parks - Water-Base Polyurethane for Floors - Crystal Clear Satin finish". I applied successive coats with lambs wool pad on a paint pole attachment.






















Living room floor, from stairs. The diagaonal streak is sunlight thru front door - the bright streak is the "real" floor color!

















Some floor-finishing goodies: Sanding belts, drywall sanding strips (150 & 220-grit - good for buffing between polyurethane coats), vapor mask, lambswool pad (yellow package).



View of apple blossoms from deck chair, on which I collapsed after a ton of cleanup such as washing poly & sawdust out of buckets, wiping sawdust off tools and electrical cords, organizing. I made 4 trips to Home Depot during the weekend!



And more spring blossoms.






This week, 2 more coats poly then done! I can put furniture back next weekend because you should wait a few days for the floors to fully cure.