{"id":330,"date":"2012-12-26T19:11:12","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T19:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.formstonecastle.com\/?p=330"},"modified":"2014-06-30T23:05:40","modified_gmt":"2014-06-30T23:05:40","slug":"refinished-floors-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.formstonecastle.com\/house\/?p=330","title":{"rendered":"Refinished Floors for Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Passing<\/a>

Passing out on a heated floor isnt too bad!<\/p><\/div>\n

Merry Christmas! \u00a0Yesterday we celebrated Christmas on the 3rd floor. \u00a0The newly oiled floors had only been prepared 24 hours earlier. \u00a0We couldn’t wait another hour to try them out. \u00a0We’re quite amazed how nice they look for 130 year original floors. They had been covered since 1953 by linoleum and painted long before that. \u00a0 \u00a0Here is how we got from that to this:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The colors in the wood are just amazing. They range from bright yellow to dark red. Very warm!<\/p><\/div>\n

Going way back to our first weeks working on the house, we see how we got started. \u00a0Once the laths and plaster from the ceiling and (super shitty) dividing walls were down, we tore up the carpet and everything under it down to the subfloor.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The layers coming up.<\/p><\/div>\n

In most spots there was carpet on top, masonite under that, linoleum under that and then scattered around we found newspapers dated December 1953. \u00a0Underneath were ~7\/8″ tongue and groove pine planks painted in maybe a dozen different colors. \u00a0These patches told the stories of previous layouts and walls. \u00a0We\u00a0salvaged\u00a0a few boards when we replaced the bathroom subfloor with plywood. \u00a0These board were used to replace board that had been damaged when the house was retrofitted with electric decades earlier. \u00a0On this floor we worked for several months as we fixed bricks, erected walls, and did drywall.<\/p>\n

Once the dusty job of drywall was finished, it was time to do the floors. \u00a0We went over them looking for nails and scraping dirty and plaster out from between the gaps. \u00a0Its amazing how much came up from these gaps.<\/p>\n

\"Antique<\/a>

Antique dirt from between the boards!<\/p><\/div>\n

We did a little scraping before the first sanding and a little after when it was easier to tell what was wood and what was not.<\/p>\n

Neither of us had sanded a floor before. \u00a0I had watched some Youtube videos and read some tips. \u00a0Everyone made it sound like we were going to ruin our floors. \u00a0Even the guys at Home Depot Tool Rental said we should use a vibrating sander and not a floor sander. \u00a0I was convinced I’d look away for a second and find that I had sanded all the way through to the joists below. \u00a0We were happy that weekend to have a large crew of 7. \u00a0Unfortunately, I had caught some sort of stomach bug the night before and was in no shape to be working on anything<\/p>\n

The bad reputation of the drum sander turned out to be completely unfounded. \u00a0We had intended to rent it for 4 hours in order to rough sand the top floors. \u00a0After the 1st hour we decided we’d need to keep the machine for 24 hours just to rough in a single floor. \u00a0The cupping of the boards along with other flaws required some serious sanding time even with the coarsest 24 grit paper. \u00a0We learned that sanding diagonally evened out the boards faster.<\/p>\n

Most of this happened while I was in bed at home so we didnt get a ton of photos that day, but here are some a week later when I did the 2nd floor.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

First Pass. Remove enough to see the nails that were hidden by paint.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This<\/a>

This is the 2nd floor after 24, 36 and 60 grit paper. Colors in the grain really start to come out after 60 grit. \u00a0You can hardly see the thousands of nail holes in this photo. \u00a0The 2nd Floor has tons.<\/p><\/div>\n

After a final sanding with 60 and then 100 grit paper, the colors of the wood just glowed. \u00a0There were bright yellows, reds and oranges. \u00a0Every board was different.<\/p>\n

Siri and I decided that we would oil the floors rather than use polyurethane. \u00a0This was the old method of finishing floors. \u00a0It has more of a satin finish to it, but that’s what we wanted. \u00a0One benefit is that if you scratch the floor, you can just sand it out and oil it with a rag.<\/p>\n

\"Siri<\/a>

Siri and the buffing machine<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This<\/a>

This is the 3rd Floor pretty much finished. What a transformation!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merry Christmas! \u00a0Yesterday we celebrated Christmas on the 3rd floor. \u00a0The newly oiled floors had only been prepared 24 hours …<\/p>\n

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