What can be said, I have not written a word in awhile, but we have laid and sanded more than words can express.
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What can be said, I have not written a word in awhile, but we have laid and sanded more than words can express.
The yellow pine job that the horse walked on is done, but what a job it was getting the stain right. The dust would plug up the upper roller, so after each cut we had to stop and clean the unit. We found out the floor in the area where the horse walked was so thin that we could not do the best hard-plating job, and the knots were a pain in the bu--ffer. (I did not want to use bad words, sorry young readers.)
We hit the floor with every hand tool and soft plate, but there was still a roll in the floor that we could not get out. The floor is done and paper thin, so hand work was the only way to get all the scratches out. The stain was not difficult, just tough to keep even; pine is not a good one to stain, as we all know.
Here is the floor after sanding:
Here's what happened all the time with the upper roller:
Here's the floor after staining:
... and with the finish on it:
The next task was the 1,600 feet of the thermo-treated maple. We installed it and let it sit for a bit so it would do what it was going to do as far as movement. We have not sanded thermo flooring before, so in a few words... dawg, it was a huge task! The flooring cut like butter, but each and every scratch from the paper was very hard to remove. We started with the big machine and 40 grit to get the overwood gone, next we tried 60 grit, but it cut the flooring so fast and bad that we knew there was no way the scratch would come out. We made a few cuts and put it back on the trailer. I got the multi-disc sander out with 50 grit, and thank God, it worked! From that point on, we only used the multi-disc sander on the job all the way to 100 grit. We did not skip a grit, we went 50-60-80-100, and I have got to say it was flat as a tabletop.
The next task was to get the fine scratch out from the multi-disc sander, so the 12x18 orbital sander had to come out of the trailer. We used 120-grit with a thick red pad and a SPP pad to keep it flat. My fear was the floor would be so smooth that it would not take finish. Here is a photo showing where we had to do a tape line; the right part has finish and the left part is unfinished (but is so slick it looks like it has finish on it):
We had the Monocoat going on this job, so knowing that we were going to buff in the finish put my mind at rest. You can see from the photo how flat and smooth it was and the cut line we had from the hall to the bedroom. I have never got a floor this slick and hope I never have to again. The thermo flooring was one of the hardest floors we have sanded. It was like sanding plastic; you can get it smooth, but you always see a scratch. We did hand work and hand work and more hand work just to get it scratch free. I am worn out from both jobs.
I have to go back to the job and install the doors, go over the floor and make sure that we did not miss anything. I am so looking forward to a floor that is just seal and coats of poly. I start that in the morning; it will be a walk in the park compared to the last two jobs. We start a 1,100-foot resand in town-an old floor that needs to be made to look like new. It will be so sweet to just do the same-old, same-old on a floor.
The good news is we have a few jobs in a row, so that will help with getting the funds for the NWFA Expo in Orlando; I am still looking forward to the going to the show and getting a rest. We were lucky to get the last seven estimates approved, so we are seven-for-seven, and, no, we were not the lowest bids. It was a joy to sell the job, not bid the job. The other trades just came in, gave a flat price then said, "We can start next week." Well, our time looking under the house, checking the subfloor and all that we do to share the skills needed to complete the job paid off. I am glad they took the time with us and very glad to see the lower price guys get the message that it is a craft we do, not a job.
Well this is getting long. I hope the photos we sent in show the work that had to go into the floors. We pulled the rabbit out of the hat on both jobs and, like I said, thank God they both look good.