135 Pounds of Shake and Bake

Wayne Lee Headshot
cork flooring tile
cork flooring tile

I spent the day working on the cork flooring, sanding it flat with an orbital sander. I have two units: the Clarke OBS 18 DC and the Square Scrub EB-20, and with these units I can pick my best weapon, so to speak. The OBS did not have enough weight for my liking on this job so I went with the Square Scrub because it is 135 lbs. of what we call shake and bake.

I had on a ¾" thick red pad with a ¼" thick SPP pad and a 100-grit sheet of sand paper. The reason to make the cut that soft with 135 lbs. seems odd, but we needed it to stay flat and cut at the same time. The 3/4" red pad will keep me flat and the 1/4" SPP pad keeps the cut working with out the deep scratch. I've got to be honest: That is a trick Mr. Boone showed me many years ago.

The cork flooring is great, and I cannot wait to put on two coats of water base. My desire was oil but the manufacturer said they want water on it...so not to void the warranty, water is the finish. The subfloor prep was tough because the paint and drywall folks just made a mess; the real sad deal is that carpet installer had just left it all and put down the pad and carpet. I used my 16" buffer with dust control to get it all off; then we pulled a string to make sure it was flat before the install: 1/8" in 10'. It would have been better to get it 1/16" in 8', but they did not have the funds for us to get it that way.

Overall it looks cool; the cork has a flavor unlike carpet and the homeowner likes the look. Here's a snapshot:

 

cork flooring tilecork flooring tile

 

This is Nash's house (the young man I've talked about before who lost his dad) and he came home from school and helped me finish the last bit of sanding, this has been a big job, but we are just about done with the hard stuff and will start to review room by room to make sure we did not miss anything. We do have to install 10 flush-mount vents before we go, she saw them after the fact and likes the look, so she asked if we could drop them in after the install-no big deal.

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