Well I want to get you all back on track and say sorry for the long delay...it has been a very full week.
On Monday I went back to the job with the rotten bathroom subfloor. The tile is all in and new flooring is in the master bedroom were the water ran under the subfloor and cupped the flooring. The homeowners are beside themselves because they cannot find the place where I installed the new wood next to the old flooring. It's American cherry but it was not a big deal because I sanded the entire room. The hard part was the old finish was yellow and had the look of old poly-they liked that look, so I used a poly that has that look from the start.
Got the new cabinets in and set the top, they are going to get a plumber to set the toilet, just so they can hold someone accountable if this happens again. They do like the work and told a friend who wants flooring installed about us.
Tuesday, to the next carpet remove and simple sand and finish...OK, this is nasty but look at the photos of the carpet pad. It was wet and slimy!
And if the photo isn't enough, here's a short video I took while removing it. I've never removed carpet pad like this before!
The wood floor was covered in a mold that had a stink, like a sour smell. So they asked me to try to save it but, with real concern, I said, "OK, but I do not think I can." I had to cut the mold off with 16-grit, then 36-grit, and then it still had a smell, plus black stain marks all over. I had the folks look at it and with a unanimous vote we are taking it out and installing new flooring. So I pulled off that job and got pricing for the new path we are going down, they said OK, and I start the tearout Monday.
On Wednesday I went to a small job: front room and hall resand… once I pulled the carpet. Now the fear of the last carpet was ringing clear in my mind, so with fear and concern I ripped into the carpet and, thank you God, it was easy and normal. But… the tack strip was nailed down better than a train track. Look at the nails the installer used:
I put my key next the nails to give you a idea of the size of the nails. I spent 13 to 15 hours just taking out nails and tack strip. As you can see, the big dog pee stain is at the one end of the floor:
white oak wood floor with pee stain before resanding
It came out okay—not the best, but OK. I used a clear poly on this job so it would help hide the stain, it did OK, but as you can see it is white oak and dark already:
Thursday I sanded the floor and got it filled (and I mean, one billion nail holes to fill), folks, this was a ton of holes. The other thing was the nails rusted in the flooring, so to hide the "black" look I took a nail set and made the hole bigger to drive the rust look in deeper, and it looks a ton better. On the small holes I used a thin center punch so the hole was not real big but it did drive the rust deeper. I used a white oak filler but it was not dark enough so... a drop or two of stain in the filler and it worked. I had to edge this floor with 36-50-80, ran the buzz sander with 60 grit, then buffed with a 120 disc to blend the edge with the field. The tung oil was thick and hard to scrape out in the corners; I think I had to sharpen the blade every 4-5 licks. Once I got it to raw wood it was like normal to clean up the corners, hand-sand, then blend the corners. I got stain and the first coat on in one day-one 12-hour day.
Friday was the easy day of all week, or should I say of the last two weeks. I used the shake and bake to pad the floor and prep the finish for the last coat. I love that thing when it comes to pad and coat-no angled hair scratch like the buffer makes.
I meet with the homeowner Sunday after church to get paid; she has been in Dallas all week with family, she should get home late Saturday. I went back today to hang the doors I took off and install the transitions for the hall doors into the bedrooms. They are all carpet; I hope she likes the floor so much she ask me to sand and finish them also. There were six doors in the hall, it took some time to make them look good. I hate the brass junk the carpet guys use, so I had to find a way to make them look better.
Now on to the key of last Friday, Nathan Shaw came to work with me on a factory-finish floor that needed to be recoated. I talked with him at the Washington, D.C., convention-he has been offering his time and help for that long. I gave in and went with the Nano water-base finish, which is not something strong in my market. We are oil-base, wax and tung oil kind of people. I have used Basic, Bona, Dura Seal and now this water base. This is the second time a sales guy has come to work with me, the first was Bill Costello with Dura Seal and now Nathan.
Well, I have got to say Nathan worked his tail off to help me get this job done and show me the product. It started out rough because the folks did not have the furniture out-we had to get it out. He said no big deal and got to work, next he went over the plan and things we needed to do to prep the floor for the finish. This is an old factory finish with a DEEEEEEEEP V groove and dark stain, and it's distressed-all the things you hate to have for a factory-finish. He made a call to a dear friend to make sure we are on the right track-Mr. Bill Price. The deal was that this water base could not be rolled, it had to be "T" bar but with the deep grooves we could not do that. We took the 9-inch cut-in pads to apply the finish. He was very concerned with the grooves and getting them clean to make sure the finish would stick. I took my shake and bake to the floor with SPP pads to get a good bite for the finish. He took a 10-inch scrub brush and worked his tail off cleaning them out. I did a rinse and rinse and rinse...then for fun we took the direct air blower to make sure it was dry. While it was drying we ran around to show him some work I did around town.
We came back and he gave me the lowdown on the finish, and we ran the finish through the filter and made sure it was ready for the floor. He put down the finish, all the time talking and making sure I understood the in and outs of it all. I have got to say he did the job for me, 600 feet of work with a new finish… that makes me just a bit concerned. I have used other products, and my comfort zone was not in comfort....so we got done; cleaned up and at dinner. The next day I went back alone to look at the finish, and folks, it looks brand new! We did half the house per the homeowners' request. We had great places to stop and not let the floor look bad. The floor looks so great that she is thinking of having us do the rest of the house just because it looks brand new. This finish laid down so flat, so smooth that I was concerned it would be too sweet. I took off my shoes to walk on it, it was so smooth; like a paste wax floor buffed with 2/0 steel wool.
They love the floor. If you ever have Nathan call on you do not make the same mistake I made, he was calling me over and over and over...but the finish worked better than he said it would. We estimated a new job with a factory-finish floor that I will use the same finish on. The only thing we needed was a floor cleaner, we did all the washing by hand because we do not own one, but I am going to save funds to get one. If we get the next job I will buy one to save labor and time.
I am sorry to be so late, I have been working alone and long days. I will do my best to stay on top of it.
