Wood Floor Rescue: African Beauty Revealed in Northern Ireland

Wood flooring pro Daryl Kane of DK Flooring in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, had a unique sanding job on his hands with this project, a panga panga floor that had been reclaimed from an Irish whiskey factory. The flooring was installed (or "fitted," as they say over there) by MJ Joinery, and then it was up to Kane to bring out the African wood's natural beauty. "The floor itself was covered in a real thick lacquer; I'm unsure of what it was. It also had lots of dirt and chewing gum stuck to it," Kane says, adding that the species was "as hard as the road" and the dust was so heavy the sander lifted very little of it. He used his K&T Taurus sander, starting straight with 24, then 36 diagonal, and working up to 100. For the edges he used his Pegasus edger starting with 36 and working up to 100 on his Festool Rotex. His final sanding was with 100 on his multi-head Wirbel buffer, and he coated the floor with one coat of Junckers oil-based BasePrime and three topcoats of Junckers HP Commercial waterborne finish in a satin sheen. "The pictures do this one no justice," Kane says. "The grain and color throughout this floor was simply stunning."