In his wood flooring life in Green Bay, Wis., close to Wisconsin’s north woods, Jamie Strohmeyer of Green Bay Floor Restore deals with a lot of maple, whether it’s resanding prefinished maple (“I think builders in ‘90s must have had a major run on maple prefinished,” he says) or working with flooring in historic homes, such as this one in Green Bay’s Astor Park neighborhood. Like most homes in the area, it had 2-inch maple flooring and layers of old mystery finish. It wasn’t wax, but beyond that, “I don’t know what it was, maybe real gummy old shellac or varnish, who knows,” he says. The dining room also had a halo where it almost looked like two different finishes, and Strohmeyer cautioned the customer that the halo might not sand out. He took off the existing finish with a Diamabrush, then cut the floor with 40—and the halo was still there. After a cut with 60, however, it disappeared. Once he went all the way through his sanding progression, ending with 120 on the multi-disc, he still wasn’t positive the halo wouldn’t reappear once the floor was stained, but the floor looked flawless. “They were very happy and surprised, because in her mind she was thinking she’d have to throw an area rug over the top, but it all came out,” he says.—K.M.W.
SUPPLIERS:
Abrasives: Norton Red Heat, Diamabrush | Buffer, Edger, Big machine, Vacuum: American Sanders RS 16, CE 7 Pro, Floor Crafter, AVAC26 | Finish: Arboritec Avenue 20 | Multi-disc sander: Lägler Trio | Stain: DuraSeal (English chestnut)
RELATED: My Process to Successfully Stain Maple Flooring
