“The floors were covered in old, gooey, sticky carpet pad; it took three-and-a-half days to scrape one room,” says Patrick Russell, owner at All American Floor Sanding and Installation in Ocala, Fla., of this floor they were bringing back to life for a home flipper. “The Diamabrush was just smearing it around, and the razor blade scrapers were damaging the floor.” The tool that ended up working? A simple five-in-one painter tool. “It sounds crazy, but it worked well once we developed a system,” he says. Once the gunk was off the floor, they discovered many stains that weren’t going to sand out. Because the project was a flip, the contractor said they could stain the floor any color they wanted as long as it was dark enough to mask the stains in the floor. Russell took the opportunity to use up five or six DuraSeal colors he had at the shop. “We call it the Heinz 57, never to be duplicated!” he says. “The floor turned out beautifully, with lots of quartersawn boards.”
SUPPLIERS: Abrasives: Norton | Adhesive: Titebond, Wakol | Buffer, Edger, Big Machine, Multi-disc: American Sanders | Finish: Loba Easy Prime and Easy Finish | Moisture barrier: Fortifiber | Moisture meter: Wagner | Nailer: Bostitch, DeWalt | Router: DeWalt | Sander (palm): Mirka | Saws: DeWalt, Fein | Stain: DuraSeal | Vacuum: American Sanders, Nilfisk, ProTeam
