Floored

 

"Les Raboteurs de Parquet" (aka "The Floor Scrapers") by French impressionist Gustave Caillebot

With the timber shelf completed, I decided to turn my attention back to the loft.  After pulling back all the painter's clothes I spread out to protect my carefully sanded floor, I was disheartened to see that a great deal of the mill scale from my metal work on the railings had managed to work its way under the drop clothes and onto the wooden decking.  This was problematic in the sense that mill scale stains wood....leaving a darkened hue that is VERY difficult to get out.

These tarps betrayed me

Consequently, I had to rent a giant floor sander--again--and lug it up the stairs to refinish the floor.  Have you ever lifted a floor sander?  Trust me...not an easy proposition.

With the floor re-sanded, I meticulously cleaned the entire loft in my socks.  Why socks?  Because shoe souls leave marks on unfinished wood and bare feet are bad news because oils from your skin will screw up the finishing process.

The other thing that ruins a floor's finish is saw dust...and there certainly was no shortage of this.  To ensure a proper finish,  I was careful to ensure every last bit of dust was removed before applying the tung oil.  Easier said than done...this requires multiple steps:

Mundane?  Yes.  Necessary?  Absolutely.  How do I know?  Because before I started fabricating my railing I thought it would be smart to apply my finish (Rookie move, I know.  I guess I thought it would somehow be easier if I didn't have to work around each post).  Anyway, in preparing to apply the finish I remember thinking the manufacturer's recommendations on floor preparation were overkill.  Consequently, I skipped the steps above and just vacuumed the floor to the point it "looked" clean.  I applied 2 coats of tung oil only to realize that just MAYBE the tung oil manufacturer knew something I didn't.  From numerous vantage points you could see swaths of dust embedded in the finish.  #OoooohhhFuuuuuuuuuuuudge (and I hate hash tagging)

So for those of you keeping track, I refinished the loft floor not once, not twice, but 3 times!  For those of you not keeping track, I'll recap:

• 1st sanding:  necessary to smooth out inconsistencies in the flooring and remove scuff marks and stains that accumulated during construction.

• 2nd sanding: necessary because I didn't clean up all the saw dust before applying the tung oil

• 3rd sanding:  necessary to remove the mill scale stains I thought I was preventing by covering the floor with drop clothes. 

That translated to carrying a giant sander (lead weights and all) up/down 6 flights of stairs.  Did I mention floor sanders are crazy heavy?  And keep in mind, each of the 3 "sandings" involved working trough 5 successive grits...which means I sanded the loft floor 15 times!  Ugh. 

So enough blabbering...here are the photos:

Floor after 3rd sanding and vacuuming

Final Cleaning with tack cloth and mineral spirits

The entire floor has just been cleansed with mineral spirits and I am preparing to apply my 1st coat of tung oil

This is the floor after the 4th and final coat of tung oil.  The oil was allowed to set up for 24hrs between coats and then I didn't allow any traffic on the floor for 2 weeks to allow it to cure.