The Floor is done!
28Apr08
The fact that it’s done is probably the best thing about it. We pretty much knew from the beginning that the floor was pretty beat up. There were a lot of stains that I hoped we would be able to sand out, but in the end they were all full depth and not going anywhere. I ended up going pretty slow with the drum sander to try and get through all the old layers, and since I’m not a pro we have a little of the washboard effect. If I were to do it again, I may try an orbital instead of the drum sander.Even though it’s not perfect, we still like it though. It’s way better than what we had before and of course you get what you pay for. We spent around $0.90 a square foot, most of which was in the finish. Our stain was a Minwax oil based, natural color. I really like all the color variation we got from the different shades of boards. I’m not usually an oak fan, but I actually like it. We then used a water based polyurethane from Glitsa that was expensive but very easy to work with. We’ll see how well it holds up. I wouldn’t hesitate may to do it again on a floor that was in real rough shape like ours, but if I had a real nice floor to begin with, I might think harder about just calling a professional.
Cost for 800 square feet; $600 for repair boards, stain, polyurethane and applicator pads. $140 for sander rental and sandpaper.
It took me about 14 hours of sanding and about 4 hours to apply the stain and polyurethane.
More pics below.
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10 Responses to “The Floor is done!”
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Ya… not as easy as you think hugh? After we did our floors in bremerton, I think we decided next time just to hire a professional. We spent close to what it would have cost to pay someone to do it, and although it turned out okay, now that I have really nice floors that were refinished by a professional I see the big difference.
I think we paid somewhere between $1 - 1.50/ft to have our floors redone. I do a lot of stuff myself, but wouldn’t touch floors. If you include even a nominal value for your time (18 hours!), the cost to DIY ends up being the same, maybe even more. And if a professional puts washboard marks in your floor, you can make them redo it. We have some friends who did their own floor, probably only 400 sqft, they spent literally an entire weekend on it, and it looks absolutely dreadful. Too shiny, lumpy, tons of dust and crap in the finish, etc.
Looks great! I love your view too.
I refinished a floor long ago and I have to agree with the other comments. I would hire someone the second time around. It is a really hard job and the cost is about the same.
I figured we saved about $2000 by doing it ourselves. Right now I’ve got more time than money, (which isn’t saying much considering I work full time and go to school part time) so we went DIY.
wow, they look great. And you’ll never notice the imperfections once you get furniture and stuff in there. We had some floors refinished once and it was $3 a sq. ft. so I think you saved a whole lot. And for putting in and finishing new oak, I was once quoted $7 to $8 a sq. ft.
Dang, nicely done. Please come finish our floors for us. Actually we are still stuck in our bathroom remodel, haven’t even gotten to the front floors yet. Regardless, it looks great, congrats on another project down.
bill
Looks good Creede! The more washboard, the more character. The imperfection is what connects you to the house….. Maybe drop some large metal tools on the floor and dance around to Carmen Burana.
Floors look great! Buy hey? That view? Wow.
Yeah, it’s all about the view. That was one of the big things that convinced us to buy the house. It’s almost that good from the basement too!
Nothing as gratifying as seeing the color come up on that first coat.