Learning to Love My Heat Gun

So, I started in on the floors again. After eleven months of inactivity, it started again. Who can say why exactly? Fear? Loathing? Voodoo? Boredom? Hell, does it matter?

First, as the tumbleweed photo below indicated, I had to do a thorough cleaning to find the bloody floor. And move furniture. And this was just to finish the dining room floor, which is supposed to be finished for Thanksgiving. 2007. Just saying.

Really, I'm embarrassed at how quickly this went. I mean, I could have had this finished last year.

Here is the before picture of the unfinished portion of the dining room floor.


I finally put the old pine plugs Gary sent to good use. Thank you Gary!

Here is a gripping photo of a round plug in a round hole!

And a puttied round plug in a round hole!

And here is the money shot: the dining room floor with all of its sanding prep completed.

Of course, I missed a few spots. Details.

Since things were moving along, I decided to start on the living room floor. The wood putty I use is filled with all the marvels of modern science: carcinogens, toxic solvent, and other sixteen syllable compounds. I quickly deduced that mystery finish on the living room floor was shellac. The acetone and ethanol alcohol in the wood putty quickly reactivated it. Shellac is a lot better than lead based paint. Since I knew that it was shellac that I was dealing with, I could benefit from everyone else's houseblogging experiences. For once, I knew what to do. I dragged out my heat gun, near virginal in condition, and went to work on the shellac. Sure, I could have used the drum sander on it, but I'd be changing the paper every minute or two as the shellac gummed it up. At a dollar a roll for the sand paper, this will add up quick. I guestimate that stripping the shellac may not save me time in the long-run, but it's probably saving me $20-$30.

The shellac came right up. There appears to be three coats of it. The first is a light cherry color, the next layer is darker with an amber hue, and the final coat is a fugly poo-brown that is so dark that I originally thought it may have been paint. One wonderful thing is that they didn't shellac under the rugs, they just did the rooms perimeter. I guess they had different sized rugs over the years. The rugs seem to have gotten larger over time. This is how I can see all the different layers. Here is a picture.

Here is the next problem area. This corner is going to suck. Even after I strip the shellac, most of this section will have to be hand sanded since this corner is too small for a drum sander. Feel the pain.

Anyhow, more to come.

Another Hand-Job

That’s pretty well what you’re reduced to when there isn’t enough room for the usual acrobatics. God, it sucks. Mercifully, this little postage stamp of hell, our pantry, is substantially smaller than the laundry room. Think 15 square feet vs. 40 or 50 square feet. I don’t think I could stand spending that much time on my knees again.

Here’s our usual floor drill:

1) Patch holes
2) Wood putty
3) Scrape and sand smooth
4) Sweep, vacuum, tack cloth clean
5) Stain
6) Seal with oil based polyurethane (repeat 3 to 5 times as needed)

I’m thinking about starting next week. It’s as good of a time for a hand-job as any, isn’t it?

Monday, My Mental Health Day

Not only does all work and no play make Johnny a dull boy, it makes him an evil monomaniacal bastard. And that is just not fun for anyone. So aside from a little tinkering around the house and a good mental exorcism, I sat quietly, drank tea, ate a light dinner, took a nap and went to bed. How do I feel now? I feel great! Who knew seven hours of deep sleep could make such a difference?

With that rude little deadline encroaching upon us, how can a justify this therapeutic slackerdom? Easy, we worked on the Devil Queen all weekend. Things were caulked, primed and occasionally painted. And, more notably, Ms. Scarlet put two coats of poly down on the laundry room floor.

Of course, she had to contribute to the scraped vs. sanded wood floor debate after spending several hours crawling around on it. She prefers the drum-sanded look to the scraped look. And, she said the rougher surface of the scraped floor made it more difficult to apply the poly. Not an earth-shattering difference, but enough to annoy her. And no one wants an annoyed Scarlet.

In an attempt to burn your retinas with my sub-par photography skills, here is a close-up of the scraped flooring.

What I'm trying show is the variation in the surface. The photo flattens everything out, so you can't really see it here. In particular, more of the soft wood (light blonde) was scraped away than the dark grain which is slightly raised. To the best of my knowledge, this wood hasn't been wet, so I don't think that accounts for the raised grain.

As part of our family outing on Saturday, we stopped at a cool little junk/antique store in Dardanelle, just over the river from Russellville. They have some pretty incredible stuff there. But, what was I so annoyingly thrilled to find for $6.00?

See, exciting isn't it. In case you have no idea what these rusty, painted smeared bits of metal are, they are latch catches for 3 1/4 inch rim locks. They are a perfect fit too, so I won't have to cut any of the door trim to make these fit. All I need are a few good screws.

For Exhibit #2 in my effort to prove that I should not seek a career as a professional photographer, here is what I used as my excuse for enjoying the good weather and playing with Gideon outside.

These are terrible photographs. Really, it looks much better in person. In case you can't tell from the photo (My eyes! My eyes! I'm blind!), this is a dry-stack (i.e. no mortar) rock retaining wall. In theory this wall is supposed to continue on for another 60-70 feet in front and to the side of the Devil Queen. For the time being, we would settle for getting the section directly in front of the house finished before the appraisal. If the current issue of This Old House can be trusted, having a nice front entry not only makes a good first impression but can add 10%-25% to a home's value, and we need every penny we can get.

In addition to the wall, we're planning to lay a brick patio in the for ground, a slightly raised flower bed in front of the porch, and a lot a flower beds at the top of the wall too. By the time we've finished planting, a lot of the rock should be covered in creeping or climbing vegetation.

Answer to Yesterday's Post

After re-reading this post, I would like appologize for the bit about which wood has had what done to it. Even I found it confusing.

Here is the answer. Boards #1 & #2 were scraped and given a light sanding. Board #3, as the transition between the hall and laundry room got a mix of full-sanding, scraping, etc. Board #4 was finished with a drum sanders and then stain & sealed.

Even though Boards #1 - #3 don't have poly, I really can't say that they look significantly different than sanded board. The transition is virtually seamless. To my mind, this begs the question of why scrape a floor by hand if you get similar results with less grief with a drum sander?

The "distressed look" is reason most often given for scraping the wood. But, if you have salvaged/reclaimed floors or original, 100+ year old floors, how much more distress do you need? I have more than enough, thank you very much.

My final recomendation? Just say "no" to scraping.

Stained

Finally, the scraping and sanding marathon has ended. I am finished. And, the stain has been rubbed on as well.

Here are a few pictures of the floor after I finished everything (scraping, sanding, vacuuming, and tack clothing).

And here is the floor after one sloppy, wet coat of stain.

And here is a riddle for you. In the picture below, one board has only been sanded, one has been sanded & scraped and the remainder have been scraped with a finish sanding with 120 grit paper. Counting from the top, there are four full boards shown in the picture (1. top board, 2. top-middle board, 3. bottom-middle board, and 4. bottom board). Can you tell a difference?

Once I finish sealing the floor, I'll post some comparison pictures our different floors. They all are made from the same batch of salvaged wood, but one was run through a plainer before it was installed & drum sanded, one was only drum sanded, and one was scraped.

Exciting, I know.

An Evening of Unanticipated Events

When 11 PM reared its pug-ugly head last night, I had one of those son-of-bitch moments as in, "Son-of-bitch! I can't believe I didn't get to stain this damn floor tonight!" I mean, for the love of everything evil and hopeless, I'm so close to finishing this floor that I could piss on it.

So, what evil did the heartless universe spring on me? Really, it wasn't anything too onerous, but it gobbled up my ever dwindling time. Jack was going to bring his pressure washer over for me to borrow, but he threw his back out so he couldn't load it. I drove over, played with Gideon, said hi to everyone, and hauled the pressure washer back. That ate up an hour. Then I tended to my painting zombies and set things up for my tile-guy. Then I talked to my wife about perverts, reporters, and go-go boots for a while.

As such, I have no new photos of freshly stained floors. Bugger.

Not one to squander yet another personal failure, I'll take this time to answer a few related questions.

As Brooklyn Row House asked, why not a use a belt sander for the floor? This is an excellent question, but the answer is a little complicated.

First, our original belt sander was stolen a little over a year ago with the rest of our $2000 of tools and equipment. We borrowed one from my wife's grandfather, but it is smaller than the stolen one so none of the remaining belts fit. We're too lazy and cheap to buy more at this point.

Second, I don't really like them much. As Brenda mentioned, they are a booger to control even if you have good upper-body strength. And they tend to gouge; God help you if you hit a nail head or tack with one. At best the belt will shred. Worst is it jumps all over the place and tears the wood up.

Three, as Brooklyn alluded to in their comment, if you have any amount of significant finish on the wood, the paper quickly becomes coated in a thick, hot, tacky mess.

Four, belt sanders tend have blind-spots that make getting flush with walls and other obstacles difficult. This room is filled with weird trim, shut off valves, angles, and what-not, so I wouldn't be able to get to half of the room with one anyhow.

I'd like to say that my decision to scrape was carefully made with some grand plan in mind. Mostly, it was just dumb happenstance. I started of using a grinder, palm-sander, and a sanding block, but I was unhappy with the progress. In one night I ate through $15 worth of sanding paper for the palm sander but barely finished a 1/3 of the room. There was a lot of wood putty to sand flat, and it was taking for ever to get it ground down smooth. Dust was everywhere. Through some experimenting, I discovered that one or two firm passes with my paint scraper was enough to take care of most buildups of wood putty or anything else. At some point, I quit sanding and grinding and just started scraping like mad. And, it seems to be faster. Maybe I'm just making the last part up? It really feels like it though.


And now for my beer recommendations per Brenda's request. Having traveled a small bit of the world and tried many beers, I'd still have to say that my favorite one is Guinness.


It's just damn hard to beat a good pint of stout whether you like it chilled or room temperature.

Every now and then, I like something different. One of my favorite standbys is a pint of Franzischkaner Dunkleweiss Beer (a.k.a. fat-happy-monk beer).

Another memoriable beer whose name I've forgotten was one a German friend smuggled through customs for us. It was unpasturized and from a local brewery near Mainz. It came in a corked pottery bottle of sorts. Excellent.


For those of you who don't obsessively check and recheck the comment sections of my old posts, DavidLBC has some interesting thoughts on hand scraping in the good old days here. I don't have time to cover it now, but I have some thoughts on it as well that might make for a future post. I would say that David and I seem to be on the same page regarding this one.

Cheers!

Paranoidal Floor Crawler

Filthy, floor crawling, frantically scraping away varnish, wood putty, and gouges I toil, mind driving in erratic loops. Scrape, scrape, scrape, sharpen with singing file, repeat, repeat, repeat. Man as relentless machine. Mind wanders far, seizes a thought and flips it like a shining silver coin.

Again and again the phrase repeats, "Steve wants us to do this! You know hand scraped floors are very in now. Sigh."

I shake it off and dine with my paranoid menagerie. "I love this iPod Shuffle, four hours of music in a match book. But, would I hear them? Pernicous intruders, stalking me, drawn by the steady song of blade on board, takinging up the large scraper and driving it down into my skull. Would the stain come out of the grain? Poor floor."

Stupid thoughts, but still I turn to face the doorway side wise as I work. No good ever came from sitting with your back to a door.

Such beautiful blonde and amber wood grain.

Later in the evening tide. Prone and submerged in steaming bath, Gatsby perched tub's lip, I regard the purple and madder blooms, my knees a full flush of tender petals. Tired but satisfied, I calculate, one more hour of scraping, and hour sanding with 150 or 220 grit, vacuum, tack cloth, and finally stain. So much time and work for such a tiny space.

Again, insistent, "Steve wants us to do this! You know hand scraped floors are very in now. Sigh."

WHY! Why would someone do want to do this to themselves!? Poor Jocelyn, tell him no! Say it! Save your back, your hands, your knees!

Again, why? I must know.

A thousand web-spiders are sent crawling and a small few return with answers.

"Hand-scraped and Distressed hardwood floors are becoming a popular choice in today’s upscale homes and commercial buildings. These floors are a newer trend but are rooted in history. Before today’s modern sanding methods, floors were hand scraped on site to make the floors flat. Today’s hand scraping is done to add texture, richness and uniqueness."

And,

"Not all flooring is smooth – texture is popular.

"Hardwood flooring does not have to be smooth. Many companies are offering hand scraped, distressed and reclaimed flooring. These floors have a classic look and add great value to upscale homes. They do not show much wear or scratches since they have a great deal of character interest to draw attention to different parts of the floor. These floors will be a guaranteed conversation piece with your friends and neighbors and are often the focal point at luxury home tours."

Unbidden this image rises.

"Guaranteed conversation piece," indeed.

"Go, look at the floor, and, while you're up, please hand me the walker. Oh you are such a dear, thank you so much. My knees have never been the same."

Are beauty and suffering forever twined?