Doing small wooden floor ourselves

osaddict

Hey everyone,

We have decided to do our bedroom floor ourselves and I'm looking for some tips /thoughts/gotchas from the mse crew.

My process at the moment:
Prepare surface...
Remove gripper rods, fill holes if necessary, with a mix of sawdust and PVA.
Use center punch in any proud nails.
Remove any staples, other proud bits.

Deal with gaps...
Hammer in 50cm pine slivers into gaps. Using PVA. Allow to dry then plane off.
Larger knots all the way through, some kind of wooden bung. Small knot holes only a little depth, epoxy mixes with sawdust.

Sand...
Hire a sander and sand, coarse first, then fine.
Sand any bits the massive sander couldn't get to.

Finish...
Now I get stuck... I need to treat with something to make it rock solid. I want something entirely clear, I want boards as light as possible.

What do people reackon to my plan? The boards look in pretty good nick, I think they have been used before as they have some kind of varnish on them atm.

Thoughts,suggestions,comments most welcome

Thank you!

benjus

Floor varnish?

A year or so ago I put down some solid wood flooring in the hallway, which my wife painted with a design then I varnished over. I wanted to use PV67 which is supposed to be incredibly tough, but that won't work over paint so in the end I used 4 or 5 coats of Screwfix Trade Floor Varnish and it's still looking great a year later.

casper_g

I'd suggest looking at something like Fiddes Hardwax Oil or Osmo Polyx Oil. We used a darker tinted version of the Fiddes product on our front room floorboards, and they look great, but the clear version should suit you.

DRP

casper_g wrote: »

I'd suggest looking at something like Fiddes Hardwax Oil or Osmo Polyx Oil. We used a darker tinted version of the Fiddes product on our front room floorboards, and they look great, but the clear version should suit you.

another vote for clear osmo.

We put a couple of coats onto totally virgin pine. looks great, natural, with a sort of non-reflective sheen - feels warm. Will use again for my new floor.

osaddict

Thanks for the replies. Non reflective is definitely what I'm looking for.

Wjat do you think to my plan? Does it seems sensible, have I missed anything?

Thanks!

casper_g

osaddict wrote: »

Wjat do you think to my plan? Does it seems sensible, have I missed anything?

You have most of the key points, but you didn't mention a few things, all related to the hellish amount of dust you'll be generating when sanding:

• Wear a dust mask - get several disposable ones so you can use a new one after you take a break. Take time to make sure you have the right kind (not just good quality, but one which fits you well).
• Keep the window open (to allow dust out) and the door closed (to avoid covering the whole house in dust). Tape up the edges of the door if it's anything like as draughty as ours. Even then, the whole house will still somehow end up with dust all over it!
• A significant part of the work, between sanding and finishing, will consist of cleaning up the dust. There's no point putting wax/oil/varnish/whatever on a floor that's dusty, as you'll never get an even finish with clumps of oily dust everywhere. Read the instructions on the finish you're using but you'll probably need to vacuum the floor (use a machine with a HEPA filter) and mop it repeatedly. Clean other surfaces in the room too - you can get the floor as clean as you like but there's no point if there are drifts of dust on the mantlepiece, skirting, windowsill etc. waiting to fall onto the floor five minutes later. Even vertical surfaces will end up with visible coatings of fine dust. The only time I've ever had to vacuum a room's walls was after sanding the floor!

Have fun!

osaddict

We're good points, thank you. You've reminded me to get some masks too. A damp t shirt over my face and nose might have been okay for a quick test but not sufficient for the real task!