Must blog this one quickly b/c I really have to get to the project. Having totally emptied Little One's room, I have been sanding and staining her floors. Her furniture, clothes, toys and shoes are everywhere in this house. So are tools, sandpaper, cleaner, ladders, stain, and dropcloths. It's crazy.
The sander is on long-term loan from our plaster man. He had mentioned one time that he had a good one and would be happy to let us have it for as long as we needed it, until he needed it back. I called him in November and it sat here for months. Last Friday, after watching the Varathane video like a zillion times (compelling video -- you must see it!), I started in. The video had lots of tips and tricks, and the guy actually had a precious sense of humor, so that watching it was not too deadly-boring. One cool example: fill a plastic bag with loosely crumpled newspaper. Stuff the bag into the heater duct so the ventilation system in your house does not become impregnated with sawdust. I never would've thought of that on my own.
This is hard work. I sanded the room a total of 6 times: 36-grit, then 20, then 36 again, and finally, 3 x of 80. Because the giant sander does not get a 1-inch margin around the edge of the room, I did each grit with a palm sander on my hands and knees to get the edges.
We vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed. Vacuumed after each sanding, and then vacuumed 3x with the shop vac after the final one. After the three shop vac runs, washed the walls and doorframes/windowframes, also shelves in closet. (Had already removed closet door so we are doing closet floor as part of project.) Then we hooked up the household vacuum and ran it several times. When I felt we had gotten everything, Little One used the Swiffer and it was coated with sawdust. So, we Swiffered about 10 times until it came clean.
The sander he lent us is great, and really does not kick up a lot of dust as other sanders do. When DH did the kitchen, it seemed the rest of the house was coated for weeks as I made my way through, cleaning. Sawdust was even in the tufts of the LR sofa where the little buttons are.
This sander is like a 130-pound palm sander. It just vibrates in place, rather than spinning. On Friday I sanded, vacuumed, and repeated over and over. On Saturday, I had the luxury of LO being in there with me to vacuum behind me as I sanded. That worked out much, much better. We had a little cord conflict on occasion, but it was worth it to have the work virtually cut in half.
On Sunday we stained the floor. I truly believe she enjoyed helping! I had filled some cracks with a wood filler that purported to be stainable, yet when we stained the floors, the filler showed up as bright ivory in the dark brown floor. We attempted a number of fixes for this problem, and finally found a small bottle of craft acrylic paint in the studio, chocolate brown, and rubbed a drop of it into each of the filled cracks. Voila! (or, walla, as I am seeing it spelled nowadays)...success.
I duct-taped a clear dropcloth across the door to her room from the start, which I am sure helped in the dust control. I am sure it has helped me NOT to have cat-prints across the house as well.
I am going to damp-mop the floor now (teensy bit of damp) so that I can poly today. Will post pics maybe tomorrow or next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment