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Well, I've done something stupid. I have reserved the machines for 4 days in August while the wife and kids are at the beach. I'm going back into the hole of pain and torture to finish up the rest of the house, roughly 800 SF consisting of our master bedroom, changing area, two closets, hallway, stairs. Might not get to the stairs, but everything else that requires that drum sander, is going to get done. I have no choice, as this will be the only time for the rest of the year that I'll have the house to myself.
This time though, I'm going to make sure I get that little belt that clips onto the drum sander that lets you use your lower back to help control it, instead of 100% your arms. Lesson learned (my right forearm is still slightly numb).
This unstained look has received a lot of positive comments from our neighbors. Even the Dominos delivery driver was commenting on it a couple of weeks ago. Really glad we didn't spend that money for new wide plank now. The initial "browning" effect in the photo from the top of the foyer has indeed faded away now and the floors look great! Looks like I had hoped it would, like a light colored butcher block floor. Not whitewashed, but just natural red oak (which for us ended up being pretty close to what I thought white oak would look like, but just a slight hue of red in a few random boards) The Bona is definitely worth the money! But it is definitely slick too! At first I thought I might've screwed up with not finishing at a higher grit level. But as time has passed now, it has all smoothed out and the 100 grit finishing was the right call. It has a slight tact to it, yet still slick enough to go sliding across the room in your socks. Honestly, if you refinished to say a 150 grit and used this Bona stuff, it would be a little dangerous in socks. I don't think you could run a vacuum without wearing shoes to get some traction.
Loving the extra matte sheen. Definitely the right call for us on this house. You do see a bit more of the smudges here and there with that sheen, but given the light color, it's not bad at all and a good motivator to clean them up. I think if you went with a dark stain on this extra matte sheen, one might regret it due to trying to keep it looking clean. But on light wood, it looks great. I bought a Bissell Crosswave floor cleaner machine, and takes maybe 20 minutes max to vacuum, mop, dry the entire floor. If anyone has a hardwood floor, I'd easily recommend the Bissell to clean them. Makes it so easy and comes out perfectly clean (no dirty water left to dry on the floor).
Now that we're in the heat of summer, we have certainly noticed the house staying cooler during the days when the sun is beaming through the foyer window on to the floor. Before, you could walk on the area of the floor where the sun had been hitting for say 5 minutes or so and would feel the warmth/heat in the floor. Now, you don't feel it as much. It's also nice to not get blinded by the sun reflecting off of the high gloss finish that was on there. Now it just dissipates and stays on the floor. I've also noticed that this has made the can lights easier for my eyes. I have astigmatisms (sp?) in both of my eyes (too many years at the beach with cheap sunglasses). My eyes can be a bit sensitive to sharp light and florescent. We swapped out the can lights to LED lights about two years ago (3000k color temp - crisp white). They would bother me a little. Now, they don't bother me at all, and I attribute that to the extra matte finish absorbing and defusing the reflections.
Can't believe I started this thread nearly a year ago to the day! Fast year!
Final before/after photo of the project below. Nearly 6 months between the two (3/22/18 and 9/3/18). I'm down to shoe molding for the upstairs and getting to fixing one challenging spindle.
Oh the friggin' shoe molding! I originally bought 20 16-foot pieces (that's 320 feet). I ran out this weekend and haven't even made it completely up the stairs yet.. Oh the friggin' shoe molding!!
Anyway, never mind my two wild spawns of destructive joy in the before photo. Outside of the color change, the biggest thing I noticed in these two photos is the change in the sheen of the floor. The original was clearly semi-gloss at least (18 years old). The after photo is Bona water-based extra matte. Still has some reflective properties, but not nearly as much which I like quite a bit. My own personal opinion, the matte finish warmed up the space. Was a little concerned with making the home feel too cool/cold with all of the light coloring. But think the matte prevented that from happening. Seems to allow more definition of the wood's individual character to come through.
Only new item (other than that friggin' shoe molding) added to this project were the wrought iron spindles. Otherwise everything you see in the before is the same materials in the after. Just refinished.
All-in cost, well I'm not entirely sure at this point, but can say was less than $4,000 for everything. The spindles were $950, renting the equipment was around $1,300, the shoe molding will be around $300, and the Bona materials were approximately $2,000. Probably a couple hundred on junk food and beer to get me through it all (and Advil). Covered slightly more than 3,000 SF of floor space, 101 spindles, and 27 steps. Quotes I received about 18 months ago for something like this was around $25,000. So, saved myself roughly $20,000, which will come in handy for my medical bills later on, because I am sure I took off a good 5 years of my overall life span with this project!
Next will be wainscoting.... but not until I get a bucket full of Halloween candy first!
Many thanks to all for the great advice and guidance, with special tip of the hat to K'! See you at the Championship game again this year! (Roll Tide...oh wait, didn't I tell you?)
Location: Finally the house is done and we are in Port St. Lucie!
3,487 posts, read 3,338,219 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NC211
Can't believe I started this thread nearly a year ago to the day! Fast year!
Final before/after photo of the project below. Nearly 6 months between the two (3/22/18 and 9/3/18). I'm down to shoe molding for the upstairs and getting to fixing one challenging spindle.
Oh the friggin' shoe molding! I originally bought 20 16-foot pieces (that's 320 feet). I ran out this weekend and haven't even made it completely up the stairs yet.. Oh the friggin' shoe molding!!
Anyway, never mind my two wild spawns of destructive joy in the before photo. Outside of the color change, the biggest thing I noticed in these two photos is the change in the sheen of the floor. The original was clearly semi-gloss at least (18 years old). The after photo is Bona water-based extra matte. Still has some reflective properties, but not nearly as much which I like quite a bit. My own personal opinion, the matte finish warmed up the space. Was a little concerned with making the home feel too cool/cold with all of the light coloring. But think the matte prevented that from happening. Seems to allow more definition of the wood's individual character to come through.
Only new item (other than that friggin' shoe molding) added to this project were the wrought iron spindles. Otherwise everything you see in the before is the same materials in the after. Just refinished.
All-in cost, well I'm not entirely sure at this point, but can say was less than $4,000 for everything. The spindles were $950, renting the equipment was around $1,300, the shoe molding will be around $300, and the Bona materials were approximately $2,000. Probably a couple hundred on junk food and beer to get me through it all (and Advil). Covered slightly more than 3,000 SF of floor space, 101 spindles, and 27 steps. Quotes I received about 18 months ago for something like this was around $25,000. So, saved myself roughly $20,000, which will come in handy for my medical bills later on, because I am sure I took off a good 5 years of my overall life span with this project!
Next will be wainscoting.... but not until I get a bucket full of Halloween candy first!
Many thanks to all for the great advice and guidance, with special tip of the hat to K'! See you at the Championship game again this year! (Roll Tide...oh wait, didn't I tell you?)
You have a beautiful home and did a phenomenal job! Much kudos to you!!
Love the munchkins being kids. Well done on the savings but dang! you need to pay yourself for some of that labor! I don't think I would have it in me to take on that huge job (not to mention I suck at home remodeling stuff).
You have a beautiful home and did a phenomenal job! Much kudos to you!!
Love the munchkins being kids. Well done on the savings but dang! you need to pay yourself for some of that labor! I don't think I would have it in me to take on that huge job (not to mention I suck at home remodeling stuff).
Thank you Robino!
My payment is the ability to enjoy it now, and my payday will come when it's time to sell it!
Assuming my destructive spawns of joy don't burn down the place first!
The house has gone from "need to do this, need to do that, this, that, this, that" to finally getting to the point where it's becoming "I really don't want to be anywhere else other than right here, relaxing and enjoying the space." It has taken us nearly 3 years to get to this point. Have another couple to go, but these floors were the biggest hurdle for us to clear overall on the inside of the house. Now it's down to the fun stuff that is more bite-sized and enjoyable for me to do. Weekend stuff, instead of full week(s).....
And things that I simply can't do myself and have no choice but to wait for that money tree to recover so we can shake it again. If we didn't have a few big-ticket items on our radar screen already, I would have probably not taken this on myself.
Such a difference! It looks so clean and not modern exactly but just fresh and current but still fits with any style of decor.
Glad you are enjoying the fruits of all that hard labor!!
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Complete! Final before/after photo.
