Refinishing the hardwood floors - The dining room

The dining room with English Chestnut stain on the floors...

Another view

The hardwood floors in the front room and dining room are finally ready for the stain ... I really like the dark color.

Room #2 - Hardwood floors

beautiful.

Working notes: We stained each line prior to adding the stain to each wood plank. Why? We liked the look and feel of the floor (distressed style) so we didn't add wood putty to fill in the gaps between the planks. And in order to get the stain down in between each wood piece, we found that staining each individual line worked well.

We are learning as we go ... This one looks really good. We used a different application method this time and so the stain finish is a lot darker. We'll do the other room again later. (You have to wait 4 to 6 hours to add another coat of stain.)

Next step: After applying the stain, you wait at least 6 hours before you can add the finish to the floors. The finish is a clear polyurethane that you have to coat on 3 different times.

WOW huh?!

We are so thankful we have the two upstairs rooms to learn on before we hit the downstairs. We still have to stain and finish the living and dining room.

We had hoped to move in today - that was a BIG goal. And it didn't happen. We'll keep working! :)

Refinishing the hardwood floors - Day 2 ...

Tory rented another sanding machine (this is machine number 3) from our local rental shop today and started sanding the floors again. We are refinishing the hardwood floors in the house and WOW it has been a wild adventure.

Upstairs room -

Second upstairs room ...

In the dust storm. There is sand covering everything in the house.

We sanded the floors 4 times - using different grades of sandpaper each time - 36, 60, 80 and then finished with 100. All this sanding has created a huge mess.

After a good vacuum and mop - the floors are almost ready to stain.

In addition to using the above sanding machine, we used a palm sander and a belt sander to remove all the existing stain and finish from the corners and edges of each room. This project is by far the most difficult and time consuming so far. We have the floors ready to stain in the front room, dining room and 2 of the upstairs bedrooms. Luckily, the third bedroom upstairs had great floors that didn't need refinishing.

Special thanks to Keni Gosney and Robert Lichfield for their help on Friday. :)

Hardwood floors (second attempt) ...

Check that out - the drum sander worked!

Tory using the drum sander.

Check out the dust - it's everywhere... That little bag on the side of the machine does nothing. It makes you believe it will catch the sand. :)

Special thanks to Keni Gosney for his help and humor today...