GOT WOOD…FLOORS? SEALING OUR HARDWOOD FLOORS (PART 3)

Welcome to the final part of our hardwood floor journey. We are so close to being done. Sealing! At this point we are sliding around on our beautiful unsanded, unbuffed, and unsealed floor. It looks amazing. Now to the last step. Since we had so much help from our local floor store we got a lesson on the last three steps too. Sanding. Buffing. Sealing. Well there is another step in between all of those. Cleaning the floor. That doesn’t count really.

First we rented a sander from our local pros. The kit of parts for the sanding and buffing are a regular size sander, mini sander (for close to the wall), a large buffer, and the fancy wand stick thing that spreads the sealer around. We also bought a small scraper and file for the corners, and a small sponge for the corners for the sealer.

We prepped the house a little before this step. We knew with the sanding there was going to be a ridiculous amount of dust. We closed all of the doors and stuffed towels under them as best we could to keep the dust from getting into the other rooms. We also blocked off the the vents so dust wouldn’t circulate around. I am so thankful we did this. Looking back I had no idea how important it would be. There was dust in places we didn’t even know existed.

Step one is to run the large sander at a slow pace following the grain of the wood. This sander gets most of the floor and there is a smaller sander that gets the edges. This little sander almost made me lose my mind! It shakes so bad and I was so paranoid about getting swirls from the sander that I think I over gripped it and stressed out my arms. We had to sand with multiple grits so there was sooo much dust and sander shaking. Look here for a list on how to determine the grits. The idea is to start with the heaviest grit and work your way to the finest grit.  We vacuumed the floor between grits with the shop vac. That thing got a huge workout during this process. I think it’s my favorite tool now.

Next step! Buffing in the Buff. Well you could have clothes on too. Again lots of dust. This is similar to sanding but it’s much softer. We did this before we applied the sealer and between coats. The buffer that we rented as crazy! It had a very sensitive center of gravity and would run across the floor dragging me behind it. I think I was too short for the buffer. If I did this again I would wear taller shoes or use a smaller buffer. See this hilarious video for my attempt at buffering. It’s good that Ben is so tall and strong and could hold on to it or I don’t know what we would have done.

The process is similar to the sanding. You start with the buffer and overlap it up and down the hardwood going with the grain. This will prep the floor for the sealer. We buffed the whole room and then vacuumed it again.

Then we took a wet towel that had the water squeezed out of it and pushed it along the floor to catch any misc dust and dog hair. More on the dog hair in a few.

Finally… Sealing! The sealer that you choose is a personal but important choice. Ben and I wanted something that was low VOC, and wouldn’t make us sick or our house sick. We went with a water based sealer Bonaseal and Bona Mega. One is the base coat. The next the finish coat. This was heavy duty enough to withstand most dog nails and scratches. We started with the small sponge and spread the sealer on the edge of the wall. The idea is to spread the sealer on the edges first. Then pour a line of sealer, more than you need on the floor where the already done edges are. You want to keep what they call a wet edge. That means that there is always more sealer than required on the edge that you are spreading. This keeps the sealer from getting dry lines. Think about it like overlapping paint strokes to avoid lines or streaks on the wall. We made sure to map out the path of spreading the sealer. You don’t want to get caught at the end in a spot you can’t move our are stuck in one place for a few hours! Of course I don’t have any pics of us actually sealing the floor because I was so paranoid that it would dry too fast I forgot to take pics!

Once the first coat is dry we buffed the floor again. The grain rose up a bunch on this first pass. It’s amazing that the wood just sucks the sealer into it and the grain expands. The buffer will helps the grain go back down to that nice soft finish. We vacuumed and toweled the floor. Repeat!

Then dog hair happened. The hardwood floor sealer nemesis. No matter how hard we cleaned the floor between coats the dog hair was still there and worked its way into the sealer. Sooo Ben and I were crawling around the floor picking dog hair out of the dry sealed floor. Penny and Molly really wanted to put their mark on the floor.

We also installed painted white cove base. Done and Done!

Now breathe! We did it! We have amazing hardwood floors! Ben and I danced around and slid around on the floors in our socks! We also did a shot of tequila. I am so proud of this project and we get so many compliments on the floors. It was for sure the most taxing project so far and so much hard work but it was worth it.

Hardwood floors! Check.

Before

After

Has anyone else installed hardwood floors? What was your experience? Are you thinking about installing hardwood floors? Check out:

Part 1 Choosing a Hardwood Floor
Part 2 Installing your Hardwood Floor

If this super freaks you out check out my Questions to ask yourself before you DIY!