BedStuy Reno
« Sanderson Files: The Kitchen Floor, Second Pass
March 6, 2008
Sanderson Files: First Finish Coat in the Kitchen, Sanding in the Hallway
Ok, here are shots of the first coat of Waterlox going down on the floor, and it looking quite orange. We were hoping for a very light clear coat, but it's looking orange.
Also, shots of the lower level hallway (the level on which we are building our kitchen), which changed quite dramatically after the first pass of the sander! This had been covered in carpet, linoleum tile, and finally there was this mess and remnant of mastic. The boards cleaned up so well, and what is great is that these are the subfloor boards we have throughout all the hallways of the house. Which means of course, that when we get to it, we can make them all look this nice.
Comments
Not feelin it sorry . Too orange
Posted by: guest at March 6, 2008 9:10 PM
9:10 If you don't like a reno-blog, don't read it and post pointless comments
Posted by: guest at March 6, 2008 9:16 PM
free country ...NOT feelin it
Posted by: guest at March 6, 2008 9:19 PM
I think it looks good. The oil base will age and temper the orangey cast soon enough.
Advice: Carpet the stairs and avoid the huge cosmetic job you'd otherwise be facing.
That said, I really, really like it.
Posted by: guest at March 6, 2008 9:30 PM
Tung oil seems to come out orange quite often. I was going to suggest a clear coat when I saw the first post about sanding the floors. But tung oil also seems to make discolorations less noticeable.
Posted by: guest at March 6, 2008 9:34 PM
What I liked about tung oil was that it seemed to age better than poly, according to different stories people were telling. And that when you have a scratch, or a problem area with the floor, you can spot-fix it, as opposed to having to redo the whole floor with poly.
That said, we love the clear-coat poly look but were concerned about how it would hold up and how soon we would have to refinish again. So we have orange floors, hopefully they will mellow out in time.
As for the stairs - too late! I've already removed the linoleum from there and I'm trying to figure out how to get the mastic off - harder than the floor because it's not all an easily-sandable flat surface. I'll have to post some pics.
- Peter
Posted by: guest at March 6, 2008 11:28 PM
Looks great -
I think the only reason it is looking a little orange is bc the picts are all floor - it is the only think to look at once the rooms are together i think it will not be out of place.
Posted by: katiem633 at March 6, 2008 11:49 PM
I wouldn't attribute the orange solely to the tung oil. You might have yourself some "pumpkin pine." From the pictures , yours looks similar to ours, except less variegation and your knots are less intense. We have some deeper brown/orange areas. Even if you went with poly, you would still want a clear finish under the poly and you would still get that color, more or less.
I think it looks great, but it was a shock when our floors were first done. We had to rethink the kitchen cabinets. There are websites selling floor boards made from salvaged old pine that looks just like yours for 20/s.f. or more.
I wish we had gone with an oil finish for all the reasons you cite; we just didn't know about it at the time.
Posted by: slopefarm at March 7, 2008 10:16 AM
I think it looks great and I second your decision to remove the linoleum!
also, why is there mastic on the floor? is that how they attached the linoleum or something? I thought it came "sticky" already.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 11:43 AM
It's true that right now the big focus is on the floor. With the kitchen in, that will change things.
As for the linoleum, yep, they used some kind of mastic. You can still see the marks of the tool in some spots that they used to spread it on the floor.
- Peter
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 12:58 PM
if you got the money, try silent paint remover for the "mastic"
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 1:49 PM
It does look a little orange but not in a bad way. It looks great. It won't look shocking once you have all your stuff in there.
Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at March 7, 2008 4:40 PM
Don't worry too much about the orange. It's much warmer than a very neutral or yellow-colored wood. And if you're really fretting, you could do a test by putting down some poly on a tiny area that won't be seen. I bet you'll find the wood is naturally kinda orange in tone.
Posted by: guest at March 7, 2008 6:21 PM
You're probably going to think that I'm pulling your leg with this post, but I had read somewhere about a similar mastic situation where the owner had spilled a little orange juice and it really loosened up the mastic to the point that they were able to easily scrape it up with a putty knife. I was sceptical, but tried it on two different projects. One it worked great, one it did nothing. I would assume that it was a case of two different types of mastic (in both cases it was a similar flooring material, pine). Either way, I don't see a whole lot of harm in splashing a little OJ in an out of the way place and seeing what happens. It sure smells a lot nicer than caustic strippers. If that fails, you might want to try odorless mineral spirits which works pretty well on petroleum based mastics which it looks like you have on your stairs.
Posted by: guest at March 8, 2008 7:50 AM
FYI...I had the same issue recently. I was advised to re-sand and apply a water based sealer and water-based poly. Much better result the second time around. Something to consider. I used a professional product that Minwax sells. It's actually called water-based poly for floors.
Posted by: guest at March 10, 2008 12:30 PM
I love the "orange" - some of us call it 'warm" - so much more character and coziness than these hugely expensive light wood floors people seem to love (i.e. white oak)
Posted by: guest at March 10, 2008 4:26 PM
We had both oil-based poly and acrylic poly on our kitchen floors and neither held up to heavy use. The absolutely best solution has been Waterlox, which as you say, can be touched up or easily re-done without sanding.
The color will mellow, and as others have said, will be less noticeable once other items are in the room. Plus, I think your wood is a little orange-y to begin with!
Your house is looking great. I think you will be happy with the Waterlox.
Posted by: tinarina at March 10, 2008 4:42 PM
Really great looking work, I love the color you got out of the wood.
Posted by: Colonel at March 17, 2008 12:09 PM
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