Hardwoods Floors Are Awesome

Seems like no matter what you start with, refinishing hardwood floors always pays off, although not always without some pain.  And we love tackling these jobs that others might pass by.

Most of the time we start by pulling up the edge of the rug, just to take a look at what we are dealing with. A routine look around the edges, floor looked good but finish was all gummed up, gummy finish usually means chemical strippers.

Pre-Inspection

In addition we knew that there was a legacy hole in the floor from an old heat pipe that had to be repaired. So we consulted with the owner and the project was a go.

After removing the rug we found a fun surprise, someone had put a cardboard-like paper under the carpet pad (in the middle of the floor, not around the edges, where we inspected at the beginning of the job).

And a little side note, who invented these things anyway.  Maybe on install its different but taking them out there is always blood.

Carpet Strips are Evil

Here are a few shots from around the room after the carpet removal.

Carpet Pad Stuck to Finish

Gummed Floor and Finish

Legacy Vent Whole

Entire Room After Carpet Removal

So the stripper had to really soak thru the paper which was time consuming and as you can see some of the finish was not removed on the first pass.

Starting Stripping Process

So to finish up the stripping we decided to use a carbide edge drag scrapper to get pretty much to bare wood.  This turned out to be pretty tiring work on such a big area but left us ready ready for the floor sander (all the gummy finish was up).  Turned out to be pretty much like hand planing the floor (see the wood curls).

In Process Strip and Scrape

Last few strip of paper left now...

Last Big Areas

 Finishing touches around edges of the room.

Finishing Touches

Before and after the patch of the vent hole.

Before

After

Didnt take any sanding or finishing pictures on this job, but here are a few of the finished product.  Lighting not great on some but you can get the idea.

Contact us at KGC Design Studio and Workshop if you have a project like this and are interested in a quote.

We would love to here you comments on this project!

Summer, Boating, and the Swim Platform

Its almost boating season in the Midwest, and with the long winter we have had here, folks are ready for some warm outdoor activities.  Finding the summer gear, getting it out and making sure it is ready when the warm summer weather finally hits.

Little boat project, swim platform maintenance.  I'm told this swim platform always looked great, soon as the water hit it, it would just glow.  It seems like that glow might be gone.

There was a lot of oxidation and a lot of embedded dirt so our first step was a light power wash, this removed the dirt (as seen below).  We let this dry and did a light sand as there was some loose grain.

Final step was to add a teak oil finish to protect this wood going forward.  See the end product below.  Great cleanup and the platform is ready.

 
Contact us at KGC Design Studio and Workshop if you have a project like this and are interested in a quote.

We would love to here you comments on this project!