The Laird finished installing the Red Oak flooring middle of last week, which meant it was time for quick transformation- Staining the floors. We rented a sander from the local Home Depot for the day for a reasonable price of $60/day. We thought the sanding would go quick, but in reality it took longer than we anticipated due to some of the un-level boards. Once sanding was completed, we mopped up the loose sawdust.
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| Installing final board |
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| Sanding |
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The trap door to the basement
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Over the course of 2 days, we applied 2 coats of Miniwax Provincial stain. Thankfully, the weather has been unseasonably warm (in the 50's) this weekend, and we've been able to open all the windows air the house out. These photos are right after the 2nd coat was applied and the floors were still wet.
Though we still have many more tasks to complete before our dining room is complete, this was a huge step forward to having a usable dining room!
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This view makes me smile!
Our next step is to finish the floors with a protective coat. Originally we were going to use Miniwax Polyurethane, just as we finished the stairs 2 years ago. When we finished the stairs we were not living in the house, so the VOCs and fumes from the polyurethane and stain were not an issue. Now that we live where we are working, we decided to investigate other less toxic methods. We settled on Tried and True Original Linseed Oil & Beeswax- A Highly Polymerized Linseed Oil with beeswax. Boiled Linseed oils dry quicker than raw linseed oil, however most brands of boiled linseed oil today is not actually boiled. Instead they contain metal additives that achieve the same results, but contain VOCs. Tried and True was the only brand I could easily find that was actually boiled and contained zero VOCs. Linseed oil and other natural oils are often used on wooden furniture, and make for an antiqued appearance. The oils soak into the grains of the wood and cure the wood as it dries- thus protecting the wood. Polyurethane works different in that it hardens like a layer of plastic on top of the wood surface. Though we are not entirely sure how the Linseed oil will work on the floors, we decided the zero VOCs made it worthy of testing out.
Amazed to finally see our room transform from a "work" & storage/junk room to a dining room. Remember when it looked like this:
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The Laird finished installing the Red Oak flooring middle of last week, which meant it was time for quick transformation- Staining the floors. We rented a sander from the local Home Depot for the day for a reasonable price of $60/day. We thought the sanding would go quick, but in reality it took longer than we anticipated due to some of the un-level boards. Once sanding was completed, we mopped up the loose sawdust.
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