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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Restoring The Floorboards - Before and After

I've given a tutorial on restoring the floorboards in the house before but the kitchen/dining room floorboard restoration was a bit different because there was a lot more work involved in this room and the floors had to be a gradual process that happened over time in working with the rest of the renovation.

The floors weren't just filled, sanded and sealed, it was also our first time at having to patch holes in the floorboards from when we removed the pantry wall and window.

And the end result?
They came up a million bucks!

So to start in the kitchen/dining room we spent about 6 hours filling the gaps between each and every floorboard with filler.

This is so it's easier to sweep and keep clean and no draughts or breeze come up through the floorboards.


Then any nails or rough bits are smoothed off so they don't damage the sanding paper.

The holes in the floorboards were patched - we repaired the hole left by the brick pantry wall being removed with spare pantry shelves, ironically made from the jarrah floorboards themselves, how lucky a find is that!



The boards around the new door way also had to be patched and skirting installed.

Again we managed to be thrifty here and reuse some jarrah from one of the wardrobes we ripped out.



The boards were sanded back bare which took about 4 hours before the new kitchen was installed.

We use Feast Watson Tung Oil on all the floorboards. We applied oil around the edge of the room where we had marked out where the kitchen cabinets would go so the floorboards would be sealed underneath the cabinets. We knew there was no point in sealing the entire floor now because it was going to get scratched up and marked with all the demolition, installation and plumbing work to be done in this room.

Sure enough, once the new kitchen was in place, the plumbing and electrics in, painting was done, and there wasn't going to be anymore work in the kitchen/dining room THEN we did a final sand back of the floors to remove any scratches and marks on the wood. All the sanding is done with an electric hand held sander and took about 3 hours to re-sand properly.  

Once it's been sanded the floor needs to be cleaned of every single little spec of dust, wood chips, etc because otherwise they will get sealed into the boards when the oil goes on and be a constant reminder that you didn't clean them properly! The best thing to clean them with is methylated spirits and a clean rag it cleans up much better than anything else we've tried (and this is the 7th room we've restored the boards in so have had some practice).



Once it's clean and dry out comes the paint brush and tin of Tung Oil and all the edges of the room are painted carefully with the oil.



Next is the wool applicator mop and the oil is rolled on to the rest of the boards.

Then all the doors are shut and the room is out of bounds for 24 - 48 hours to ensure that the oil sets before standing on it.



The next morning coming out into the kitchen it was like Christmas ... looking at those beautiful shiny floors my face light up like a Christmas tree!


C'mon don't they look magical?


And then the Grinch came and stole my Christmas spirit away .... there were a few dry patches that the oil sucked right into the old boards and left some patches.

Being the perfectionists that we are we had to sand all the oil off again in the entire room, clean it, then oil it again.

You need to lightly sand between coats otherwise the floors look grainy and we want them as smooth as a baby's bum.


So out came the electric sander again, and the floors were given a light sand this time it took only 40 minutes.

Then the floors were cleaned with methylated spirits again.

The edges painted in and the mop doing the rest of the job with the oil.

Again, the room is left for 24 - 48 hours .... and yes this time the floors coated evenly and there were no dry patches, they looked amazing.


So amazing in fact that someone thought they might walk across the kitchen ... touching the floors they felt dry but on walking across to the other side they were still a bit wet and sticky and you guessed it ... there were about 5 foot prints made by a certain Mr P.
  
After laughing until we almost cried (what else do you do?!) the next day the floorboards were sanded back FOR A THIRD TIME except we couldn't bare wasting all that oil again and we just sanded back the footprints and patched those areas.

You can't really tell and I was just glad to be finished as you can imagine!


The kitchen floor was out of bounds for about 2 days until we were sure they were absolutely set and dry to walk on.

This meant to get to the laundry/toilet or outside to Lexi we had to go out our front door and through the garage ... oh yes that made for some interesting nights running out the front door in my nightie to do a midnight toilet run.


The things you do when you're renovating!


It's a little bittersweet this is our last room of floorboards to restore - we have now done all 4 bedrooms, the living room, hallway and now the kitchen and dining area.

Now we get to live with these stunning originally restored 50+ year old jarrah floorboards and it sure does make all the work worthwhile. 

Sharing with link parties:
Home Coming - The DIY'ers
The Dedicated House - Make it Pretty Monday
Savvy Southern Style - Wow us Wednesdays

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[All images my own]

20 comments:

  1. WOW! What a fabulous job you've both done. The floor looks fantastic. Lisa xo

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  2. those floors look amazing!!! it was worth the effort.

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  3. wow sounds like a lot of work but they turned out SO gorgeous! want to come do my floors now? ;)
    -- jackie @ jade and oak

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    1. Hmmmm no thanks I think Im all sanded out :) Thanks definately worth it in the end!

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  4. Looks awesome!! I can't believe y'all had to go through and do it twice, ugh, that sounds terrible, but it looks great!

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    1. Not twice ... three times! Yes you've got to have a sense of humour when renovating thats for sure.

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  5. Wow they look great! Don't you love that feeling you get when finish a project? what a transformation though. Hard work pays off! :)

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  6. Love the colour of the floors! I have darker floors in most rooms, but wish they were all dark. It looks so polished. Amazing job!

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  7. They look great!!! I love the color and how shiny they are... I love the hardwood floors in our house, enjoy them!!

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  8. Pure gorgeous going on here lady! Wow are those floors beautiful! Awesome job! Thanks for popping on over...so glad you did! Looking forward to journeying along with you! Nicole

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  9. Oh my goodness they look FABULOUS!!!! You are far far braver than me! Beautiful job indeed!
    Tracy
    xx

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  10. Wow, now that was a HUGE job. But the floor really does look amazing after all the work you put into it!

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  11. The floors are beautiful. I know this was a tremendous amount of work but the end result was well worth it. Totally stunning!

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  12. Wow, the floors are stunning. I would love for you to link up to my Inspire Me party that is ongoing - -http://www.astrollthrulife.net/2013/10/185th-inspire-me-tuesday.html. Hope to see you there. Hugs, Marty

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  13. They look gorgeous! I feel for you guys that you had to do that process three times, that's a lot of work! I love the part where you said you laughed til you almost cried bc what else are you gonna do? Sounds like how me and my husband are sometimes :) Y'all's hard work definitely paid off tho!

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  14. They've come up beautifully Michelle. So shiny and new. I so love floorboards, nothing like them to add warmth and character to a home in my opinion! x

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  15. They look MAGNIFICENT Michelle!!! Well done you. Also congrats on your patience. I would have cried too. Then murdered Mr P. Worth it now though right, they look a million bucks!

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  16. Thanks for your lovely words everyone :)

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  17. You've done an amazing job. Shame about the footprints, at least you didn't need to redo the entire floor.

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