The Floor Job March, 2016
Lee & Tammy live in the original farmhouse on the farm. While they were growing up, this was the house that Lee & Karen & Kurt's grandparents lived in.
The wall-to-wall carpeting that was installed somewhere back in the late 60' or early 70's was starting to really show its age. Lee and Karen vaguely remember that there was hardwood flooring under the carpet and Mom confirmed that there was indeed oak flooring under the old carpeting. Tammy had been wanting the carpeting pulled up and removed for quite a while and while she was away at a conference for a few days in March, Lee decided to surprise her by pulling up the carpet, and refinishing whatever was hiding under it. Of course, a project like this requires an partner-in-crime or two and that means Karen & Mom were a big part of this project. Tammy left on a Wednesday morning and Mom & Karen started moving furniture out soon after she left. Lee came home early in the afternoon and joined in. Ben, who was sleeping upstairs after working a night shift, came down and helped out too. We were able to stuff all the furniture on the front porch and the kitchen and I do mean STUFF - especially in the kitchen. The 500lb soapstone wood stove and the 300 lb flagstone under it we separately rolled into the dining room. We figured we would just move it around as needed while we worked. We started pulling up the carpeting in the dining room first and then the living room and we found beautiful red oak flooring underneath. The rubber pad under the carpet left a bit of a pattern on the flooring which Mom tried to scrub off with a floor scrubber and Mr. Clean. It was only partially successful so we decided the next day to rent a vibrating floor sander. We felt a belt sander would be too aggressive and was not needed. The carpeting tack strips had to be removed as well as the staples that had been used to hold down the rubber padding. After a light sanding, we laid down new quarter round molding to cover the edges and then applied a light Golden Pecan stain to the floor and molding. It was really starting to look nice. This sanding, molding, staining took longer than we planned and took us into Friday morning. We ran into a bit of a problem with the piece of flagstone that went under the wood stove. We had purchased a rubber mat at Tractor Supply to go between the stone and the floor but the underside of the stone was too lumpy. The stone rocked back and forth even on the rubber mat. We needed more of a cushion. We ended up cutting a piece of the old carpeting to go between the rubber pad and the stone. We even cut out sections of the carpet to match the raised "lumps" on the underside of the flagstone. Finally we got the flagstone to rest firmly on the rubber mat that was on the floor. By now it was Friday afternoon - we only had 24 hours before Tammy was to return. We rolled the wood stove back onto the flagstone and hooked it up. The polyurethane we were to use required 12 hours dry time between coats and 72 hours before furniture was to be placed on it. We wanted to get at least two coats on. We knew we didn't have the time but Lee had the idea that higher temperatures might speed up the drying time. He fired up the wood stove and hung fans from clotheslines strung from the ceiling between the radiator pipes that feed the second floor. We had our first coat of polyurethane down by 8 PM Friday evening. A non-contact infrared thermometer was showing floor temperatures in the dining room in the 80's and in the living room floor temperatures ranged from the 90's to well over 100 near the wood stove. The first coat was almost dry by 1 AM Saturday morning. Karen came over and we loaded the wood stove again and started putting the second coat down at 2 AM. By sun-up Saturday it was pretty much dry and it was beautiful in the morning sun that was streaming in through the windows. There were some streaks but we attributed this to the floor being too warm when applying the polyurethane and drying it too fast - but we really had no other choice and the streaks were not really all that bad. We waited until Saturday afternoon before we started moving furniture back in. We put felt pads and strips on the bottom of everything before we put it back on the floor. We were just finishing up with moving the piano back in when Tammy called and said she was over at Elaine Browns and asked if I could pick her up. When she arrived home and saw the floor she was surprised to say the least - and she cried. This was a good sign. We purchased matching braided rugs on eBay a few weeks later which really enhanced the beauty of the floor. We now feel like we are living in a rich person's house. Much appreciation and many thanks to my partners-in-crime, Karen & Mom, and Ben too for all the help.. This project never would have gotten done without them - Lee |