Floor- Part Three

Final floor post! I don't know about you, but I'm sick of talking about floors. Thankfully all is well. In my last post I left off saying we were going to ignore the upstairs and focus on the ground floor. We decided on using an oil-based polyurethane (we used semi-gloss high traffic Varathane) because we were told that oil-based poly gives the floor an amber glow and it's easier to apply. I had been under the impression that if we didn't put stain down, the floors would be really pale, but the poly made the oak color come out and it looked pretty! See below the contrast between the non-stained floor on the bottom left and the poly everywhere else.

If I had known this, I would of just skipped the stain upstairs and put the poly on and called it a day! The color is actually close to the color I had been looking for with a stain. Oh the irony.

We then decided it wasn't worth it to re-do the upstair floors again, so we just put the poly down upstairs over the stain. I didn't take a picture of the problem areas, but the good news is the shiny poly seems to hide the shiny areas and kind of disguises the chatter. Once again, if only we had known, it would have prevented some stressing. :P

We really like the deep rich stain upstairs, but I'm not sure I would deal with stain again. We will see!

Things we learned:

1. Rent a machine that is balanced (otherwise you get the chatter).
2. If you want less hassle, skip the stain, and go straight to poly.
3. Talk with someone who knows what they are doing and get all the advice you can before you start.
4. Give yourself more days than you are expecting.
5. Don't forget to breathe, they are just floors! I had to tell myself this a few times.


Next up: painting (choosing colors), cabinet insulation, adding in beams, drywall and other fun stuff. :)