Tar Paper

fast pasquale

You should stick to masonry.

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Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors

Angel241

Thanks for the links oldfrt - I think the trick with this is to not take too much off, just enough to preserve a bit of the dirt in the little knicks and such, to give it that old look.

We are really on the fence at this point as to what we are going to do with the finish. He's dead set on a satin finish, while I'd rather have a semi-gloss. I think putting satin on floors is a huge mistake - shows too much dust/dirt.

fast pasquale

Gloss/semi gloss with bring out all the imprefections. Satin will hide all the imperfections. You got it backwards

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Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors

Angel241

I didn't mean the imperfections in the floor, but the dirt/dust that collects on the floor after it's been finished. We did a couple of other rooms in the house using a satin finish, and it shows every speck of dust that collects onto it, worse than all the other hardwood floors I've dealt with.

If I'm wrong, though, let me know.

fast pasquale

You are.. and I did..haha Good luck.

__________________
Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors

Angel241

Ok!

lawndart

Angel,

From my experience, using a semi gloss will show more surface scratches than a satin finish, but looks much nicer when new. The darker the stain the more dust you will see, and the lighter, the more dirt. Most hardwood flooring guys would agree with me.

fast pasquale

Im with lawndart on this one. Go with the finish and gloss you like. Not b/c it'll hide the fact that you don't ever clean your floors. haha. There is a huge diffrence between the look of satin and gloss. Figure out what you like and dewit!

__________________
Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors

rservices

I had the exact same stuff on my 100 yr old home, I used a heat gun and a scraper. once I got about 90% of it off I sanded. The room is about 12 x 12 and it took over 20 hours.

Was it worth it YES, great maple floor.
I had the same in the kitchen but the floor was damaged so I tiled

Angel241

Thanks for the insight on the different finishes on the floors. I'm not so much trying to hide the fact that I don't clean the floors It's more because we still have a lot of drywall dust in the air.


We're going to be going to pick up the sander again, as well as the edger. I'm trying to gauge out how much of the finer grit paper I'm going to need. About how long, in theory, should a 60, 80, 100 grit sheet last?


rservices, it's amazing you were able to get it off with a heat gun. For us, any kind of heat just melted the tar into the wood worse making it a gooey mess.

fast pasquale

Well this isn't the standard floor. If it were.. each sheet should last approx 600 sq feet.
For this application with the adhesive still there... maybe 300sq feet at the most. You'll just have to keep checking the paper.
One trick is to use the flip the paper over and use the other side.

__________________
Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors

Angel241

So we got the floors done with the rough grit sandpaper today. They look soooooo much better already!

Tomorrow will be the fine grit paper as well as the edger.

It turns out that one spot that I loved the grain in so much isn't original. There's about three boards there that had been replaced, and we think it marks where the hallway before the old classroom had been.

There's a few spots of tar that I don't think we'll be able to get up due to the floor being as wavy as it is.


The 24 grit paper made a huge difference today in going through the tar on the floor. For all of it, I think we only ran through 5 sheets of it.

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Angel241

Okay, so now that we're getting closer to finishing up the rest of the stuff in the living room, I figured I would start looking into what we really want to do with the floor.

What finish would you recommend most, and what brand do you prefer? We really want to do this right.

Nathan

Yea, DIYChatroom.com might be the best place for this. Thanks.

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Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

MALCO.New.York

And please, please, please do not "Over finish" the floor. Do not sand it "new". Leave some age so it remains what it is. Character is as important in an old house as much as function is.

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Something to One may be Nothing to another!

Ultimate Wisdom---------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-cnizLDEE

fast pasquale

Sorry.. I diagree.. Sand it down to the bare wood.. get it clean as possible and finish it.
This is not 125 yr old heart pine where you want to keep its character...Its doug fir/pine...

__________________
Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors

MALCO.New.York

This is what opinions are for. But then again I do not do floors.....

__________________
Something to One may be Nothing to another!

Ultimate Wisdom---------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-cnizLDEE

72chevy4x4

what's up with the influx of DIY questions? Seems like March is the month for HO's to sign up and get their questions answered.

Double-A

Angel has been on the forum since March of 2005. Things were a bit more lax then.

Nathan has said his peace and I think he's content with it.

I think the DIY'er coming out in March in general is the same reason we have so much traffic right now from the contractors. We're all suffering from Cabin Fever!

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"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

fast pasquale

It's all good.. Mostly the big plank 100+yr old stable old growth trees keep the patina nice.. Then it's just a quick clean.. minor abrasion and maybe some tung oil/penetrating finish works nicely.

__________________
Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors