Bedroom Suite Progress Report – Sanding The Red Oak Hardwood Flooring (Plus, A Preview Of My Blue Walk-In Closet With Light Wood Floors)

This type of feels anticlimactic at this level. In spite of everything, it was simply over two months in the past that I had these hardwood flooring put in, and at the moment they appeared like this…

After which I stained and polyurethaned them, they usually appeared like this…

So undoing all of that tough work and going again to the purpose the place I used to be simply over two months in the past doesn’t actually really feel like progress. However I do know when all is alleged and carried out, I’ll be so blissful that I took this chance to alter the ground shade, not solely in our bed room suite, however all through our whole home.

I didn’t wish to undergo that once more, so earlier this 12 months, I employed out the sanding of the hardwood flooring. However had I recognized how superior Dwelling Depot’s sanders had been, there’s no means I might have employed out that job! These American Sanders ground sanders are straightforward to make use of, and I used to be particularly impressed with the sting sander. (Tiger appeared impressed as effectively. 😀 )

Talking of Tiger, he’s doing very well. I put a collar with an air tag on him in order that I can maintain tabs on him. 😀 He just about spends all of his time in our again yard, and I’m on the market fairly often to offer him a number of love and cuddles.

Anyway, right here’s the sanding progress. I acquired the entire sanding with the 36-grit sandpaper on the drum sander carried out in the entire areas. After which I acquired about midway carried out with the sting sanding with the 36-grit sandpaper.

The areas across the doorways are clearly essentially the most difficult components, and I might want to get new blades for my ground scraper with a view to get proper as much as the door jambs. Since I’m going from actually darkish flooring to a extremely gentle end, I clearly need each single little bit of that darkish end gone as a lot as potential. And I’d like to do this with out eradicating any extra trim items, if potential.

Fortunately, with the superior edge sander, the areas proper up in opposition to the partitions are a lot simpler than I anticipated. I’ll nonetheless have to make use of a ground scraper within the corners, although, for the reason that spherical edge sander can’t get into these corners.

However I acquired the entire most important space of the lobby carried out. My greatest concern is the transition between the bed room suite lobby and the music room. That must be a clear, straight line for now (till I refinish the remainder of the flooring sooner or later), and I’m not fairly so assured in my capacity to get a clear, straight line, even with a ground scraper. I’ll do my greatest, clearly, however I may need to stay with a not-so-perfect transition for some time.

Anyway, the explanation that the primary sanding takes so lengthy is as a result of that darkish end needs to be faraway from the entire wooden grain. With only one move, it appears to be like like this…

And clearly, that received’t do. Once I was making an attempt to determine what end and which merchandise to make use of to get a lightweight end on crimson oak hardwood flooring, I watched as many movies as I might discover on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. I got here throughout one video of a younger girl who DIYed her flooring, and he or she didn’t sand sufficient to take away the entire end from the grain. The end result wasn’t nice. I believed perhaps she simply didn’t know what crimson oak flooring had been imagined to appear like once they’re totally sanded. Possibly she thought that crimson oak flooring simply naturally have actually darkish grain, however they don’t. In the event that they’re sanded correctly, crimson oak flooring have fairly light-colored grain. Any actually darkish grain is leftover stain, and it must be eliminated.

So getting all of that up is the largest problem on the primary sanding. As soon as all of that’s up, the remainder of the sanding (the 60, 80, and 100-grit sanding) ought to go fairly shortly.

I’ll be utilizing Bona NaturalSeal on the flooring, and that sealer has a little bit of white pigment added to it. So as soon as they’re fully carried out, the completed flooring needs to be only a bit lighter than they seem of their fully pure, unfinished state.

One other problem is that this complete little hallway between the lobby and the bed room needs to be carried out with the sting sander as a result of there’s not sufficient room to make use of the large drum sander there since I’ve to sand with the grain of the wooden. That doesn’t look like a giant hallway in any respect if you’re it, however if you’re bending over and utilizing a robust edge sander to sand the entire thing, it appears a lot greater than it’s. 😀

I additionally observed that I’ve a number of areas that I already sanded, however clearly I didn’t do sufficient. So as soon as I end up with the 36-grit sanding, I’ll give the entire flooring a once-over and return and hit the areas that I missed earlier than transferring on.

I estimate that I can get by means of the entire sanding with the opposite three grits of sandpaper, as much as 100-grit, in the identical period of time that it took me to do the entire flooring with the 36-grit. So the toughest half is sort of over.

However right here’s the enjoyable half. We are able to lastly get an thought of what my blue walk-in closet will appear like with gentle hardwood flooring. Once more, the completed flooring will likely be a tiny bit lighter than what they appear like right here, however simply have a look at this enormous distinction the sunshine flooring make!

I imply, the sunshine ground makes such an enormous distinction within the room!

And this time round, I’m additionally going to take time to fill in areas like this with crimson oak wooden filler. I didn’t do this the primary time round as a result of they didn’t present with a extremely darkish stain shade. However with a lightweight, pure ground shade, they’ll positively present.