The Finished Floor

In our fifth installment of the flooring saga, the floor is sanded and receives its final finish.


No, you did not miss a post dedicated to the sanding. I do not have any pictures of the actual sanding process. This is partly because I didn't want to distract myself from the primary task and partly because I didn't want to risk contaminating the camera with sanding dust. Actually, the whole sanding thing is something I would just as soon forget, so I'm glad to exclude those photos. Otherwise, I might be reminded of the work involved and never finish the upstairs floors.

The sanded floors look much better than plywood that's been trampled on for several years, colored on, and chewed on (by the cat, really) - you must admit. I was tempted to stop there, but I had already bought the finish and wanted the floor to look good for more than a week.

I applied one coat of sealer and two top coats of the Bona Strong finish. I can't really compare it to other finishes (somehow I've blocked the memory of finishing the apartment floor) but I was generally very pleased with the process. The only issue with the Bona products is that if you spend enough time on their website, you will begin to feel that your floor isn't worthy of the product. But, you've already bought it so...

I was glad to have included the downstairs and upstairs halls in this project because it was such a drastic improvement. The upstairs floor is fir as far as I can tell. See if you can spot the floor patch in the photo below.

These photos show the dried first coat of finish, which should look very close to the end result. It's kind of a shame to cover all this with carpet. Ha - just kidding. Just a little flooring humor.

The final coat is drying as we speak, er... blog. Here's a photo of the wet finish. It will dry to a semi-gloss (that's Silkmat in Bona-ese) to hide the various imperfections. If you can spot the footprint, I'll give you a chance to help when I finish the upstairs bedrooms.








Next up - Trim!