I was yelling at the screen for you to go at a 45dg angle, and for the first time it worked. Those floors are beautiful, made with quality wood, not the balsa like garbage we get today. Keep up the great work
Haha. I laughed out loud when I read your first sentence. I've done a lot of floor refinishing and the 45 degree cross grain cut on difficult floors is a huge time saver as long as you manage the sander correctly. This was probably the last sand these floors will ever get though. I'm down to the tongue nearly. Believe it or not I can still buy Douglas fir flooring albeit quite expensive. Thanks for the comment and appreciate the Sub!
I love to see Dad and son working together, he acts like he really likes it too. Those floors are going to look really nice. Can't wait for the next video. mark
Thank you Mark. I have 3 boys and he is my youngest (3). He is my little clone and he walks in my shadow wherever I am. All 3 boys love helping out, but he is glued to my side if I'm home hehe. I was laughing out loud watching the video of him help me with that floor protection.
Wow! Looks familiar! I’m doing this right now but only a small bathroom floor. Same wood! Hard hard work, but hope it will be worth it! I am however staining them very dark, to help hide imperfections and try to hide the orangey color.
Slowed this way down so I could try to figure out: What's the product you use on the bare wood? Even if you can't mention the brand, please describe it. I'm about to hire a service to refinish my fir floors, and I want to make sure the floors come out more or less like yours. I love the imperfections you wind up with. Mine are around 95 years old.
Hi Sarah, First I used a sanding sealer which will give more depth to the grain. Second I treated some very deep damage spots and missing spots with a quick set epoxy. Lastly the floor was finished with 3 coats of water based aluminum oxide polyurethane. All of the products were available locally at Home Depot. If time is not an issue I do prefer oil based polyurethane for wear resistance but if taken care of the water base does fine. I find the most important thing with softwood floors is to sand carefully between grits and use a high rpm sander. If possible. Good luck on your project!
@@PassionforWoodworking Thanks so much! BUT ... please explain the phrase "sand carefully between grits." How many gradations of grit do you use? Like, three? And what is it you do "carefully" before switching to a finer grit?
This is so cool. What kind of sander are you using? We are redoing our Douglas fir floors and I wasn't sure if we should do a drum sander or something less heavy duty on a softwood.
I started out with a Clark drum sander, then edged with Clark edger and finished with a Clark pad sander. The use of a drum sander is fine even on soft wood if you do it correctly hehe. In this case there was no option in order to remove the amount of material that I needed to take up. Provided you drum sand properly the pad sander is how you blend the floor together and take care of any rolls from the drum sander. When using the pad sander I try to get the higher orbital rotation sanders which are typically bagged because they leave less swirl mark potential. Unfortunately they are getting harder and harder to rent as the bag is seen as a liability (fire). I don't like the larger circular rotation of the newer sanders.
What a difference between before and after. It was fun to watch! thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
@@PassionforWoodworking you are welcome my friend!
I was yelling at the screen for you to go at a 45dg angle, and for the first time it worked. Those floors are beautiful, made with quality wood, not the balsa like garbage we get today. Keep up the great work
Haha. I laughed out loud when I read your first sentence. I've done a lot of floor refinishing and the 45 degree cross grain cut on difficult floors is a huge time saver as long as you manage the sander correctly. This was probably the last sand these floors will ever get though. I'm down to the tongue nearly. Believe it or not I can still buy Douglas fir flooring albeit quite expensive. Thanks for the comment and appreciate the Sub!
I love to see Dad and son working together, he acts like he really likes it too. Those floors are going to look really nice. Can't wait for the next video.
mark
Thank you Mark. I have 3 boys and he is my youngest (3). He is my little clone and he walks in my shadow wherever I am. All 3 boys love helping out, but he is glued to my side if I'm home hehe. I was laughing out loud watching the video of him help me with that floor protection.
This is excellent! I subscribe.
Sorry to have missed this comment and thank you!
You work fast ;-) Nice job!
Thank you Mr. Hayes. I wish it had felt that fast while I was doing it hehe.
Wow! Looks familiar! I’m doing this right now but only a small bathroom floor. Same wood! Hard hard work, but hope it will be worth it! I am however staining them very dark, to help hide imperfections and try to hide the orangey color.
Why would anybody ever put vinyl tile over this
This fir floor is very low after many refinish jobs. My guess is they knew this and decided to just cover it.
Slowed this way down so I could try to figure out: What's the product you use on the bare wood? Even if you can't mention the brand, please describe it. I'm about to hire a service to refinish my fir floors, and I want to make sure the floors come out more or less like yours. I love the imperfections you wind up with. Mine are around 95 years old.
Hi Sarah,
First I used a sanding sealer which will give more depth to the grain. Second I treated some very deep damage spots and missing spots with a quick set epoxy. Lastly the floor was finished with 3 coats of water based aluminum oxide polyurethane.
All of the products were available locally at Home Depot. If time is not an issue I do prefer oil based polyurethane for wear resistance but if taken care of the water base does fine.
I find the most important thing with softwood floors is to sand carefully between grits and use a high rpm sander. If possible. Good luck on your project!
@@PassionforWoodworking Thanks so much! BUT ... please explain the phrase "sand carefully between grits." How many gradations of grit do you use? Like, three? And what is it you do "carefully" before switching to a finer grit?
This is so cool. What kind of sander are you using? We are redoing our Douglas fir floors and I wasn't sure if we should do a drum sander or something less heavy duty on a softwood.
I started out with a Clark drum sander, then edged with Clark edger and finished with a Clark pad sander. The use of a drum sander is fine even on soft wood if you do it correctly hehe. In this case there was no option in order to remove the amount of material that I needed to take up. Provided you drum sand properly the pad sander is how you blend the floor together and take care of any rolls from the drum sander. When using the pad sander I try to get the higher orbital rotation sanders which are typically bagged because they leave less swirl mark potential. Unfortunately they are getting harder and harder to rent as the bag is seen as a liability (fire). I don't like the larger circular rotation of the newer sanders.
Hows life in Idaho. Do you have plenty of work?
We are very happy, and have been working since we arrived. I've been building in Post Falls but am hoping to see some more local work in the future.