New T&G floorboards what to do!

garyh3

DIY's

Just had a quote for 900 euros to have the 5 bedrooms of the house sanded stained and varnished... Do you think this is excessive?? The rooms are the usual size for a 5-bed estate house.

As these are new T&G floorboards I was wondering if I just hire a sander & edger for a couple of days and then stain and varnish myself.... I don’t have a lot of time (work + new baby etc) how long would it take to do the whole lot ... a couple of w/e. (I hope)

Any tips/recommendations for sanding staining and varnishing would be appreciated...

Thanks

GaryH

Lex Luthor

garyh3 wrote:

DIY's

Just had a quote for 900 euros to have the 5 bedrooms of the house sanded stained and varnished... Do you think this is excessive?? The rooms are the usual size for a 5-bed estate house.

As these are new T&G floorboards I was wondering if I just hire a sander & edger for a couple of days and then stain and varnish myself.... I don’t have a lot of time (work + new baby etc) how long would it take to do the whole lot ... a couple of w/e. (I hope)

Any tips/recommendations for sanding staining and varnishing would be appreciated...

Thanks

GaryH

Gary,

Does that price include all the varnish bcause it doesn't sound too bad to me.

The large sanders are very heavy and hard to work with in a typical house. Really only suited to long runs of board.
I sanded 3 of our bedrooms and hired out a belt sander for a couple of days. I used that to get the floor to a reasonable smoothness, i think I used grade paper 80 (I think), and then I used a small B&D sander with a finer paper and just skimmed over it quickly. No need to get it to a glass finish as you'll want that slight bit of rough to grip the feet. Those belt sanders though pack a bit of a punch and will pull the arms off ya after an hour or so. I would go out and buy an edge sander cos it'll work out as much to hire it for a few days.

I normally just did one room a day for sanding, and varnished them all at once at a later date.

I would guess in a typical 100sq ft room it would take almost 2hrs to do it with the belt sander. Take a break for 45 mins and let the dust settle and then go in with the smoother paper.

If you have the arms for it, go for a smaller room next.

For varnishing, I just got a 5lt tin of Ronseal Clear Matt Diamond Coat Varnish, a 4" wide Varnish brush and spent a weekend doing the varnishing. You normally have to leave about 12hrs between coats. I got the varnish that "yellows" after time but that's a personal preference. Keep the windows open fully when varnishing. Another thing I did to speed up the varnishing and keeps you off your knees is buy one of those painting pads and stick it on the end of a broom handle. Feed it with varnish and you'll do one coat in a full room in 15mins. Only drawback is, you might have to do 4-5 coats as it doesn't put on as thick a layer as a brush but at least you'll be off your knees.
You could alternate coats between the brush & pad.

garyh3

Thanks Lex

and for the useful hints. Could you use a paint roller on a broom handle to put down the stain or would a pad be better? Im just looking for a light stain (french oak) or something like that.

What he said was that it was 750 euro's for the sanding and varnish and 150 euro's for the stain.

Just a quick question as these are brand new floor boards would they require a lot of sanding of just a quick going over.

I still think Ill have a go myself need to save money.....

thanks again

GaryH

Lex Luthor

garyh3 wrote:

Thanks Lex

and for the useful hints. Could you use a paint roller on a broom handle to put down the stain or would a pad be better? Im just looking for a light stain (french oak) or something like that.

What he said was that it was 750 euro's for the sanding and varnish and 150 euro's for the stain.

Just a quick question as these are brand new floor boards would they require a lot of sanding of just a quick going over.

I still think Ill have a go myself need to save money.....

thanks again

GaryH

Gary, the roller would be useless with stain and you would get a lot of splattering on the walls and skirting. I've used the pads for both stain & varnish and you can push it ight up to the skirting almost.

I found with my floor boards that the brunt of the sanding was to get rid off all the plaster/paint/cement that dropped & hardened on them from the builders. However, you should try to get them as clean and sanded as possible at the beginning otherwise it will annoy you for a lifetime. AN extra 20mins spent sanding and getting the right finish is worth it.

I just used a clear varnish on the boards, so after the french oak varnish you put on, you will still find yourself having to put a seal on it with a varnish or one of the more durable coatings.

There's another thread active here at the moment with details of other protective finishes.

garyh3

Thanks Lex...

Will let you knwo how it turns out..

GaryH

tapest

garyh3 wrote:

DIY's

Just had a quote for 900 euros to have the 5 bedrooms of the house sanded stained and varnished... Do you think this is excessive?? The rooms are the usual size for a 5-bed estate house.

As these are new T&G floorboards I was wondering if I just hire a sander & edger for a couple of days and then stain and varnish myself.... I don’t have a lot of time (work + new baby etc) how long would it take to do the whole lot ... a couple of w/e. (I hope)

Any tips/recommendations for sanding staining and varnishing would be appreciated...

Thanks

GaryH

I recently laid a new hall floor for the sister. Period house with long hall( 20 + feet). The only boards that would suit, without special cutting order, was ordinary white deal ( ie the cheapest). Could not get red deal in anything like the appropiate width. She used light pine stain(stain on its own and not mixed with varnish) To protect floor Diamond Coat....unbelievably easy to apply....almost slosh it om ....quick drying....Water based and hard wearing. And the good news is that she's so fussy, it it satisifies her it will satisify anyone. I had to lift a board afterwords to move a rad...All the boards were "stuck" together, even when screws(invisibly fixed) were removed. So as a sealer it does work.
Her daughter uses Diamond coat now for all internal varnish work (doors etc) because of its ease of use and speed of application.

hope this helps
t