I thought the floors looked pretty good after sanding, but with the varnish on they looked even better. It’s vital to protect the floors, but also seemed to help bring out the colour.
I used Jenkins acrylic varnish in a Satin finish (satin is somewhere between gloss and matt, a pretty standard choice these days) which I ordered along with the sanding kit from Floor Sander Hire. I was warned off using a polyurethane varnish since it might discolour, and was also slower to dry. More info on why it might not be suitable, especially for pine floors, in this Wikipedia entry.
The first thing to do was clean the floors, mainly to get up the remaining dust from sanding. I hoovered and then wiped them down with a wet rag.
I then used a paint tray filled with the varnish, dipped a roller on a long arm into the varnish and then rolled it onto the floors. I worked up and down the boards, two boards at a time, backing myself towards the door so as not to end up marooned in the middle somewhere.
The mistake I made initially was worrying too much about how thickly I was putting it on. I kept trying to smooth out the bits which looked a bit white and gloopy, thinking it would dry that way, and ended up making it too thin. Doing it this way also took aaages, and I’ll probably need to add another layer at some point in the bedroom where it’s still too thin. My builder saw me doing this and put me right; it will dry clear, he said, so you can put it on a bit thicker than you might think and not worry about the odd white bits. He was quite right.
This varnish took about an hour to dry, though I left it overnight the first time. Three coats for heavy use areas, two for areas with less traffic, seems to be the consensus. Before putting down the final layer you need to go over the whole floor with fine (e.g. 120) sandpaper as the previous layers will have brought up the wood grain and it will feel quite rough. I don’t quite understand why this happens, but you really do need this final sand, it will feel much smoother after. You’ll feel it smooth out, it doesn’t take too long. I used a little electric hand sander for this, much easier.
That’s it! Doesn’t seem to be entirely scratch proof or anything like that, but is certainly preventing stains. As usual, please share your own tips in the comments.
(Previous post on sanding here).
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