Things I have learnt whilst renovating my flat: part 1

I am now *this* close to being finished, just waiting for a dry enough stretch for the builder to come finish the front of the house and tidy up some minor items on the snagging list. Since the last post the bathroom is done, the living room has been repainted (um, again, I changed my mind about the colour) and a fireplace installed along with two gorgeous rescue cats (PS the Celia Hammond Animal Trust could do with more good homes for their cats, go check them out).

Over the last year and a half there have been lots of big learning experiences (see posts on floor sanding and tile painting) and many more little ones. I’m collecting some of the little ones in these posts.

• Black floor tiles show up the dirt probably as much as white ones would. Got matte black tiles from B&Q for the kitchen, they look great when clean, but are mostly covered in little paw prints now and are quite hard to get looking really good again. Even when I do it’s fairly fleeting as more dirt is tracked in. I have settled for regular sweeping and less than perfection.
• Neutral colours on a oddly shaped room make it look untidy. I couldn’t make a decision when I first had the living room done so opted for whites and creams. It’s a tall room with a big bay window, fireplace and alcoves and a funny little cut out bit for the door and hallway. It’s a bit awkwardly shaped, really, and the whites just emphasised this and drew the eye to the clutter of the bookshelves and so on. I decided it needed to be brought back together and found a series of warm greens from Dulux, lighter above the dado rail and darker below. MUCH better. My mother commented that before it felt like the room was flying apart and now it’s coming together, which sums it up for me. I will post some pics later, I promise.
• Test wood stains/beeswax on a small area, really. I hate my bedroom door. I have new pine doors throughout the house which need treatment. Beeswax with a tint was recommended, and I went for “antique pine” to match floorboards. I thought it was going on a bit dark and oddly coloured, but persevered as I thought maybe it would look better when all covered. Er, no. Looks rubbish. It doesn’t help that I put it on too thick and didn’t scrub it in with wire wool enough, but even after a thorough going over it is still the wrong colour. May have a go at sanding it back some day, but I’m stuck with it for the meantime. Probably gonna go with plain beeswax or paint, and maybe get someone else to do it because it’s a right pain, I can tell you.

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Varnishing the sanded wooden floors

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.

Varnished floor

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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DIY courses; Home Jane; your recommendations

I’m currently writing up a lengthy post on sanding floorboards, with pictures and everything, but in the meantime I wanted to share a recommendation.

Having always thought of myself as being rather good at DIY, I’ve recently come to realise that I was mostly just enthusiastic rather than genuinely skillful. Since I was moving into a new place which needed a lot of work, and was doing it on my own, I wanted to be able to do at least some of the smaller jobs myself. I also wanted to know enough to have meaningful conversations with builders, plumbers and so on, and hopefully avoid getting ripped off by unscrupulous cowboys.

When I saw that Home Jane were running a four week DIY course in SE1, then, I immediately signed up. Called ‘Tools for the Terrified’, it promised to be fairly hands on, and to cover woodworking, decorating, plumbing and wiring. Now, not being particularly terrified of tools, more just a bit inexperienced, I worried that it would be too basic or patronising. I was wrong.

I was wrong on a couple of counts. Firstly, it *was* fairly basic, but it just made me realise how much of the basics I didn’t actually know. I didn’t really know something as simple as the correct way to paint a wall, or how the plumbing system in a house works. I didn’t really know what I could or couldn’t legally do to the wiring in a house (as it turns out, there *isn’t* very much you are allowed to do), or how the electrics are normally set up.

I was also wrong because the workshop tutors and Home Jane team were great, very helpful, very clear, and always willing to answer questions. Not at all patronising. The class sizes are small, so you’ll need to get in there quick when they do run another one, though unfortunately there is no sign on their website that they have anything planned soon. Keep an eye on their news page, or send them an email if you want to find out more.

Still in the same borough, Southwark council also seem to be offering woodworking courses amongst other things, though I can’t vouch for them. Have you tried one of their courses?

For outside of London, a quick google search seems to bring up loads of different options. Could also search specifically for woodwork, plumbing or decorating. Have you tried any of these courses? Any other recommendations?

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