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).

Read Full Post »

Worktops; this isn’t the colour I ordered!

Don’t panic. Or rather, don’t panic like I did. It may not look like the wooden worktop you wanted, but everything is probably going to be OK. Read on…

I ordered my woodern worktops, along with the rest of my kitchen, from Benchmarx. Well, technically my builder did, as Benchmarx are trade only (this has advantages and disadvantages, as I’ll explain at some point). They have only one brochure, which has the following teeny weeny photo of the worktop I ordered, Acacia:

It looked to be exactly what I wanted. A fairly dark warm wood, without too much variation. It felt a bit of a risk going only on this tiny picture, but their prices were reasonable, cheaper than the B&Q equivalent by some way for example, and I could always send it back if unsuitable.

Well, I almost did send it back. The worktop that arrived was a lighter oaky colour, without any of the warmth from the photo and with what seemed like glaring variation between the individual blocks of wood. I called the builder: ‘this isn’t the colour I ordered, are you sure this is the right worktop?’. He assured me that it was definitely the right one and so, annoyed, I began to look into alternatives. I was convinced that Benchmarx had misrepresented the worktop in the photo.

Thankfully, before I went too far along this road, I spoke to a colleague who I knew had fitted a similar worktop (Iroko from Kitchen Worktops Direct, whom she highly recommended by the way) and was immediately reassured.

The key is in the Danish oil. Applying Danish oil to a wooden worktop is vital to protect it, but also has the affect of changing the colour, warming it up and darkening it considerably. Having seen the difference it made to my colleague’s worktop I decided to stick with the one I had, and I’m incredibly pleased that I did. As soon as I applied the Danish oil, and I used Liberon ‘Superior Danish Oil’, it made a huge difference. See below for before (left) and after (right) pictures of the color. I *love* it.

Here is a little taste of what it looks like installed (in my unfinished kitchen), against checked tiles and white cabinets.

Final tip: this acacia worktop is seriously hard. My builder had to buy a special (and pricey) router bit to get through it. The ones he usually used just couldn’t cut it, literally, only leaving burn marks on the wood. Apparently the guy who sold him the worktop said that kitchen installers often don’t like using this wood because it can be so hard to handle. I suspect it therefore requires a very skilled installer. For me, the result is worth it. And, with all the pain of installing it behind him, my builder did agree that it is a very fine worktop.

Read Full Post »