I bought a sweet 2br/1bath bungalow in September and immediately attacked the plaster problems and wookwork (stripped/cleaned & refinished).

Progress came to a halt when my daughter was born prematurely (11/05/05), and I only finished the interior paint two weeks ago.

So here's my problem: How can I strip, sand, and refinish the wood floors (living room, dining room, short hall and 2 bedrooms) with a newborn in the house? I am afraid of the dust and toxins I'll stir if I do anything major. I'm a single parent (wow. still letting that sink in) and don't have the means to relocate while I do the work.

I'm considering just floating a new floor over the old one, but the old one can be salvaged and I don't want to spend the $$ on a new floor if I can help it.

Does anyone have suggestions? I have two weeks off in April, so I'd like to have a plan in place ASAP. The floors MUST be refinished or replaced, but the rest of the interior work is minor and can wait until I find normal life again.

Thanks in advance, Seth

By the way, the kitchen and bathroom were updated in the 60's (?) and they do their jobs, albeit a bit garishly.

Hello,


Congrats on the new baby....

Great thinking on the dust etc.. Very wise.. Also look out for the lead paint when stripping the woodwork.


#1 The best place to start is to figure out what type of finish you are fighting..

Shellac will darken with age, and was mostly used in older homes. Actually, the only way you will be fighting vernish (almost never used) or poly would be if someone attempted a strip or recover in the last 30 years..

A quick way to find out if it is shellac.. Take a little ammonia and rub a small spot in a corner.. If you start to see the finish soften (the more you rub, the more you will remove) Then you know you are dealing with shellac.

if it is shellac, then it will be pretty easy to strip, and you can use ammonia, or chemical stripper.

My favorite product is Parks brand semi paste stripper. The other stuff just does not seem to cut it (save your money on the enviromentally friendly stuff.. ) It does not do the job for our level (restoration) of work.. The active ingrediant in the stripper is Methanol Chloride.. That is the good stuff... BIX brand is also very good, it has a bleach that will take all of the coloring out of the floor.. Being a restoration.. you may want to retain the floor color but remove the top finish..


All you can do with stripper is to get the baby as far away as possible.. (another floor would be best..

If you do a neat and clean job on stripping, you will not need to do much sanding..

What i would do.. is to wait about 3 months, get a nice warm weekend, put a half dozen fans in the windows of the room you are working in, and a fan in the babys room.. The main thing with this stuff is you want to get some good ventialtion...

I would not wait too long.. Once she starts to crawl, your life becomes much more difficult with the baby /floors

Another tip, if you have problems with the woodwork etc.. and stripping, put a thick layer of stripper on the piece, and cover with a good thick plastic (3-4 mil) .. This will reduce the evaporation time, and allow the stripper to cut just a little deeper.. Also, don;t rush the stripper, let it do the work for you..


Use lots of thinner, and steel wool to clean up..



On floor finish, I would put 2-3 coats of poly.. Personally I like a satin finish.. But with 220-600 sandpaper.. A great topcoat product is Antique oil finish, it is a tung oil based product (it will make the floors glossy) .. Personally, I like a little gloss on the floors, to me that gloss on the floors says 'clean' gloss on the woodwork says 'cheap'


Best of luck...


Rob Bennett

House of Yesteryear

Sounds like you know your stuff, Rob!

I purposely finished all the interior painting before the baby got here... there were at least 5 coats of paint to remove, and I am certain most of those were lead-based- WHAT A MESS THAT JOB WAS! But it's gone now and I feel good.

In fact, I am happy with the condition of the house, in general. Working on it has been therapeutic, and I've often found myself miles away mentally while the work just sort of "gets done" without my mental presence. My TO DO list is much shorter than I would have imagined at this point, even. But you're right, I must get these floors in shape before my little one starts crawling.

As far as the floor goes, if I don't have to sand (much), then the planets are aligned and it will go quickly. I haven't even done a test spot yet, but it looks like it had wax at one point: soft layer easily marked with the fingernail.

After April, I'll be looking at the exterior... and I will be WAY out of my element trying to choose colors, landscaping, etc. I am not confident with my design eye.

But that's another thread altogether. Thanks for your input, Rob. Wish me luck!

Seth Masters

a question for rob...

i know alcohol dissolves shellac, but i wasnt aware ammonia would. will household strength work or is commercial (26%) needed? i use that for fuming wood and know a good respirator is needed. just wondering about use for stripping.

thanks

My 2cents, Denatured alcohol or ethanol is used to dissolve shellac flakes so you certainly could use it to strip shellac. Ammonia is very good for stripping old milk paint but is usually avoided because of the fumes. Ammonia will also turn wood with high tannin content (oak) very dark, the darkening can be reversed with oxalic acid. Chemical striper contains Methyline Chloride which can affect the heart.
All in all, chemical fumes and babies do not go together, baby should not be in the house while you do the floors!

Update from Seth:

I've stripped and refinished the bedrooms first since any mistakes would be less public. I pulled up a test board from one of the closets. I had no idea it would be ONE INCH THICK (NOT nominal, but exactly 1"!!!) oak. I had thick, gunky wax to strip, then did the denatured alcohol bath. After the floor dried completely, I sanded to clear grain... and it's a brand new floor!
I didn't tint or stain the wood. Just gave it three coats of satin urethane. It is beautiful!

Sophia is getting to know her grandparents a little better this week. I have stripped and sanded the rest of the floors, but am holding off on finish until after the holiday weekend.

I'm really pleased with the outcome. With much less work than I expected, my bedroom floors are flawless, and my sweet Sophia's lungs are happy, healthy, and newborn-fresh.

(I'm somewhat sleep-deprived. Forgive the sentimentalism.)

To the christians, happy easter. To everyone else, enjoy the long weekend.

Seth

Self-editing here:

Let me make it clear that the baby and I are staying with my parents while I do the floors. No sense taking chances with that girl.

Go check her out:
http://sethmasters.tripod.com/seth/

the baby is beautiful and i'm sure the floors are too. what kind of sanders did you use? please post pics of the finished job. the folks in the kit homes forum would appreciate a pic of the house exterior as well.

Dear Seth,

First congratulations on your new daughter. Sleeping through the night will not happen for a long, long time.

You are right to be concerned about the dangers of doing floors, stripping woodwork, etc. All of that stuff can go into the air and cause health problems for adults and kids. It can take weeks before an asthmatic like me can be in house with freshly painted walls, sanded floors, etc.

Here are some ideas that might help.
(1)Use milk paint. It comes in only a few colors but it has little odor and is pretty non-toxic. Or use a low odor latex if you don't like the color or look of flat milk paint.
(2)Do no spray the paint onto the walls--the mist goes into the air and into your lungs for weeks. Instead, paint the walls and ceilings with rollers. It takes more time but the paint goes on thicker and covers better.
(3)With a baby in the house, avoid anything that is oil based. Those fumes are nasty. That includes paint for the walls and use a water based sealer for the floors.(The contractor used an oil based sealer on our white oak floors--big mistake for our lungs.) There is a new sander out there that does not release the dust into the air--it costs more to rent or buy but worth it to keep the air cleaner. (Oneida sells it only to flooring professionals--it is called a dustless floor sander.)
(4)If you have any painted woodwork, in the back of the This Old House Catalog is a product that you brush on and leave it for awhile. Then you peal it off in one big, ugly hunk. None of the lead paint goes into the air. It costs big bucks for a can but it is better for your lungs.
(5)For the exterior of your house, I have found a site that documents different authentic color schemes for bungalows--if you are interested.

Good luck,

Bev.

Bev - note the last time stamp from Seth's post; last time he was on was about a month ago and he only has a post count of 5, 4 of which are in this thread. Don't be surprised if you get no response - looks like he dropped in here and then moved on.

Nonetheless, great suggestions on the floors and walls ...and welcome to the forum!

Stonecat is sort of right. I'm busy 100% of the time. I'm a single father and work for a non-profit, so extra time doesn't really exist. Still, I enjoy dreaming/working on the house.

I won't disappear permanently, but my visits are pretty rare.

Seth

Glad to see you are back. I have been quiet because I am house hunting for an A & C through Realtor.com--don't know if I will find it.

How did the painting go? The right colors can sure set the tone and make a wonderful visual change when you walk into a room.

When I get back to MS, I can send you that website with a great article on A & C color schemes. They were not always earth tones!

Is your little one sleeping through the night yet?

Bev.

Public library has a color-scheme book, but I still don't know what to do. It can wait, however.

Sophie is sleeping through the night. It was strange... one night, she's up every 3 hrs, the next nite, she slept. Go figure.

I saw a home in Brazil (Indiana) that the walls of the arts and crafts home were wallpapered with a hand painted tapestry .. I will see if I can dig up some pics on it.. It must have been nice and truly original, Bradbury had pictures of it on their web page for a good length of time.

shooting earth tones is a great idea, But how about cotacting a local painter or some art students from a local college to hand paint some blank papers.. that you can apply as a border..

Would't it be cool to have a 8" border around the top of a room, with like a river and mountain on one wall, and a forest design on another wall.. a sun and Mountain design on another wall.. etc.. so it was not a running pattern (like stencil) but rather a full length painted border.

A great way to introduce color into a room and still keep a neutral look...


(Just an idea)


Rob Bennett
www.houseofyesteryear.net