Two More Floors

The kitchen and living room floors have been varnished with Estapol.

Living room floor sanded after second coat

I planned to lay only 2 coats on the living room floor but while I was putting down the second coat in the living room I noticed that there were many areas of roughness that appeared as though sand was embedded in the varnish.  Some gentle sanding by hand revealed that the roughness was from tiny granules of varnish that was easy to sand off.  The only solution was to sand the entire floor and then lay a third coat, hoping that the problem would not manifest itself again.  This meant more hours of work but it had to be done.

That night I pondered over the cause of the problem, given that I had successfully varnished 4 floors with no problem.  I came to the conclusion that my recent practice of wiping the bare floor with methylated spirits (ie alcohol) in order to remove all sawdust was the most likely cause.  I had not allowed enough time for the floor to dry and areas where I had wiped with too much spirits were leading to an interaction with the varnish. 

Kitchen floor finished

Closeup of kitchen floor

Yesterday I was facing the prospect of arriving late at the house because of an 8 AM dental appointment, sanding the living room floor, then laying a third coat of Estapol on both the kitchen floor (which I had planned) and the living room floor.  It got worse.  I discovered that there were also problems with the kitchen floor so I sanded it too.  I was not able to begin the varnishing until 11 AM and I expected to work into the night.

The crisis put me on a higher level of effort and  I managed to get it all done by 5.30 PM and was able to reach Brenda's home at Beaconsfield at the usual time of 7 PM. 

This morning I looked at the result with some apprehension and was delighted with the result.  The kitchen and living room floors were by far the best ones to date.  That left only the hallway to be done, and I laid the first coat this morning with no use of methylated spirits.  Also, I'll apply a light sanding between each of the 3 coats.  If all goes well, I will finish the hallway floor in Saturday morning, and that will mark the end of the floor work.

At the dentist appointment I discussed the options following the necessary extraction of my troublesome molar.  Her advice was to replace the tooth with a titanium implant, so that process is now in train, at the expected cost of $7,000. 

Living room floor finished with 3 coats

Living room floor, with hallway section on the right