Planning a hardwood floor project for the first time? Do not underestimate the enormity of the endeavor. Once the flooring has been positioned in place, the real ‘dirty’ work begins as you sand, clean up, stain and finish it. Besides the materials required, make sure that you also prepare a pound of patience and do some research to help you fully grasp the process. Besides the tools you need to carry out this undertaking, you also need to sharpen your attention to details. These will help you surmount the challenges of installing hardwood flooring. Before you get your hands dirty, this article will tip you off of the difficulties that you may possibly encounter and how you can avoid them.
Get ready to get immersed into a huge mess. Anything that you don’t want to get dirty should be stored in an empty room in your house where you are not currently installing hardwood flooring. This room must be sealed to keep dirt from entering. You must then cover up all all the remaining things even outlets and ventilation must be sealed. Once you start the sander, you can be at peace at the thought that your belongings are protected from the mess.
Another messy job is the cleanup phase. Oh, the irony of having to get dirty in order to clean things up! If you mess this phase up, you will ruin the look of the floor once you finish installing hardwood flooring. For a thorough job, make sure to put the vacuum cleaner to maximum use, including its brush attachment to reach corners. The use of a tack rag in going over everything many times is also essential to ensure that everything is covered.
Staining newly installed hardwood flooring is a sticky business especially for the unskilled and mistakes are a big possibility. To help keep you sane in this ordeal, use a rag instead of a brush if you are new to brushing. Using a rag helps you apply an even coat and rub the stain into the wood, whereas if you use a brush, your output may include a set of darker spots where the brush initially hits the wood. And you would also need a rag to wipe off the excess when applying the stain with a brush. You have to put on two coats of stain.
At this point, much of the dirt, mess and headache of installing hardwood flooring have already been dealt with. You just have to ensure that you don’t mess things up late in the game or all your efforts will be in vain. To avoid this, make sure that each coat has completely dried before applying the second. To ensure a completely dry floor, do not use or put anything on it for two to three days or you might end up with floor that has your footprints, ‘immortalizing’ your blunder of walking onto soft floor.
