Domino Hardwood Floors Blog

Thinking about sanding and finishing  your wood floors? There has been a great deal of improvement in the equipment used for sanding wood floors. Twenty years ago, homeowners had to deal with all the sand that the machines would create while sanding the floors.

Now we have dust containment systems that cause much less dust and lets you breathe easier (literally) in your home during the process.  We use the Bona dust containment systems on all our machines,  the drum sanders, the lowboys, and the edgers. It is a system where you attach all your sanding machines to a vacuum and the sanding dust is sucked into the vacuum and not spread around your home.

Drum sander with vacuum attachment.

Lowboy with vacuum attachment.

The hose is attached to a vacuum that is usually positioned away from the room being sanded (so the vacuum doesn’t have to constantly be moved). The hoses come if varying lengths so we can always reach every corner of the rooms.

Just some of the cords and hoses that are needed.

It really does make a difference, about 95% dust free. Where once you had to remove curtains, art work, chandeliers, and cover kitchen cupboards with plastic sheets, now the process is so much easier and cleaner. We had our kitchen re-sanded and finished and didn’t have to cover the doors to our cupboards with plastic – everything was fine after the crew was finished, thanks to the dust containment system.

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions concerning this system. I’d be glad to help!

Parquet and strip flooring meeting at doorway.

This is a white oak 2″ top nailed floor and a 2″ block parquet floor. An entry has the parquet and a living room with a 2″ boards and feature strip dividing the rooms. The feature strip that was added for a little extra pizzazz and definition.  I picked this picture to show how rooms with different patterns can blend well without matching patterns (parquet vs. strip).  You can have a parquet and strip flooring in the same house. In old homes in Portland, OR, it is not unusual to see two different patterns in different rooms. The floors are sanded and finished with Bona Traffic H.D. waterborne urethane satin finish. With the same species of wood, they do look great!

White oak quarter round molding.

We added white oak quarter round molding at the baseboards.  Both pictures show the quarter round. Clients can choose either quarter round to match the floor or to match the baseboards.

 We recently installed and finished this beautiful European white oak floor in a private residence in Portland, OR, with WOCA Diamond Oil. The trim work around the entry and step was custom made and installed in place.

This is a character grade chestnut floor, stairs and risers that we installed, sanded in place, and finished with OSMO Pro-Polyx oil.  Character grade chestnut has a rustic look and is very pretty in a home. This is a distinct looking floor and so beautiful in the right setting.

Character grade chestnut stair treads and risers finished with OSMO.

Entry and flooring in chestnut character grade.

The air vent covers are also chestnut.

The transition piece is chestnut, finishing off the wood floor nicely.

We installed this rustic grade 8″ European white oak plank flooring in a residence in Portland.

We sanded and finished it using a Bona sealer and Bona Traffic H.D. satin finish. The white oak flooring really compliments the modern look of this home.

Wide plank flooring is such a good choice and can be used in many different decors.

This is an original 1950’s white oak floor which had been covered with carpeting for many years. We removed the carpet and sanded and refinished the floor using OSMO Pro-polyx oil finish.

The client wanted a fresh look to her floors and was very happy with the result.  She was knowledgeable about the OSMO finish and the maintenance required, as it is different from using a polyurethane finish.

Wondering about what sheen to use for your floor?  There are many different choices, depending on the look you want.

Gloss is the shiniest finish and and as you can see, it looks almost like the floor is wet.

Semi-gloss makes the floors look polished, but not as shiny as gloss.

Next is the satin, which is one of the most popular.

Many manufacturers of urethanes make a gloss, semi-gloss and satin finish.  Bona has different gloss levels to choose from and the two most popular that we use are  satin and Extra Matte.  Depending on the look you want, you can pick a sheen to compliment your room.

I thought it would be good to show some of the steps that are required when sanding and finishing a wood floor. We have dust containment  machines, but you can see we still tape off some rooms that are not being sanded.

When sanding a floor, the first step is the drum sander. We do multiple passes with different grits of sandpaper, and then, if we are doing a surface finish, we fill the floor with wood floor filler.

. 

After filling the floor, we start the buffing process with a lowboy.

.  

Then comes the first coat of sealer, followed by more buffing between coats.

The floor is finished when all the coats are applied and it looks beautiful.

There are many different finishes that you can use on your floor for different looks. Next week I will show the different levels of sheen that you can choose from.

We did work on a house that was over 100 years old.  We did installation of new floors as well as sanding and finishing of the floors that were in the home.  The fir on the stairs is original and so are  the oak floors that you see in the picture. The oak is rift and quartered white oak.

The bathroom is 100 year old fir flooring.  A very dramatic look with the all white fixtures and the dark floor. Beautiful!

The floor in the kitchen (still in progress) is new fir which we installed and the sun room is old fir which was there.

The customer wanted all the floors stained a dark color so we used Bona stain and Bona Traffic HD satin finish.

We recently installed a 4″ white oak flooring  throughout the entire first floor of a private residence here in Portland. We also did the stairs in white oak.  We removed carpet and put down the wood flooring. The photo was taken right after the stairs were installed and finished and the stair railing was not installed yet.

The kitchen had tile, which we removed and replaced with the 4″ oak.

The floors were sanded and finished in place with a coat of Bona DriFast sealer and Bona Traffic H.D. satin finish.  As you can see from the pictures, the whole home looked so much better with the carpet and tile removed, and the beautiful wood floor installed.