BELOW: This is after I went around the perimeter with a hand-held orbital sander in three passes using 36/80/100 grit. I used a scraper in the corners and in the closet. This final cleanup and sanding out of small details took me a couple of hours.
BELOW: after edge/ hand-orbital sanding in the closet. Going on hands and knees to cleanup small imperfections makes all the difference.
STEP THREE - WATER POPPING
After sanding wood the grain tends to be "closed" and resists accepting stain. The solution is "water popping". By wetting the floor it opens up the grain allowing stain to more easily soak in. All I did was get a bucket of warm water and wipe a wrung-out rag across the floor. The water soaked in immediately...I didn't let it pool I just wiped until the wood was dark and then moved on.
I made sure I rubbed into the grain.
By the time I was done with the room the opposite side was already showing dry patches, it took about 2 hours for the whole room to dry.
NOTE: my damp rag was
yellow with sawdust it pulled up from the (I had thought clean) floor. This points out an important requirement after sanding:
cleaning the wood thoroughly.
I don't see the need for mineral spirits, water popping
was all my floor needed.
STEP FOUR- THE STAINING
I poured the stain into a paint tray and used an old facecloth to apply and a soft rag to wipe off. I probably left the stain on 1-2 minutes before wiping off.
It was 20F degrees outside and I was very worried about the smell of solvents in the house. This room only has a single window so I secured a square fan in the window
blowing out, an oscillating fan across the floor, and cracked a window in the far room. I closed the outer door and put blue painters tape across the edges to keep any smell out of the rest of the house.
THE "GALLON SIZE" VOC FIASCO
Before the project began I felt happy and Green that I was using a 250 VOC stain and 275 VOC poly to limit exposure to my family.
But there was a hitch I didn't forsee(!)
I stained the floor at noon and by 1pm I could smell the solvent strongly in different parts of the house. Inside the room the smell was OVERPOWERING so I called Minwax to find out how long this would last.
They told me that the quart size of Minwax stain is actually
550 VOC(!!) It turns out the law mandating 250 VOC
limits on stains only applies to the
gallon cans. So I went to the store to check and sure enough...the gallon cans are labeled "250 VOC compliant" on the front...but not the
quart size. This means that if you are like
most people working on a small room you're
more than doubling solvent VOCs unless you buy a gallon size you don't need.
This loophole is very
consumer un-friendly. So much for me trying to make the right choices.
I had no choice but to live with my decision and make the best of it.
I kept the exhaust fan in the window and moved a rotating fan to different parts of the room to
help the drying process. I also placed a Honeywell HEPA filter fan outside the door.
According to Minwax the most out-gassing takes place in the first 72 hours. They were right.
I stained it on a Sunday and 5 days later on Friday the smell had dropped by about 90%.
THE ONION TRICK
I read an urban legend that
placing several slices of onion in bowls of water around the room can counteract VOCs. The theory is that the VOCs in the onion somehow mask/combine or erase the ones created by stain or polyurethane. With nothing to lose I got three bowls and put a thick slice of yellow onion in each with a bit of water to keep them hydrated. I put them in different parts of the room with the fan circulating air.
An hour later I popped my head in the room and would you believe it
the stain smell was largely gone (!) The room had a sweet, slightly onion odor and I could detect there was "something" there but it didn't smell like mineral spirits. I left them in the room for a day and finally removed them. I'm not convinced that it erases or removes VOCs but I suspect it helps mask them while they are off-gassing. Give it a try before you
scoff.
STEP FIVE- SPREADING THE TOPCOAT
The day finally arrived! Some people use an 18" squeegee and a plastic watering can filled with poly to pour on the floor, but I decided to keep it traditional. I used a 10" lambswool spreader and paint tray.
- Before starting I ran a Swiffer across all the walls. I then vacuumed the room for dust spending extra time with a brush attachment around the edges.
- For the stain I wore a 3M 6000 full face respirator mask with filters that block isocyanates and paint vapors, I didn't use it for the poly. I left the windows open of course.
- I poured the poly into the tray and used a 4"
paint brush to do inside the closet first. I decided this would give me some practice to see how the poly brushed out. I then cut the walls around the room and began spreading the poly to the opposite side of the room.
It spread easily and smoothly. I did kept a wet edge and did 2-3 passes to remove pooling and to fill the grain in places, but resisted the temptation to keep going over spots. The whole room took me about 20 minutes. Afterwards I saw a couple of spots where I had left small pools. I decided I would take care of them at the first sanding. No stress allowed here.
The best part was the odor. What odor? After the intensity of the stain I was amazed that the poly smelled like a mild latex paint. Afterwards I could barely tell the room had been done.
I'm not under the illusion that there are no chemicals venting, but it definitely didn't stink up the house like I expected.
BELOW: this is just finishing up the first coat. The golden oak look is coming out now. The 1st coat was thin and dried in 2 hours.
BETWEEN COAT SANDING
This poly calls for sanding with 220 grit after both the 1st and 2nd coats. I decided against sandpaper because the grit can load up and I also didn't want to crawl around on the floor. Some people rent a floor polisher and scuff with large pad. But I went the budget route and bought a plastic drywall block which fit on the end of my poly pole.
This let me clip on 3M sanding sheets and scuff as I walk around the room. The finish was hard and I scuffed moderately in line with the boards to level the surface and take off any bubbles or high spots.
A bonus to drywall sheets is that every couple of feet I tapped it on the floor and it dislodged all the sanded dust...keeping the screen clean. Each sheet seemed to lose its "bite" after a couple of passes across the room so I flipped them over regularly. I ended up taking 5 sheets to do the whole floor.
Afterwards I swept, tacked with an soft cotton rag and ran a Swiffer twice over the floor until no yellow poly dust came up. Then I put on my 2nd coat.
I used the same scuffing procedure after the 2nd coat.
