WWYD - Painting and new floors

[wawa]

Our floor refinishing got delayed. I'm trying to figure out now how soon we can start cranking on putting the house back together.

Our floor guy said that we'll be fine to walk on it and move furniture (carefully) a day or two after the top coat is dry. But he said to keep rugs off of it for at least a week, and to keep moisture off of it for 2 weeks to be safe.

So...when would you paint? He said putting down contractor paper/rosin paper is fine right away (but not to use canvas dropcloths for a week), but we can't tape it to the floor. I'm really nervous about getting a drip on the wood, or a smear along the bottom edge when I'm touching up the trim. I know it should wipe up fine - but obviously I don't want to be attacking it with a damp rag any time soon.

Would you just get started and be very careful?
Or wait? How long? 1 week? 2?

[thewop]

I'd wait a week. Murphy's law will state that you will drip on the new floor and it won't be pretty. Better safe than sorry.

[FoxInFiji]

Can you paint before he refinishes since he's delayed? We're hoping to paint before we install the new HW floors and finish them on site. If not I'd wait a week or so just so you know the finish isn't ruined. HW finish is much harder to fix compared to paint.

[wawa]

Nov 20, 2012 11:02:30 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Can you paint before he refinishes since he's delayed? We're hoping to paint before we install the new HW floors and finish them on site. If not I'd wait a week or so just so you know the finish isn't ruined. HW finish is much harder to fix compared to paint.

He got held up on his last job for 2 days, so he was late starting ours and we got a 1st coat up in a couple of rooms.

But he's been working all week so we haven't been in there - the sanding is taking him longer than he planned because our upstairs floors were in pretty bad shape. And apparently covered in multiple layers of murphys oil soap residue or something similar because it's apparently gummy as hell to sand.

He's supposed to be sanding the living room and stairs today, and then getting the first coat of stain on tonight. He's still saying will be tomorrow, but with the multiple coats of poly and everything i'm not sure how that's going to work unless he's sleeping over.

FTR - he was supposed to start last monday and be done on friday based on what he told us when we got the quote and signed the contract. (so we could have been painting without fear this weekend) he worked through the weekend, but still is this far behind. Pain in my ass.

[pitterwoo]

he is not good at estimating the timing of his jobs. seems to only project the most smooth scenario and then not have a cushion for when things come up. Anyway, that's his problem. I am conservative so I would wait at least 1 week.

[FoxInFiji]

Well is he doing water based poly or oil based? Almost all of the flooring refinishers have switched to water based because it dries much faster and can allow up to two coats a day. We wanted to stick with oil based poly so it looks like we're going to have to DIY it. Yay another thing to get done before Christmas!

[wawa]

Nov 21, 2012 2:01:57 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Well is he doing water based poly or oil based? Almost all of the flooring refinishers have switched to water based because it dries much faster and can allow up to two coats a day. We wanted to stick with oil based poly so it looks like we're going to have to DIY it. Yay another thing to get done before Christmas!

We're going water based. He's doing some sort of multi-step process that involves 4 coats. I think it goes stain, 2 coats of base something or other and 2 coats of top something or other. I looked it up when he quoted it and it looked good to me, but I don't remember the details off the top of my head.

side note: I couldn't really find a good reason to go oil based for our floors. Marginal gains in durability in exchange for a longer, stinkier process and possible yellowing. But perhaps what I've read oversold the improvements in water-based finishes?

And for the PP who mentioned that he's bad at scheduling a cushion - yup. MH and I were just speculating the other day whether he had another client scheduled for this week who is now getting pushed back till after the holiday. Hopefully he's not that stupid with his schedule and does occasionally leave himself some breathing room, but at this point, I wouldn't be surprised. I AM surprised that none of this came up on his angie's list reviews though.

[FoxInFiji]

OK so two coats of poly is totally doable for water based. With the new chemical hardeners added to water based poly they are about on par with oil based now. Some will argue harder some will argue less. The main reason we wanted oil based was (1) the deeper rich color it gives the wood. We don't mind some yellowing as we're considering no stain and just straight poly on a light colored wood. The yellowing also isn't as bad as it used to be. There have been improvements on that. You can get a special sealer (goes on after stain but before poly) for water based called DTS or deep tone sealer that is supposed to help give a similar look.

(2) It has a longer drying time so it's much easier to DIY. Especially for first timers like us. Cutting in and maintaining a wet edge is a lot easier. We looked into hiring out just the sanding but no one really wanted to do just that and not finish the floor as well so the cost of just sanding was really high. In the end it was just too much to hire it all out for us. We got a very good deal on the flooring but hiring out the finishing put it out of the price range we wanted to stay in. If we were just refinishing existing floors we probably would of hired it out though because it's so much simpler!

(3) It's a lot cheaper! The water based Bona system which everyone is using is between $100-120/gallon with the hardener for the top line poly. A similar oil based poly is $35-60/gallon. I haven't picked out the exact brand of poly I want to use yet but I was surprised at how much more affordable they are.

[wawa]

Nov 21, 2012 9:35:32 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

OK so two coats of poly is totally doable for water based. With the new chemical hardeners added to water based poly they are about on par with oil based now. Some will argue harder some will argue less. The main reason we wanted oil based was (1) the deeper rich color it gives the wood. We don't mind some yellowing as we're considering no stain and just straight poly on a light colored wood. The yellowing also isn't as bad as it used to be. There have been improvements on that. You can get a special sealer (goes on after stain but before poly) for water based called DTS or deep tone sealer that is supposed to help give a similar look.

(2) It has a longer drying time so it's much easier to DIY. Especially for first timers like us. Cutting in and maintaining a wet edge is a lot easier. We looked into hiring out just the sanding but no one really wanted to do just that and not finish the floor as well so the cost of just sanding was really high. In the end it was just too much to hire it all out for us. We got a very good deal on the flooring but hiring out the finishing put it out of the price range we wanted to stay in. If we were just refinishing existing floors we probably would of hired it out though because it's so much simpler!

(3) It's a lot cheaper! The water based Bona system which everyone is using is between $100-120/gallon with the hardener for the top line poly. A similar oil based poly is $35-60/gallon. I haven't picked out the exact brand of poly I want to use yet but I was surprised at how much more affordable they are.

Wow! Really? So the places that said it was my choice to go oil or poly and they'd charge the same either way would have made bank if I'd chosen oil? Fascinating.

[FoxInFiji]

Well not exactly. The Bona products where what all 5 contractors in our area were using. They are a name brand and therefore more expensive than other water based poly. The oil based poly I'm looking at isn't a big name brand but a very reputable made in WI product. In addition the oil based takes more trips and time so it costs them more in gas and man hours which I'm sure eats at most of that savings.

I just went at lunch to get my sample floor boards stained with various colors as well as just straight poly! Eek hickory does not stain well at all. Very blotchy. We could look at wood conditioners which would help but since I wanted to keep it light anyway we'll probably go with the second lightest color (just because the lightest color looks like nothing). It's called Fruitwood:


The color looks like a cross between the maple and oak in this picture. I don't know I'm not in love though. I was hoping it would bring out the grain a little more. The stain itself is very transparent but when you put it on the wood it doesn't look that way.