Once the repairs in the teak were finished, it was time to get down to the really messy part of the floor project: sanding and refinishing the teak which runs through about half of the house. This of course meant moving ALL of the furniture and pictures that normally are in those part of the house “somewhere else.” Thankfully we still didn’t have much in the way of furniture in the great room, and what we did have, including all the house plants in the foyer, could be moved outside, to the studio building, or onto the downstairs tile floor area of the great room. Then in the north end of the house, we moved just about everything, including the bookcases, closet contents, china cabinets and such into the blue room.
The boys however, had to be moved out of the house, so we rolled their cages into the studio building. They weren’t entirely keen on that idea, but it was the safest spot for them considering how much dust was about to be created.
Then the guys from Leslie Floors, who would handle the bulk of the sanding, got to work taping plastic across all the doorways into rooms that don’t have teak. They did leave the power room bathroom open for when they needed it, but every other door, including our bedroom door and the door into my office, were sealed up.
It’s a good thing we have so many sliding glass doors, because if we wanted to enter or exit our bedroom or the south end of the house for the next week and a half, we had to use the doorways that lead from them to the outside. In addition, if I wanted to leave my office…well, that required using a utility ladder and climbing through a window.
Soon enough the sanding began. Here are some shots of the floor taken over during that week.
Below is a great shot showing the bare floor compared to the deep cherry-esque stain the POs had used.
After a couple of days’ worth of work, everything was starting to look great and it was time to test the goop that would be used to seal the wood. We elected to have the wood look as natural as possible. The stuff we used goes on kind of purply but then cures and becomes clear with a bit of shine.
Then after a couple of days and coats of the sealant, we had gorgeous floors. The next post will have some before and after images.