Sunday, January 7, 2007

What some crazies will do for a wood floor...


Welcome to my kitchen. Lovely, isn't it?


Look at that gorgeous wood...


I scraped for hours!

Wood refinishing is certainly not for everybody, I must admit. It's brutally physical work, and there are like 253,921,745,121,093 different steps that need to be taken, in proper order, for the results to be of a professional quality.

Having said that, however, I still would encourage anyone who's already fixing a place up to give it a try, especially if you only need to do a couple of rooms, such as a living room and dining room. (This appears to be the most common scenario.)

This little cottage, on the other hand, now has clean, gorgeous floors in EVERY ROOM except the bathroom.

WHEW! It took about a week, and cost $855 in equipment rental and materials. It would have likely cost 3 times that much to have hired a professional, so I guess it was worth it...

TA DA!!!!!!!

I have no idea what kind of wood this is, despite asking a zillion different people. Suggestions included: Maple, Birch, and Hickory.

Do you know? If so, please tell me!


Does this closeup help?


Or this one?


Ditto?


And one more just for good measure...

Finally, for anyone considering this sort of project, I highly recommend Pete's Hardwood Floor Store. The staff are helpful, patient, and always encouraging. They will show you how to operate the machinery and let you work on a practice floor at the store before embarking, as well as giving you cell phone numbers to call if you run into a snag... even on a Sunday or a holiday.

They are FAB!

(I'm so effing glad that it's done though...)

4 comments:

David said...

I am pretty certain that it is maple, although it may be birch.

Hickory tends to have a more distinct grain (I don't care for it myself). We put birch on our 2nd floor, after thinking about maple. They look very similar, but birch is cheaper. Maple is more dimensionally stable though.

Looks like a LOT of work!

Ranty said...

OMG, the taxpayers' champion totally commented on my blog!!!

Whoo-hoo! :-)

Okay so we've tentatively eliminated hickory...

Ms. P in Jackson said...

It looks like maple to me too. It's the rolls royce of hardwoods. IMHO.

StuccoHouse said...

It's maple. Birch is almost identical to maple in look, but usually used in cabinetry in these parts instead of flooring.