Posts Tagged ‘dustless refinishing’
Customers are the best judge
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
We often get asked about dustless sanding by many customers. We are known for using this technology and use it on jobs as much as possible. The system really does work amazingly and I can “pitch” that all day. It is much better when the observation comes from someone other than me because third party objective review is the strongest voice. We have reviews on the web at sites like Yelp. What’s even better is when you have a client send a small note in an invoice without us asking for a review. Here is a scan of the small Post-It note that we got from our client Shawn in a payment recently. It makes our day to know we are doing our job and people really feel value to our service!
Tags: dustless refinishing, hardwood refinishing
Posted in Dustless Hardwood Refinishing, Hardwood floor Portland, Hardwood floor refinish, floor refinishing portland oregon, portland floor | No Comments »
The new face of low-VOC
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Waterborne finishes run the gamut for durability. At our home we have two of the world’s greatest floor finish durability testers, boys ages 2 and 4 and a half. They lay credit to the fact that waterborne finish can be durable.
In the change of the market towards waterborne finish, California has set the standard at 275g/L VOC maximum. In response, on of our favorite finishes (Dura Seal X-terra) has recently been re-formulated to be in compliance. In addition to being a very durable waterborne, this finish performs flawlessly on the job. We love the look and workability of this finish. 
Tags: dustless refinishing, floor finish durability, waterborne finish, wood floor sanding
Posted in Hardwood floor refinish, floor refinishing portland oregon, hardwood floor finish | No Comments »
Restoring a botched sanding job
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
The other day we received a phone call from a distraught homeowner. She had unfortunately hired a “fly-by-night” contractor for a job. Originally when he was hired he was there to install tile, but assured the homeowners he could also refinish the wood floors. Because of the unethical nature of this person, I am willing to release that his company was called “A Touch of Class”, or at least that was the name under which he was operating. After checking his license I determined that was an inactive license with several judgments and orders to pay damage fees.
During this first portion we sanded the floor at a slight angle to remove the drum marks from the original sanding process. Here are the results after the first round of sanding.
Afterwards, we filled the floor to remove gaps and the process is shown here.
To illustrate the dust collection process we have a video clip of the process as seen here.
Final finish sanding is done using a Lagler Trio.
After all sanding was completed, we dampened the floor to prepare for staining. The floor was stained as a mixture of Coffee Brown and Golden Brown. Afterwards, two finish coats of a traditional Glitsa Swedish finish system.
Tags: dustless refinishing, hardwood refinishing, Swedish finish, wood floor sanding
Posted in Dustless Hardwood Refinishing, Hardwood floor Portland, Hardwood floor refinish, floor refinishing portland oregon, hardwood floor finish | 3 Comments »
The price isn’t right
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
One of the things I have been startled about lately is how the hardwood floor refinishing market in Portland has been subject to really large variances in price. At our company we try to deliver a service with considerable value that includes very personable customer service in addition to a quality product. We make a very disciplined effort to hide no element of what is included, which are the questions that consumers should ask in order to make an apples to apples comparison:
1) How many finish coats will be applied? This determines longevity to a great degree
2)What type of finish will be used? Home Depot polyurethane versus GlitsaMax 2 component waterborne urethane isn’t really a contest, the latter will start to outperform after 2-3 years easily. Just look at my floors, which are the test subject of 2year old and 4year old boys dragging toys and dropping everything. They look brand new one and a half years later.
3)How is the floor being filled? Is the floor being trowel filled across the whole area to alleviate gaps or simply spot filled in the large areas? This has a considerable impact on labor in the process.
4)How clean is the contractor? I think most people who want a refinish might care about a clean house. Does the contractor vacuum the house and vents after sanding and before coating the floor? Do they use dust collection? These are questions to ask when you want to know how MUCH service you are paying for.
5) Is the contractor licensed and CURRENTLY bonded? Do they pay their taxes? These may seem like simple questions but I assure you they are essential because if the contractor does not have a current bond, then any damage they are liable for upon entering your home comes from your pocket in most cases if there is no bond. Paying taxes is essential for supporting our parks, schools, etc… so it goes without saying that it is important for a community.
6) Do they contribute to any organizations or have ANY credentials beyond a license?
Our memberships and certifications alone cost us close to $2000 per year alone not counting any time for involvement with committees or helping educate other members. This may seem like a minor element, but I say that it is the fundamental building block for a quality contractor for two reasons. The esteem of being known for quality work goes with being in an organization and secondly the access to the latest information ensures better quality in your business.
I hope that these questions stay current amongst the consumers of Portland so that during the trying times we can all maintain or hopefully elevate the state of this industry rather than take the path of least resistance by lowering quality and price simultaneously.
Tags: dustless refinishing, Hardwood floor durability, hardwood refinishing, Swedish finish, wood floor sanding
Posted in Dustless Hardwood Refinishing, Hardwood floor durability, hardwood floor choices, hardwood floor finish, hardwood floor refinishing prices, portland hardwood professional | 1 Comment »
Old houses and historically accurate repairs
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
I was working last week on the home of my friends Patrick Galvin and Ellen Galvin in order to restore a section of flooring in their home that was buried under carpet. As you can see in the following sequence of photos the removal of the carpet revealed a couple of surprises.
After removing the carpet we installed salvaged old growth fir flooring reclaimed from a school in Milton-Freewater. The floors were sanded and finished according to our standard process. As you can see in the next photos the floor maintains an original appearance. This is critical not only for appearance, but for maintaining a historically accurate appearance.
Tags: dustless refinishing, hardwood refinishing, Portland hardwood floor, Swedish finish, wood floor sanding
Posted in Fir flooring, Hardwood floor Portland, Portland fir floor | 1 Comment »
Oh, So you do that too…
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
The title of this blog may seem a little odd, but it serves a purpose. Sometimes there is a little bit of confusion to the services my company offers in the world of wood flooring in Portland. My portfolio on the website could possibly lead people to believe that our work is only high end and custom work. The truth is that 90% of the hardwood floor installations we undertake are adding new flooring to an existing wood floor and refinishing the whole floor. I will walk you through this with a couple of step by step photos. In the first photo is where the floor ended after a wall was taken out in a remodel by my friends at Envi Construction. 
In the next photo, you can see where we removed a selected number of boards so that we may integrate, in a random pattern, new flooring. The goal we seek to accomplish is making the new floor and the old floor look harmonious in every way.
Afterwards, new matching flooring was installed and sanded and finished for a contiguous appearance.
There are a couple of tricks to ensuring a proper appearance that involve grading and specifying the mill providing the material. Depending on the mill and the region of production some flooring (particularly red and white oak) can be quite variable in the tones. This difference doesn’t become evident until sanding, so specifying product relies on a particular attention to detail and experience.
Tags: dustless refinishing, hardwood floor repair, hardwood refinishing, Portland hardwood floor
Posted in Dustless Hardwood Refinishing, Hardwood floor Portland, Hardwood floor refinish, floor refinishing portland oregon, hardwood floor, portland floor, portland hardwood professional | No Comments »
Why can’t you sand that old fir floor?
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
All the time I meet different people for an estimate who assume that their old Fir floors cannot be refinished, so they think that they will install new flooring over the floors. Usually the floors have been covered in paint, carpet, or linoleum forever and as time has gone on people have realized the best looking of their options is a wood floor. One important thing to understand about the floor sanding process is that usually only 1/32″ to 1/16″ of flooring actually is removed during sanding. If you consider that a wear layer on a floor is typically 5/16″ and a quality refinish will endure 10-20 years of wear with proper maintenance, then you can see that most floors ,even those that are 100 years old or greater, have some remaining life. I have seen some of the worst hardwood floors be revived in 5 days to a state of beauty that few would expect. My answer is almost always, “Yes, you can sand that old Fir floor!”. It’s more cost effective and has less impact on the environment because you reuse an existing resource.
Tags: dustless refinishing, hardwood refinishing, Portland hardwood floor, portland oregon hardwood contractor, Swedish finish, wood floor sanding
Posted in Fir flooring, sustainability | No Comments »
Planning for a quality Hardwood Floor Refinish
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Every week I do a number of hardwood refinishing estimates for homeowners and one of the most frequent questions asked is how long the process will take. The question is somewhat of a loaded question because a number of factors apply to the process. Two primary factors apply to the length of a standard hardwood refinish project: the type of finish used and the number of finish coats applied. Additional factors to consider may be if any repairs need to be done to the wood floor prior to sanding. Oftentimes pets may consistently urinate in spots of the home or during the watering process plants may overflow onto the wood floor, which causes dark spots from mold growth. The sanding process will not remove these stains usually, so a suitable repair with matching material is most often necessary.
The two predominant types of finish used in wood floor refinishing are oil based and waterbased finishes. Oil based finishes most commonly used are polyurethane and acid-curing Swedish finishes. Oil modified polyurethane has the slowest dry time and typically requires a full day of dry time between coats. Acid-curing Swedish finish systems are catalyzed chemically for the seal coats, which allows application of two coats in a day. The top coat is a much slower one day process of drying. In contrast most waterbased finishes will dry within 2-3 hours depending on the catalyst and coverage rate. I have seen waterbased floors coated with three coats in one day, although I do not recommend this typically.
Two additional key terms to understand are dry time and cure time. Dry time of a finish is the amount of time that it takes for the finish to be dry to the touch and walked on so that nothing sticks to the finish. Cure time is the amount of time that it takes for the finish to completely off-gas and achieve 100% of it’s hardness. The cure time of a typical water-based finish is approximately one week, although most waterborne finished are 90% cured within 48 hours. By comparison a typical oil-based finish has a longer cure time of 30-90 days.
Now that I have confused you thoroughly let me offer my best advice based on experience. I rarely recommend anyone to move in on a water-based floor in under 24 hours, although I allow my customers to walk on the finish sooner if required. Water-based finishes are very durable within an overnight dry time so that the floor can be walked on the morning after a final coat. By contrast I rarely recommend walking on a oil-based finish floor in under 24 hours and not moving in heavy furniture in under 48 hours. For a typical 800-1200 square foot hardwood floor refinish I would suggest allowing 5 days for the entire process of refinishing if three water-based finish coats are to be applied. Allow an additional 2-3 days if the floor is to be stained or oil-modified finish applied. If you have questions, then visit our website or e-mail us.
Tags: dustless refinishing, floor finish durability, hardwood refinishing, Portland hardwood floor, Swedish finish, waterborne finish, wood floor sanding
Posted in Dustless Hardwood Refinishing, Hardwood floor Portland, Hardwood floor refinish, floor refinishing portland oregon, portland hardwood professional | 3 Comments »