Floor sanding, staining of floorboards in Wimbledon
Before the works…
The original floors in this Wimbledon home went through a planned floorboards restoration, together with other renovation works in the house. During our free home survey, we did thorough inspection of the floorboards and discussed with the client all possible options.
Our client has decided to go for gap filling, and staining in whitewash and finishing the floors in matt lacquer.
What we did in this floorboards restoration project…
Our floor sanding service begins with a detailed inspection of the floors. Any necessary repairs to the floorboards are completed during this initial stage. In this project, we have refitted approximately 30 square meters of floorboards, addressing looseness in fittings that caused minor movement.
The original pine floorboards used in residential properties are about 20 mm thick when first laid. Over time, pine timber shrinks and becomes thinner with each restoration. The minimum thickness at which floorboards can no longer be renovated is approximately 15 mm.
Depending on the overall condition and level, the initial floor sanding may start with either coarse or medium grit. The goal of this stage is to remove the previous finish and level the floorboards.
If the floorboards have not been sanded in the past 10-15 years, they usually will not be level. Floorboards previously covered by carpets may also have cupping and larger gaps.
Next stage in the process of floorboards sanding was the application of the gap filling. We aim to apply resin filler in the end of the working day, so it settles properly overnight and we can repeat on following day, if we feel this is required. Gap filling is recommended for floorboards floors when the floors are solid and no movement is detected.
Sanding the floorboards with fine grids (80 - 100 gr) and a good rotary buff to the pine timber surface with high grid buffing screens is the most important stage in the preparation of the wooden flooring for finishing.
On this project the whitewash staining was of main importance. The whitewash effect we achieved with number of colour samples and coats of white tinted primer to enrich the density - the final colour was approved by the client.
The stained floorboards were consequently sealed with 2 coats of Bona Mega water-based lacquer in Matt sheen with another light screen buff between the coats, for excellent final touch to the finish.
