Flooring Lacquer Application....Shall I Use a Roller or T Bar Applicator

Hello and Welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post


Today I'll try and advise on an issue that can effect if the final touches to your hard work will look any good or not...Yes its the contentious issue of Lacquer application...Do you use a standard Roller...or a more professional 'T' Bar applicator. 


When I first started floor sanding, I was shown by a very experienced floor sanding operator how to use a 'T' Bar applicator, and boy did he make it look easy, in the hands of an experienced pro it looks simplicity itself to put lacquer down correctly...Pahhhhh I thought, what's all the fuss about, its easy - I can do that.


Now I can do it easily, but it took many months before I became accomplished with the Padco Bigfoot, its nowhere near as easy as it looks.

The image on the left is the Padco Bigfoot floor lacquer applicator, the operator is applying lacquer, likely to a large area. The Padco Bigfoot and applicators of its type are just superb for putting lacquer down to large area's, I myself have used this applicator scores of times with nothing but a top class result, in the hands of a professional its possible to get a near flawless finish to large area's pretty quickly.


However, I really wouldn't recommend this applicator for the very occasional DIYer, who is just using it for one or two rooms. The Padco is not at its best in small area's, for a professional its straightforward, but for the inexperienced user this tool will be difficult to use properly, to obtain a high quality of finish to your project.


For an end user who hasn't much [or no] experience I would highly recommend using a roller for applying the lacquers to your wood floor. Once you have the floor correctly prepared and readied, use a 4" foam roller to cut in, and either a 9" or 12" roller and cage for the main lacquer application duties.


The image on the right is a 9" roller and is obviously being used to correctly apply a lacquer product to a wooden floor, in this case a mosaic parquet. For just about all the Sand & Seal jobs I do these days I tend to use a roller, as I find the overall finish that you get, especially in smaller areas is just much better than using a Padco Bigfoot.


We tend to use either a 15" or 18" version of the image to the right. Whichever size roller you use make sure that the pile length is around the 8mm mark, this is pretty much the optimum roller sleeve pile length for applying lacquer to a wooden floor, if the pile is say 13mm, the roller has a tendency to 'splatter' the lacquer over the surface and it just takes a lot longer to apply the product [lacquer] correctly to the floor.


If you use a short pile length roller of around 5mm the roller tends to flood easily and again it takes alot longer to apply the lacquer correctly, many manufacturers supply and recommend their own rollers and roller sleeves, if you are not confident about sourcing the correct roller/sleeve products then I would heartily recommend purchasing the manufacturers own branded roller/sleeve as you are much more likely to get a better finish, especially if you do your homework in the first place, most manufacturers have this type of information on their respective websites.


Plus there is You Tube, which is a veritable gold mine of information on this subject. Type in 'apply bona mega' as an example and you will quickly find dozens of videos showing how to apply flooring lacquer.


Hope that helps, Thanks for reading.


I have recently received an email from JD Floors asking for some advice on how to fix an Alto Floorcrafter, which is cutting too hard to the left, Unfortunately I have no experience whatsoever of this machine, but I did do a quick Google search and it looks a quality piece of kit.


 I myself use Bona floor sanding machinery, Bona have an excellent instructional video which may be of help, as most professional floor sanding machines are built to very similar principles so the clip may just be of use, follow the link below.


Bona Instructional Video 

Parquet Wood Block Flooring Repairs To an Old Hearth Area

Hello again and welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post.


Today's wise words are not from anyone sending in questions or asking for professional advice, but are initiated from a recently completed project.


The project was relatively small in size, but the parquet block repairs we carried out to the voided fireplace/hearth area made a huge aesthetic difference to the room, and most importantly made our client very happy indeed.

In my experience there are two main ways to in-fill a voided hearth area with parquet blocks, the easiest and somewhat quicker method would be to do the in-fill with what I personally call 'soldier fashion' this method involves properly preparing the sub-floor and then laying the blocks in soldier like rows and using the correct parquet adhesive to fix the parquet blocks into position. [see picture below]

The other method I use is a one I call the 'Tied In' method, Its certainly more work and is considerably more time consuming than the 'Soldier Fashion' method, but if done properly the repair will barely be noticeable in any room in which it is done.

The DIY enthusiast MUST  bear in mind that when trying to effect the 'Tied In' repair method, it is very important that the replacement blocks that are being used for the repair are as best a match as possible to the block species and even more importantly the block size dimensions.

I can hear you saying...'what difference will a few millimetres make??'

The answer is an awful lot of gap filling and more work for the end user...trust me I've been there...done that...If you have spare material in your property perhaps in a cupboard or under-stair area it is much better to use material of the same species and dimensions than trying to find reclaimed materials to match.

The following pictures are from a project I have completed and shows clearly the difference between the two methods, with the 'Tied In' method there is more initial preparation work, given the fact that you have to remove maybe 2 dozen or more full blocks and many smaller angle cut blocks so the pattern can be tied back in properly.

In the picture below you can see where the old hearth was, and also where the original 2 block border was, I used nearly all these border blocks to infill the voided area.

The next picture shows the area after the infill has been done, the area looks a little gappy, but this is nothing to worry about and is completely normal for repairs of this kind. The area was gap filled after the floor sanding had taken place.

The room was left for a few days for the repair to fully go off, the whole room was fully sanded off and properly prepared, the repaired area was then gap filled, sanded off again, and the room then sealed and lacquered in this case with Junckers Semi Gloss Lacquer. See the picture below for the repair is done,finished and pictured just before the first coat of seal was applied.

The finished floor in this instance really did look superb and the clients were very hard pressed to find where the repair was...I have uploaded the Gallery pictures of this project to our website, you can view the photo set Here

Thanks for reading...Hope you enjoyed...

  

  

What Do I Apply To a Newly Sanded Floor ?

Hello and Welcome to another WFR Blog Post.

Today I'll talk about a question which was emailed to us from a Gentleman who perhaps should of done a little more homework before embarking on a Wood Floor Renovation project.

Todays question is "What Seal Do I Apply To a Newly Sanded Floor ? "

Alot of consumers get confused with the word Seal....there are many different types of seal on the Wood flooring market, such as an Oil Based Primer, Solvent Based Primer, Water Based Primer, I'll quickly comment on these three basic types of sealer so you get an idea of what they are about.

An Oil Based Sealer, such as say Junckers Proseal Primer is ideal if say you are on a project and you are looking to enhance the depth of colour into the material you are working with, for examples sake in this instance we'll say Oak Strip Flooring, the product [Junckers Proseal] is easy to apply and seals the grains of the timber, but it does have a long drying time, this product is nearly always best left overnight to go off properly.

Solvent Based Primers such as Junckers Baseprime [not too many of them on the market now]  are very quick drying and rapidly seal the grain of the timber, the primer will also enrich the natural colour of the material you are working with and also help to minimize grain raise in the wood. Being a solvent based product it will have a strong odour so make sure you have good ventilation available.

Water based primers/sealers are very popular these days, all the big manufacturers have them in their product line ups, they are all pretty similar to use, i've used many but certainly not all of them so I can only comment on the products i've used. Recently  I used a product from the Lecol stable the product is a water based primer and is called 'Lobadur WS Easyprime' it really is a nice product to use and ticked all the boxes for a professional with many good properties, I wrote a full appraisal of the product and its available for viewing on our website Here 


So there you have it, pick a product that's right for your project and away you go.


Remember to properly read the manufacturers product instructions and if you are unsure then contact a professional.


Thanks For Reading.

Floor Lacquers-How Long Do they Last ?

Hello and Welcome to another WFR Blog Post.


The question today is one which we get asked on virtually EVERY project we carry out...."How long will the lacquer last ??"


Its a fair and reasonable question and one you would expect an easy answer to, but there are many variables which need to go into the answer which determines how long the lacquers will last.


In a typical domestic situation where the wood floor lacquer has been correctly applied and is reasonably well looked after...in that the correct cleaning/maintainance schedules are used on a regular basis, you can expect something between 3-5 years of good service before the area may need a light sand off and further coats of lacquer applying. 


You must also bear in mind the type of foot traffic going over the floor, in a busy household with young children and pets, the lacquer is not going to last as long as in a quieter household with say just two adults living in it..... other things to bear in mind are.....is the area a busy Hallway/Lounge ?  Do the family members take off their footwear on entering the property ? Do you remove small stones and grit from the floor surface regularly ? Do you use the correct cleaning and maintainance products on the floor ?


These things might not sound important but overall they can make a huge difference to the longevity of your floor lacquers, just using the proper cleaning products makes a massive difference, all the lacquer manufacturers have their own maintainance products that are designed especially for the lacquers, so my advice would be to do your homework and use the recommended products and follow the manufacturers maintainance schedules to get the best out of your flooring lacquers.


Thanks for reading.....

Floor Lacquer Sheen Levels....Whats the Difference ??

Hello and welcome to another WFR Blogpost.


Today I'll enlighten you on a question that confuses most of my clients who just don't understand the difference....


The direct question I was asked is:-"What's the difference between Bona Mega Matt & Bona Mega Silk Matt ?? "


The trade terminology for this is "Sheen Level" ie. the difference between Matt & Silk Matt products. What this basically means in how much light the product reflects when applied to your wooden floor, typically a Matt product will reflect around 20% of the sunlight that hits it, Silk Matt or Satin reflect between 40-60% depending on the manufacturer, and Gloss reflects about 80%.


Ultra Matt is a finish which is becoming more and more popular these days and just about all the top manufacturers have these products in their ranges, Ultra Matt Lacquers have a very low sheen level which by comparison to Matt/Silk Matt/Gloss, this would be around the 9% mark.


At the end of the day choosing which sheen level to go for is a subjective issue and needs to be made by the home-owner before the project starts, what I will say is around 80% of my clients choose Silk Matt/Semi Gloss [which are the same] most of them say they don't want the finish to be too shiny or too flat/dull, so they plump for the Silk Matt which ALWAYS looks good by the way....All the finishes look good but its all about personal preference....


If you are not sure, ask your contractor to sand off a small area of your floor for you prior to the project starting and apply a quick couple of coats of the lacquer, so you can see for yourself how the sheen level will look on your particular floor, a good contractor won't mind doing this for you as it doesn't take long to do......


Hope that helps.....Thanks for reading.