The hardwood patch is pretty much complete. In retrospect, I don’t know what was worse — the sweat sessions that characterized the wood preparation and replacement stages or the non-stop cleaning sprees the wife and I have undertaken throughout the past week.
After removing the old oak slats and replacing them with the salvaged pieces, the floor was a little creaky and uneven despite our best efforts. I added another 30 or so screws to the floorboards until I could step everywhere without the floor depressing more than it does in the rest of the house. Next, I filled all of the holes with oak-colored wood filler.
The only way to smooth out the slats was to sand them into submission with my belt sander. To make quick work of the job, I used a 60 grit belt. It was not only effective at flattening out the slats, but it also pulled every muscle in my body. I felt like a 90 pound girl trying to hold back a hyperactive great dane.
This process blew so much dust into the house that we had to do our Spring cleaning over again. But it really smoothed our the new floor.
Although the belt sander did its job, it left a very rough surface on the floor. After years of woodworking, I’ve come to learn that you need to wet the surface of the wood before you try to sand it to a fine finish. The water not only cleans the dust off, but also stands the grain upright. I’ve made several pieces of furniture that were as smooth as glass until I added a coat of stain. The liquid in the stain stood the grain up and gave me a relatively rough finish that had to be sanded back down, resulting in an uneven color. Another feature of wetting the oak is that you get a glimpse of what it’ll look like when it’s stained. This process revealed that some boards will be darker than I’d hoped.
After spending a couple of days out of town, I returned to finish the floor. I used my hand sander to smooth out the rough-finished slats. I went over and over them with 100 grit and then 150 grit paper. I finished it all up by hand sanding everything with a 220 grit sponge sander. There’s no substitute for using your hands to feel out and smooth the stubborn sections. This put even more dust into the house.
To prep for the stain, I wiped everything down with a damp towel another time. While the floor was drying, I went out to the garage to test Natural and Golden Oak stains on some unused slats. Neither the wife nor I could tell much of a difference between the two colors, so I mixed two parts natural to one part golden oak so that the filler would get a little tint. I put down the stain with an old remnant of a discarded white t-shirt (that’s all I ever use to stain things) and the wife worked behind me wiping the excess off. Fortunately, the color exactly matched the existing stain on boards that I accidentally sanded around the perimeter. Unfortunately, it resulted in a pretty dark color on some of the new wood. I knew this would happen, but it was a little disappointing nonetheless.
The color lightened a little as the stain dried, much to my satisfaction. Next I had to tackle the unfinished filler, which popped out of the wood like a thousand tiny eyeballs. I have a stain marker that’s made for coloring scratches in furniture.
The marker’s pointed tip worked perfectly for coloring the filler. Here’s a before and after picture. You have to strain to find the screw holes.
I’ve decided to wait a few days before I put a thin clear-coat on everything. I want the new slats to get a little worn and lighten up a little first. I might even sand the darker slats a little with my high-grit sponge. The polyurethane will darken it back up. Here’s how it looks now.
When I began this project, I wrote, “I think the reason I let this project linger for so long is because I knew that short of refinishing the floors in the entire house, there was no way I could make new hardwood properly blend in.” As I expected, the new slats look like a patch job. But at least the job was done correctly and it looks professional. It’s kind of charming in a way. Old houses have lots of quirks that give them character. This hardwood patch is yet another quirk. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
