Wax Trax

At the end of the last post, we were rinsing and scrubbing, scrubbing and rinsing, after acid-staining the floor. According to the instructions, we had to keep rinsing until no more residue remained. This turned out to be a LOT of scrub-rinse-repeat. Our test patch took eight cycles, and, as it turned out, the entire floor took at least that many.

Cleanup in aisle 7...

After seven or eight times we were bringing up a lot less residue, so we switched to sponge mops thinking it would be easier. Although we spent less time emptying the shop-vac, it still took a long time to mop and rinse the floor, and we had to do so at least four times. We started to wonder if any color would be left at all! Finally, we got all the residue up that we could, and it was time to seal the floor. We got the sealer from the same company as the stain – everything I could find said it’s important to use the sealer specified by the stain manufacturer. The sealer went on with a paint roller:

Signed, sealed, delivered

Notice how much lighter the floor is after scrubbing away all the residue, but before applying the sealer:

I think this sealer really brings out your variegations

Per the instructions, I waited a day or two for the first coat to dry, then applied another. The sealer was pretty easy to apply, but it smelled unbelievably horrible. It smells like one of those silver permanent graffiti markers that make you feel lightheaded, only much much more intense. Had I not been wearing a respirator, I woulda conked out after about two minutes. As it was, when I got back home both nights, I had to head straight for the shower and throw my clothes in the laundry, since the smell permeated everything. It took about a week after that for Nerdwood to be habitable again.

Sealing should only ever need to be done initially, but in order to further protect the finish from scuffs and scratches, a couple of coats of floor wax are in order. This will need to be reapplied at some interval depending on how hard we are on the floor. We’ll probably institute a strict “No skateboards or ice skates” inside the house. Oh, and no golf shoes either (Dan, I’m looking at you). Once again, we got the wax from the same manufacturer as the stain and sealer:

That oughta wax your floor but good!

This stuff I like – doesn’t smell bad, dries within half an hour so I could apply both coats in one day, and easy to apply with a microfiber dust mop.

More curling practice

Whew, what a lot of work! But we’re pretty happy with the way it looks. Even better, it matches the color of the mud here at Nerdwood.

The view from upstairs
All ready for sliding around in our stockinged feet!

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