Sealing/Finishing Floorboards
Hi Everyone, this is my first post so go gentle.
I've just bought my first house and we're moving in at the end of the month. We've arranged an overlap with our rented flat so that for 2 weeks the house will be empty and I am keen to take the opportunity to tidy the place up a bit before we move in. I want to paint the walls and polish the floorboards.
The house is a 3bed fibro up on brick piers. There are 3 bedrooms, 1 living room, a hallway (and possibly a kitchen) to do - a total of about 100-120m2 I think. The floorboards are dark and relatively narrow, I think Brushbox but I've only been in the house twice. I will try and take a pic.
1. We're going to paint the house first. I read here that it was better to paint first and then sand rather than sand the floors and then paint the walls. Is that correct? I was thinking of Dulux Once to save paint by doing only one coat. The walls are currently white/beige/creme ish and so should be covered easily. Any tips? (prob should post elsewhere eh?)
2. Whilst my wife and brother and sister in law are busy painting, i'm going to go and punch down all the floor nails. There's also carpet in one of the rooms that will need pulling up.
This will take up our first weekend pretty much. I will also have nights after work to finish up any painting, nail punching and preping the carpeted floor (no idea whats under it) that may still need doing.
3. The following weekend (june long weekend), I have 3-4 days to sand all 5 rooms. I'm going to hire a belt sander and edger sander from a hire place, any tips? shall I just buy all the sanding supplies from the hire place or are there sander suppliers that would sell the sheets more cheaply? what about bunnings?
4. I then have to treat the floors. I need some advice on what finish to use.
I want to use a water based product (I have asthma and just don't want to use any toxic nasties. I read someone say that they were allergic to Tung Oil, that would probably be me.)
I want a satin finish
I understand that I will need to do 2-3 coats. I think I will need 20L total for 2 coats.
I've rung around and found Cabots CFP water based for about $200 for 10L.
I've also found Synteko Pro for about $170/10L but they told me I needed to seal the floor for about $160/10L, is this right? The CFP doesn't mention a need for a sealer.
I wanted to use Intergrain Floortec as it looks like the right tech level (resi, one pack) has anyone got any experience with this? where can I buy it in southern Sydney (shire)?
Anyone have any better ideas or other tips?
5. During the week the coating will need to set sufficiently for us to actually move our stuff in the following weekend. Some floors may still be setting/Curing on the Thurs/Fri night? (perhaps just spare bedrooms out the back) Is the floor ready to walk on by this point? should I be putting down protection? what about those removalists tramping around all over my brand new floor??
Appreciate all your help guys, I love this site, so much experience and advice it makes me want to get stuck in (which could be dangerous I guess, I like to think I am handy but a little knowledge is sometimes a bad thing :)