"dss" wrote in message
...
EA,

I refinished my 30-year old, red oak parquet, entry way a couple of
years ago after the dog died. It was only worn on the traffic patterns
and in great shape elsewhere. I did the 12-year old, 3/4" oak floors
(which I installed) in the family room and kitchen at the same time. I
rented one of the big (12" x 18") orbital sanders, figuring a drum
sander was overkill. I've used drum sanders before and they are very
powerful. The parquet isn't as thick as the regular oak, so I wanted
to be careful.

Even with the biggest grit the orbital sander couldn't "cut the
mustard" on the parquet or on the worst parts of the 3/4" oak. I ended
up using a regular belt sander on most of the parquet to take the
factory finish off. It's a fairly small entry way with a couple of
closets, so it wasn't a big deal. In hindsight, I should have used the
big drum sander.

The grain issue doesn't seem to matter with parquet. After four coats
of gloss, oil-based polyurethane the floors look great. They should
outlast me. The kitchen floor does have more "character" to it than
the others, but that's a tough environment for wood. Don't bother with
the water-based finishes, they don't seem to last as long as oil.

Oil probably is tougher, but it also tends to darken the wood, often with a
very nice effect, so it's not at all a bad thing, unless you want to keep
the wood as light as possible -- which was my situation.
If staining the wood, you would also want to check how the oil poly affects
that, as well.

You can get waterbase polyurethanes with a catalyst/hardener, which
supposedly gives a bowling alley type hardness. Seems to have held up by
me, but I have no real reference points.

Probably you have to use more coats of water based than oil, for the same
thickness of coat, mebbe 2 to 1, but I'm certainly no expert.

If you have enough coats of poly down, mebbe then you can get by with one of
those big orbitals, with a fine grit, to just take off the top couple of
layers of poly, and re-apply a fresh coat or two, every 5 years or so.
These should go quick, with a good poly.

Mebbe those big orbital jitterbugs are more for softer pine floors, ito of
the wood itself. Seems like a good idea, if they worked.....

Btw, I have acheived interesting effects mixing stain with poly, or even
staining over poly, but not on wear surfaces like a floor. It's possible
that stain could interfere with a urethane's wear-ability.

The advantage to mixing stains with or over poly is that it doesn't soak
into the wood, making it easier to sand off/remove. It also doesn't darken
as much, and seems to have a more "vibrant" effect.
--
EA



dss