I want to refinish the oak hardwood floors in three bedrooms
connected
by a common hallway. Since I am working by myself, I will be unable
to
keep a wet edge at all times if I do the bedrooms and the hall at the
same time. My question is if I do each room (stopping at the door
threshold) and allowing the bedroom floors to dry before doing the
hallway will I end up with noticeable transition points in the
doorways? Any suggestions on how to avoid this problem?

I did a thousand feet of oil based poly in my house by myself. No way
to keep an edge wet when you have to brush in the edges. I did the
whole floor one day. I guess I must have done the upstairs hallway and
the step treads and then did the first floor. A second coat the second
day. It went fairly fast but that was ten years ago so memory could be
faulty. I brushed in the edges and used a lambs wool applicator to mop
in the bulk of the floor. New house with no furniture so I did as much
as I could in a day.

Some finishes are easier but I have no expert opinion. I just used
what the paint store said the local hardwood floor guy used.

On Mon, 3 Mar 2008 13:04:14 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I want to refinish the oak hardwood floors in three bedrooms
connected
by a common hallway. Since I am working by myself, I will be unable
to
keep a wet edge at all times if I do the bedrooms and the hall at the
same time. My question is if I do each room (stopping at the door
threshold) and allowing the bedroom floors to dry before doing the
hallway will I end up with noticeable transition points in the
doorways? Any suggestions on how to avoid this problem?

On Mar 3, 4:04*pm, wrote:
I want to refinish the oak hardwood floors in three bedrooms
connected
by a common hallway. Since I am working by myself, I will be unable
to
keep a wet edge at all times if I do the bedrooms and the hall at the
same time. My question is if I do each room (stopping at the door
threshold) and allowing the bedroom floors to dry before doing the
hallway will I end up with noticeable transition points in the
doorways? Any suggestions on how to avoid this problem

If you have to do all the rooms separately you will have transitions
though the extent to which they are noticable can vary but you WILL
see them. I am not sure if there is a typo in your post or not but if
you intend to coat the entire floor in one shot you should easily be
able to maintain wet transtions unless the rooms are very large and
you have a lot of very precise cutting in to do. Most generally two
people can "fly" with one cutting and one mopping. If you are working
alone, find a friend. We have done a lot of hardwood refinishing and I
can keep three bedrooms (say 12x12 or less) and a hall entirely wet
easily by myself. One thing to remember, is even fast drying poly
(oil) will have open times measured in hours on the final coat (the
one that matters) in an average house. Even Minwax (most common in
home centers) calling out 4hrs drying time is probably fast by 8
hours. With mopping on, you will likely see your third coat take 8-10
hours to be lightly walkable. First coat may be sandable in 8-10
hours, second coat in 12- or more hours. Your fist coat will dry
faster, second coat slower, third coat even slower. Sanding between
coats will allow you to deal with the imperfections due to the first
coat drying slower but it wil still be slow enough to stay relatively
wet.

One hint I will give you is not to use a lambs wool applicator. They
suck. What we use is a piece of foam wrapped around the applicator. We
use to use foam carpet pad until all switched to the chipped pad
(small pieces of foam boneded into a sheet). Now we go to a fabric
supply/sewing shop (joann fabrics) and we buy sheets of 3/4" thick
foam used in upholstry. We cut it into rectangles to fit the
applicator. I dont care how much you clean a lambs wool applicator it
still sheds. Even throwing it in the washer doesnt eliminate shedding.
The foam holds a lot of material spreads even, and never sheds. Some
people laddle the finish onto the floor then spread, some dunk the
applicator. We tend to do a blend of both. We shallow dunk to keep the
applicator saturated and we laddle out finish a bit to feed the floor
trying to minimize bubbles.

Its just the way we do it,
Mark

Thanks for the replies.

The concern I had was that if I do the whole floor at once (3 rooms
with closets plus hallway), I will have to do the 3 bedrooms first and
then the hallway. I was afraid that by the time I started the hallway,
the first room I did would get tacky. The last time I did this, I used
the minwax super fast drying poly (recoats in 3-4 hours) which got
tacky fast. I could use the regular poly but this floor has the only
access to my bathrooms.

On Mon, 3 Mar 2008 13:04:14 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I want to refinish the oak hardwood floors in three bedrooms
connected
by a common hallway. Since I am working by myself, I will be unable
to
keep a wet edge at all times if I do the bedrooms and the hall at the
same time. My question is if I do each room (stopping at the door
threshold) and allowing the bedroom floors to dry before doing the
hallway will I end up with noticeable transition points in the
doorways? Any suggestions on how to avoid this problem?

I'll assume that the flooring is in line with the bedroom doors(long
lenght through the hallway). Tape a stop edge under each door's
threshhold at a seam between each wood strip and do one room at a
time. Then tape the other side of the stop edge and do the hall way.
This way, if you manage to get sloppy, it's under the door's bottom.
Takes a bit longer maybe but does a nice job (as nice as the taping)

P

On Mon, 3 Mar 2008 16:49:35 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Thanks for the replies.

The concern I had was that if I do the whole floor at once (3 rooms
with closets plus hallway), I will have to do the 3 bedrooms first and
then the hallway. I was afraid that by the time I started the hallway,
the first room I did would get tacky. The last time I did this, I used
the minwax super fast drying poly (recoats in 3-4 hours) which got
tacky fast. I could use the regular poly but this floor has the only
access to my bathrooms.
No neighbors? Well if you have no neighbors do like the bears. Time to
send the family off for the weekend?

On Mar 3, 7:49*pm, wrote:
Thanks for the replies.

The concern I had was that if I do the whole floor at once (3 rooms
with closets plus hallway), I will have to do the 3 bedrooms first and
then the hallway. I was afraid that by the time I started the hallway,
the first room I did would get tacky. The last time I did this, I used
the minwax super fast drying poly (recoats in 3-4 hours) which got
tacky fast. I could use the regular poly but this floor has the only
access to my bathrooms.

I would agree with Jim, neighbors, a weekend vacation for the wife and
kids, or even more creative make them climb through the window with a
step ladder or something. Kids would love it. The only problem is you
generally want a quiet house, no doors opening and closing, little
movemnt. This minimizes dust in the finish. It would be best to get
everyone out of the house for 2 days.

I have personally never used a poly (fast drying or otherwise) that
would be sandable in 4 hours. If it were me I would coordinate the
project to be done in one shot. You would be talking 2 days. Say on a
weekend that would be first coat Sat morning, sand and second Sat
night, sand and third Sunday morning for traffic on Monday. Could push
it up by Starting Friday a.m. which would allow for traffic on Sunday
evening.

If you really dont feel you can coat it all in one shot you can
allways break the rooms on the left and right of the hall on a joint
but for something this size I would just try to tough it out and get
it done in the two days.

Mark

Thanks for the suggestions. Climbing though the bathroom windows is
really not a option. A weekend vacation for the wife and kids might
work. It might end up being cheaper to hire a pro.

wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions. Climbing though the bathroom windows is
really not a option. A weekend vacation for the wife and kids might
work. It might end up being cheaper to hire a pro.

With a pro or otherwise you would still need the weekend get-away, the
floors still need to dry. The only appreciable difference is you get to go.
Rod

True but a pro works faster and will get the job done quicker. I can
usually do nice work but I am not always fast.

On Mar 6, 2:54*pm, "Rod & Betty Jo" wrote:
wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions. Climbing though the bathroom windows is
really not a option. A weekend vacation for the wife and kids might
work. It might end up being cheaper to hire a pro.

With a pro or otherwise you would still need the weekend get-away, the
floors still need to dry. The only appreciable difference is you get to go..
Rod