[Build] floor sanding test

[Lamont Lucas]

Your plan is excellent and I appreciate the attention to detail.  (along 
with minimizing the damage a sanding n00b like myself can do)  I'll 
increase the size of the test patch to 5x20 as well.

I'll be at 2169 tonight a little before 6pm for the electrical buildout 
discussion as well as to select, mark and photo a test patch.  My plan 
is still to start the work thursday or friday, depending mostly on 
transportation (ie, will I borrow a zipcar, or is someone with a car 
interested in helping, etc)


jim wrote:
>    sounds like a good plan. i suggest picking a spot 
> in the middle of the floor in the front (west) space. 
>    note that the floor in the front has some paint on 
> part of it, maybe pick a 100 sq ft patch that has 
> some painted and some bare wood. 
>    i specified using 36 grit for the first pass for 
> the reason that we expect inexperienced people to be 
> doing the work. if we use a heavier grit (e.g. 20), 
> we have a greater risk of gouging. the purpose of 
> the 36 grit (or whatever) is to remove the grimey top 
> surface so that the subsequent fillers and coatings 
> will adhere. 
>    the purpose of following up with 50 grit is to 
> smooth down the peaks left by the 36 grit pass so 
> that the fillers and subsequent coatings don't set 
> up on the peaks that are later crushed by foot 
> traffic. 
>    the current plan is to smear on fillers after the 
> 50 grit pass. this should be done with broad knives 
> with an eye to ensuring there are no peaks sticking 
> up above the top surface of the wood. consider using 
> bondo for deep or large holes. consider cutting wood 
> plugs for very large holes. 
>    then, per current plan, put on a thinned down coat 
> of shellac to fill the pores at a microscopic level. 
>    then sand with 80 grit to smooth down the surface 
> of the shellac and filler. 
>    the put down two coats of a top coat that has 
> flexibility regardless of hardness--flexibility for 
> the reason that the top coat will be bridging a lot 
> of miniature cracks. 
>
>    the floor store folks will probably balk at some 
> of the above. i've chosen the above approach as a 
> means of getting a sufficiently good job done in a 
> minimum amount of time. 
>    i've detailed the above so you can compare with 
> the advice of floor personages, who likely will give 
> you standard advice to refinish a floor so it's 
> pretty, without regard to time and cost constraints. 
> i've put enough tho't into the above scheme that i 
> hope you'll present whatever you discover for our 
> mutual (build bunch) discussion, so we can think out 
> a final, optimal proposal. 
>    the most valuable aspect of your self-sacrifice is 
> getting some rough metric of time for sanding. i 
> suggest maybe a 5 by 20 patch rather than 10 by 10, 
> as that will better represent the way in which we'll 
> be doing the work. note that edging (on one's knees 
> with a large, rotary hand tool) will have to be done 
> and the job of filling will be significant. seems to 
> me the job of putting on coatings will be pretty fast 
> and easy, relative to sanding and filling. 
>
>
> On Wed, 2009-08-12 at 00:12 -0700, Lamont Lucas wrote:
>   
>> Hello.
>>
>> At the meeting tonight I volunteered to sand a test patch of the floor, 
>> with the idea of getting a better estimate of the amount of labor and 
>> materials that would be needed to do the whole thing.
>>
>> As such, on thursday or friday, I plan on doing the following:
>>
>> 1) going to the new space, taking detailed photos of a 10'x10' spot of floor
>> 2) taking the photos to pacific flooring supply co to get their 
>> recommendations for grit and process
>> 3) use the shopvac and maybe a giant magnet to clean all the crap I can 
>> off of the test area
>> 4) use a punch to hammer down all the exposed nails below the surface of 
>> the wood
>> 5) rent a floor sander and attempt to get the test patch to a clean and 
>> consistent state
>>
>> I plan on taking detailed before and after photos, and estimating how 
>> long it took me to do each phase.
>>
>> I'll try and pick an out of the way corner to work on.
>>
>> I suspect friday might be best for me, but I could also work on 
>> thursday.  I'm free most all daylight hours, and I'd like to have 
>> something to report back before tuesday so we can settle the floor issue.
>>
>> If you have floor experience or would like to participate, please let me 
>> know or arrange a time we can both be at the space.  I hear Jim is the man.
>>
>>
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