[Build] floor plan draft--response with tho'ts on painting

[Lamont Lucas]

jim wrote:
>>         many lambswool heads for sealant and finish  ( x10 )
>>     
> consider rolling on the floor sealers and top-coats. 
>   


I'm going to do a test patch with the sealer today, and we can totally 
try the rollers, but I'm trying to go with what the guy who sold me the 
sealer and finish told me to do, which involved snowplow dragging a 
lambswool applicator (that does not roll) along the boards.  I'm just 
hesitant to go with any method other than what the flooring guy told me 
to do.  But I'm sure paint rollers are cheaper, so if those work, we can 
save a few bucks.

>   
>>         many belts, 40 grit, 60 grit, 80 grit.  Plus a line on where
>>         we can
>>         get more over the weekend 
>>     
>    consider large orbital sanders for the final sanding 
> pass (you walk them around similar to working with the 
> drum sanders). they're easier and more forgiving. 
>   

I haven't used the orbital sanders, just the rotary sander that I was no 
good at using.  Zedd was a champ with it, but it was still super slow 
going.  I'm trying to minimize the amount of equipment we have to rent, 
but if people thing the orbital sander is easy to use and safer, then 
I'll spring for that.  Let's talk about it more when I see you in the 
space in a few minutes.

>    edgers work best for floor edges. they're heavy and 
> take it out of people who must be on their hands and 
> knees, but they do the work faster than hand held belt 
> sanders or rotary grinders or orbital sanders (i.e. 
> harder work in less time or easier work for a longer 
> time, and knees suffer more over more time). 
>   

I've updated the plan to include rental for 2 edgers. 

>>         more trowels, ideally board width.
>>     
>    consider using broad knives, probaby 3 and/or 4 inches 
> wide. seems to me one of the problems with troweling on 
> floor filler was that the workers left too much material 
> on the surface, which then took a lot of after-application 
> sanding to bring down to the surface of the flooring planks. 
>    applying the filler with trowels may be the right way, 
> but following up with broad knives will smooth the filler 
> to the plank surfaces and spread the excess to new areas. 
>   

I'm probably misusing the terms  here, but what we used for the original 
filler stage was these large square pieces of metal with a handle coming 
up from the middle, like an iron.  They were way too big and encouraged 
us to use more filler than we needed to.  I think Miloh had more luck 
with his small paint scraper like device, and that's what I'd like to 
encourage people to use.

Zedd had also suggested using a sponge to wipe the excess filler from 
the top of the boards, but scott the bathroom contractor had cautioned 
that doing so would "raise the wood grain again" which might make for a 
rougher floor.  Although since we're sanding again that won't kill us, 
and nobody cares if the floors are perfect, just sealed.  I'd say to see 
if we can do a better job applying filler to the cracks, rather than the 
tops of the boards, and scrape or sponge any place where the filler was 
over-applied.


>>         * putty team starts puttying.  Puttying most time intensive.
>>          Mark
>>         time on grid when putty is applied so we know roughly when to
>>         expect it to be dry.  Use a light touch, work it into the
>>         cracks, and try and
>>         keep the boards themselves free of putty.
>>     
>    i'm guessing you don't mean "putty" per se but floor 
> filling material, yes? putty seems a poor choice as it 
> takes weeks or months to cure and is weak wrt forces of 
> people walking and rolling things. lamont used the right 
> stuff, we should use that. lamont should be able to tell 
> how long it took for the filler to dry to sandable state. 
>    the advice to keep the boards free of "putty" is right, 
> and i think using broad knives to follow the trowels will 
> give us the (approximately) best results fastest (and with 
> less need for developing a technique). 
>   

That's my misuse of terms rather than Zedd's.  I wrote the original plan 
draft and just said "putty" when I did indeed mean filler.  It's the 3.5 
gallon bucket of filler, and that's all I plan on using for the filler 
stage.  I'm just bad with my terms.

The we let the filler dry for about 16 hours, and that was plenty for 
everything except the thickest applications.  it changes colors as it 
dries, so it's pretty easy to tell.  And if we leave fans going, I 
suspect we'll be fine with them drying overnight.  I wrote in the plan 
to use a map of the space and mark the times that the filling was 
finished so that we can be working on some post-filling sanding while 
other filling is drying.

I'm headed to the space now to meet up with jim and swap out some 
equipment.  I think after that we'll start working on sealing the test 
patch and 40 grit sanding more areas, along with moving stuff off the 
floors.