Before we moved into the house we ripped out the ghastly green carpet in 4 bedrooms to reveal the original untouched raw jarrah floorboards. The rest of the house - the living room, hallway and kitchen have floorboards too. The bathroom and laundry are tiled.
For 3 days and nights we worked at restoring the floorboards before we moved in. Not satisfied with the finish and because they got a bit scratched when we moved our furniture in, as we paint each room we are again sanding and sealing the boards to really make them smooth and shine. You can read more detail about the Jarrah Jungle namesake here.
For 3 days and nights we worked at restoring the floorboards before we moved in. Not satisfied with the finish and because they got a bit scratched when we moved our furniture in, as we paint each room we are again sanding and sealing the boards to really make them smooth and shine. You can read more detail about the Jarrah Jungle namesake here.
Prepping:
We used a floor punch to push down the nails to make the floor smooth for sanding, otherwise the nails rip the sanding paper and cause a few fireworks. Then filled the holes with timber filler, we used a mix of jarrah and walnut filler to get the colour match as close to the colour of the floorboards as we could. As you can see there were a lot of holes to fill!
We used a floor punch to push down the nails to make the floor smooth for sanding, otherwise the nails rip the sanding paper and cause a few fireworks. Then filled the holes with timber filler, we used a mix of jarrah and walnut filler to get the colour match as close to the colour of the floorboards as we could. As you can see there were a lot of holes to fill!
Sanding:
Now this is the messy bit it is noisy dusty work which had us wearing full body suits, masks and earmuffs oh yea sexy baby!. We hired a floor sander for 3 days and bought an edging sander and went through about 3 sanding belts each room. Then to vaccum up all that dust, for that we bought a wet/dry vaccum, for $75 it's a great thing to have so you dont wreck your normal vaccum. So much dust - you can see the dust particles floating around in some of the pictures.
Now this is the messy bit it is noisy dusty work which had us wearing full body suits, masks and earmuffs oh yea sexy baby!. We hired a floor sander for 3 days and bought an edging sander and went through about 3 sanding belts each room. Then to vaccum up all that dust, for that we bought a wet/dry vaccum, for $75 it's a great thing to have so you dont wreck your normal vaccum. So much dust - you can see the dust particles floating around in some of the pictures.
Hired a big sander and bought a vacuum - we're ready to work
Sanding with the big floor sander in the living room
Me sanding the edges of the guest bedroom
Filling the gaps:
By room 3 we realised we need to put filler between the gaps of each floorboard to really seal it to make it easier to clean and it also gives it a better look. It takes about 10 hours for each room to fill the gap - not a good job if your impatient or get bored easily.
This is the filler going in and being wiped off as you go
This is all the equipment you need -
filler, containers to hold the filler as you go and a cloth to wipe
The gap being filled literally a finger at a time!
Cleaning:
Before you can seal the floorboards you need to clean them and pick up every little spec of dirt, hair or fibre because otherwise it will be sealed into the floorboards forever! The suits worn are not just a fashion statement (!) they are great for that reason. A hot tip: Wiping the floorboards over with methylated spirits worked really well making them clean and ready to be sealed.
Sealing:
We decided to use a Floor Sealer which is Tung Oil based, so if my friends and their stiletto heels scratched the boards we could sand back that area and seal it again. Whereas the varnish types although more hard wearing, if you scratch them you need to redo the whole room. You really need to go away for a night or two once the oil is down as the smell is really strong (especially if you have allergies like I do). Leave the floors for a few days before you walk on them and an entire week before you drag any furniture in to make sure they have completely set hard.
Before you can seal the floorboards you need to clean them and pick up every little spec of dirt, hair or fibre because otherwise it will be sealed into the floorboards forever! The suits worn are not just a fashion statement (!) they are great for that reason. A hot tip: Wiping the floorboards over with methylated spirits worked really well making them clean and ready to be sealed.
Sealing:
We decided to use a Floor Sealer which is Tung Oil based, so if my friends and their stiletto heels scratched the boards we could sand back that area and seal it again. Whereas the varnish types although more hard wearing, if you scratch them you need to redo the whole room. You really need to go away for a night or two once the oil is down as the smell is really strong (especially if you have allergies like I do). Leave the floors for a few days before you walk on them and an entire week before you drag any furniture in to make sure they have completely set hard.
Putting on the sealer in the guest room with a brush, by hand,
took ages and left a few brush hairs behind too
took ages and left a few brush hairs behind too
The rest of the rooms we used a mop with a wool appliator which gives a good coverage and is a lot quicker although it also can leave fibres behind so take care to remove them before the oil sets completely
Then you can come home and look at those floorboards restored and shining in all their glory!
After - the floors shining in all their glory
To finish off we hammered in new quarter-round to seal the edges and stop the cool air and any creepy crawlys from coming inside.
So that's how we restored the floorboards that give this blog its name sake Jarrah Jungle.
A profession would charge approx $3000+ to do the house and we have done ours for just over $1000. Yes it has taken a lot of time and effort but to say we did it ourselves is worth it!
Sander Hire (3 days) $270
Makita Belt Sander $120
Karcher Wet/Dry Vacuum $75
Feast Watson Floor Sealer $430
Sanding Sheets $80
Quarterround mouldings $85
Filler @ $15x4 $60
Total $1120
[All images my own]
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Nice posting, thanks for sharing with us. Your blog is great and helped me feel better knowing about the wood floor restoration. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteGood work! I'm working towards putting in stairs with Jarrah and then a jarrah floor upstairs with tung oil did one tread the other day and was really happy with the result and now what you've has convinced me it will look really good, like you say a fair bit of work but the results you've got are a credit to your perseverance.
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