Peace,

Just wanted to say that I have read many topics on the forum and noticed we have some Hardwood Jedi's in our midst. I am kind of a DIY when it comes to cars, engines and electronics...so I will take any challenge.

So here is my deal...

The Living Room 16 x 11 and the foyer is 16 x 12 plus halls are 19 x 6. I plan on doing the hand scrape on Red Oak utility 4 1/2 x 3/4 or maybe its 4 x 3/4 tongue & groove. I understand I have to buy the ply wood, moister barrier and all the other required items. My question is do I have to lay it first and then scrape it? Do I need to stain first then apply the filler/seal? what scraping tool should I buy?

I am getting the wood at 0.89 per sq ft

Thanks for the help

holy christ are you asking for a lot of work! Best to do the scraping on a table/workbench. You will need to hit all the edges to avoid any overwood then scrape away! There are several diffrent types of scrapers available it will depend on the kind of scrape you want to do. I was told once that a well trained floor man will usually scrape about 100sf in an eight hour day, and thats knowing what you are doing!

So scraping them one by one wouldnt cause problems. I thought they had to be uniform when you scrape? The edges already have the slant on all sides..so is that what you mean by overwood?

Well that will help that the sides have been beveled. It must have been slated for a finish line. One by one is how its often done, you can do it after its installed but it will be much more back braking labor that way.

I just (this past weekend) hand-scraped two 8 ft maple treads and four 8 ft maple risers on the weekend, and finished them to match a factory made pre-finished hand scraped floor we are installing. I determined that even though there were only 6 units, it would be better done at my home shop rather than after they were installed. I was right since the beer fridge is at my home shop. It took 6 hours to get the scraping just the way I wanted, but then that was maple, oak probably would have taken about 4 hours.
So, I would say, after that experience, it was much better to have them set up on my work bench, thus allowing me to stand up during the process.

lol @ ^...

Well I will not have my garage set up just yet to enjoy a nice cold Gatorade...Its a new build. I think I will just lay them first and then get on my scrape.

Thanks fellas

Always has amused me that a handscraped floor is suppose to resemble years of wear and traffic, yet who walks on the riser? For that matter how can a worn old floor be uniform throughout? I guess people dont think about that, just had to throw that out there

Ya Floorologist, I have been saying, and thinking the same thing ever since this fad started.
Have learned to keep the ole mouth shut though, so people wouldnt notice me drooling over the mega resands we are gonna get when the fad is over.

I always thought handscraped in the old days before sanders was scrapped as flat as possible. Not all this heavy scraped look we have today.

Exactly right Tucson. We have a big picture on our office wall of three guys hand-scraping a floor from (presumably) late 19th or early 20th century. It clearly shows the effort they are taking to make the floor smooth.

yEA its kinda a joke. Especially the heavily scraped products. I call em hand gouged not hand scraped.

Thanks fellas I will post pics and progress later,

I'm gonna use that one if you don't mind Kevin.

i know its an old post......but,

these floors are the fashion right now (why?). always thought the reason the floors were hand scraped to be flat/level.
What happens when you need to refinnish these floors?.

We all get rich.