Well this weeks project:
Customer wanted hardwood in her upstairs hallway, But had an existing handrail/banaster in oak, stained dark walnut. Along with the 19 stairs down to the first floor.
Instead of installing and sanding a new floor to match, the descion was made to do something to blen it with the railing.
The customer and I came up with a simple solution that looks very clean.
We decided to install a 4 inch american walnut border throughout the entire hallway (337sq ft). We chose to double the walnut boards at all of the doorways leading into other rooms, install walnut nosings, and in ordere to keep it cleaner looking we did not carry the border into the closets, instead we kept the same doubled walnut board theme, so even with the doors closed there is one full walnut board exposed.
The field was laid first, using Selecte & Better 3 1/4 red oak on a 45 degree angle. After the feild was all ladi out, we cut the entire floor back 4 inches from the baseboards using a fesstool saw, routerto route grooves, and fien tool for corner cuts.
The entire floor was trowel glued and stapled using bosticks best.
I didnt feel the glue was nessicary, But I had previously installed 1600 ft in a 3,4,5 pattern in the downstairs, where we had to glue because of the 4 & 5 inch boards for this customer. She has been so pleased with the lack of movement and squeks (compared to her prior experinces with hardwoods) that she wanted the upstairs glued also.
The floor was sanded with an old 100 grit belt (just to semi flatten it out) across the grain/on opposing 45 degree angle. Then edged with 60 grit, trio'd with 60 grit. Filled a quick pass with the 60 on the trio to remove the filler. Then final edged using 100 grit, and trio'd with 100 grit.
Finished it off with a 100 grit screen, a coat of bona puritan pine stain, and 3 coats of traffic satin. All dustless.
Was 1.5 days to install, and one full day of sanding. (mostly just standing looking at the trio, as it did most of the work).
The whole hallway there was one section (aprox 6x6) that I was able to use the hummel on.
This job truley made me appreciate my trio and fien tool that much more.
Sorry for the low quality pictures, I have misplaced my digital camera, and while my phone is a great computer...It is not the best camera.
The floor is buffed and ready for final coat in the pictures. I didnt remember to take pictures until I was about to tack the floor