# Less than $100 & a lot of luck - living room



## natedro (Aug 4, 2011)

Wow! What an awesome find! I wish I could find an awesome floor under some of ours! No such luck though... congratulations and good luck with the furniture and rest of the stuff you're doing.


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## Lucid (Oct 2, 2011)

Thank you! I've checked out your project and I'm interested in seeing how it goes since it has some similarities to our place. Looks like you even have two little black dogs too!


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## natedro (Aug 4, 2011)

Lucid said:


> Thank you! I've checked out your project and I'm interested in seeing how it goes since it has some similarities to our place. Looks like you even have two little black dogs too!


Ha! "Little" may be the key word there. One is ~80 and the other about 65 lbs. We are also in the process of (probably) adopting another street dog we discovered recently. He's a blondie. Now we can black AND white dog hair everywhere! :wallbash:


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## coderguy (Jan 10, 2011)

Wow, when we were house hunting we came upon a house with carpet in the bathroom. What a bad idea!

That floor looks great, I'm so happy for you! I think the dogs will adjust. Our cats have and it keeps them from running amok in the living/diving room.

What you will find with hardwood is the hair will collect on it into little tumbleweeds of hair. We try to vacuum/swiffer often.


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## CoconutPete (Jan 22, 2010)

Looks good! We did the same thing in our house except we had to sand off about 0.25" of the entire thing due to some minor water damage and the fact that only the edges had ever been finished so you got off easy.:thumbup:


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## Lucid (Oct 2, 2011)

natedro said:


> Ha! "Little" may be the key word there. One is ~80 and the other about 65 lbs. We are also in the process of (probably) adopting another street dog we discovered recently. He's a blondie. Now we can black AND white dog hair everywhere! :wallbash:


 Hahaha! Yeah... ours are both about 65 lbs. We call them our LBDs - little big dogs. I always forget that they're kinda big for some reason.



coderguy said:


> What you will find with hardwood is the hair will collect on it into little tumbleweeds of hair. We try to vacuum/swiffer often.


That's funny because I noticed that for the first time today. I knew we'd get hair, but was surprised the way it accumulated. Tumbleweeds is a very accurate description. 



CoconutPete said:


> Looks good! We did the same thing in our house except we had to sand off about 0.25" of the entire thing due to some minor water damage and the fact that only the edges had ever been finished so you got off easy.:thumbup:


Oooh that'd be rough. Yup we certainly did get a good deal. I thank the Flooring Gods daily.


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## ddawg16 (Aug 15, 2011)

Great job.....I hate to see good oak flooring covered up. It was pretty much the same thing in our house.

On those tumbleweeds (my wife calls them dust bunnies), you can somewhat control them with a small rug or two placed at entry points. They will collect some of the dirt......

And don't be afraid to tackle the job of refinishing the floor....not that hard...just dirty and smelly....

Basic steps:
1. Remove everything from the room
2. Tape and cover anything that you don't want dust in
3. Rent a floor sander
4. Sand floor....depending on the conditon, you should be able to do all of it in less than a day.
5. Clean well (the shop vac is your friend)
6. Patch any holes (like all of those nail strip holes)...some touchup sanding may be necessary
7. Stain with a color of your liking....though, with the age of that floor....natural may look great.
8. Put down your varnish....depending on what kind you use, it could be seveal coats.

Overall, the process may take up to a week due to drying times for stain and varnish. Hopefully some experts will chime in....I've only done it twice....both times it came out great....no hesitation on my wife and I doing it again....in fact, we have 2 large rooms to do as soon as we finish our 2-story addition.

One of the reasons for telling you all this is that we saw a big difference in dirt control with the new floor. It was a lot easier to vacuum and keep clean the new floor vs the old floor....Also, the varnish we used does not seem to be a slippery as the old floor. Your dogs might like it.


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## Lucid (Oct 2, 2011)

Thank you for the tips! Interesting that refinishing helped keep it clean... we may have to expedite that project if the benefits will be more than just aesthetic.


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## Snav (Aug 20, 2009)

Wow - amazing! Luck you!

It's crazy, I think, that people take a gorgeous wood floor and cover it over with carpeting!


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