Floor finishing question

[Dick Holt]

Rich,
Would you like me to send you my giant economy size bottle of ibuprofen? I am finished with it (for now)!!!!! I put the last coat (number 4) of Varathane on wednesday night. Floor came out beautiful! Scott's method (slightly modified) worked well. Thanks Scott.

Dick

[Rich Engelhardt]

Dick,
I'll pass on the Ibuprofen - but - thanks!
The cold beer is enough pain killer & a pretty good incentive to boot .

I set a "goal" for myself for each part of the room and whenI finished that part, my reward was a can of cold pain killer.

BTW:
http://www.amazon.com/Shur-Line-0550.../dp/B000G0IFEW

Should you ever get real crazy again and do another floor, the above brush holder works a lot better than tape.
I bought one years ago when I had my painting company to do the peak of a Victorian house that was way up there beyond the reach of a 40' ladder.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Varathane turned out great.
Nice product. First time I used it on anything this large.

Very easy to keep a wet edge with it & once reduced slightly w/mineral spirits it flowed out and leveled very well.
The only 4" brush I had with me was a cheap synthetic.
Even with a somewhat junk brush, the Varathane flowed out well and left no brush marks.

Main drawback to it was the long dry times between coats.
I had to give each coat (I ended up putting down 3) nearly 48 hours to dry before it would sand well.
No doubt this was due to the house being closed up.
It's a rental that's over 50 miles away and in an area I'm not comfortable w/ for leaving windows open w/no one around.

Thanks for the tip on the Varathane Scott.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I'm dragging this one back from the dead to make a comment about how poorly the Varathane held up.

The tenant moved into this house shortly after the floors were done back in 2012, and, she just moved out two weeks ago.

The bedrooms look fine and the dining room looks fine - - but - -in the living room, where people would place their feet when sitting on the chairs &/or couch, the finish is very worn and discolored. It looks horrible!
I'm very disappointed in how poorly the Varathane has performed. I'm going to attempt to restore the worn areas by using some Bona Hardwood Floor Restorer followed by some Bona polish to even things out.

3 coats was obviously not enough.....

On the other floors I did, I used waterborne poly of one brand or another and applied 4 coats all told. Those floors are holding up great.I don't believe I'll use the Varathane oil anymore.