DFW Custom Wood Floors-Sanding/Filling

10. Sanding your entire wood surface is a must do. My crew went over the entire floor using a wood filler in areas where small cracks between the boards existed! Small scracks are normal. The 'crack filler" will aid in my quest to have a leak proof floor when done! In regards to sanding, some installers have “dustless” sanders some do not. Dustless sanders are probably better than NON dustless sanders. However, do not fool yourself in to thinking that you will avoid wood dust from possibly coating other furniture/appliances in the areas being worked on or even those areas they are not working on! I assumed it all to be just part of the installation process and with one simple cleaning when they were done………all is well. You may NOT take kindly to the layer of wood dust I witnessed BUT when it is all done…….it was worth it. That dust meant they were doing things just as they were supposed to. PLEASE do not fault them if you are getting a good deal and you see the hard work they are doing for you! Just accept the fact that no matter what you cover or try to protect……….you will have wood dust when they are done sanding.
		PURPOSE of sanding is to make sure that all small splinters/nicks from scraping are smoothed out prior to finishing your floor. You do NOT want……..socks and bare feet finding hidden splinters as they did just scrape every inch of your new hand scraped wood floor! YOU be the judge as was I. I went over the entire floor making sure it was SMOOTH AND CLEANED PRIOR to the staining process. Your crew should sweep and clean the wood floor prior to administering the first coat of stain/polyurethane. You want that floor as dust free as possible and my guys seemed to get it pretty clean after sanding! Now lets’ talk about the staining process and various shades to consider: By the way……my crew actually completed the entire scraping and the initial staining process in ONE day (about 600 square feet) My crew had (FIVE) guys including the owner who scraped and stained all in one day! It was important to me that they did what they said they would do in the time line they set forth prior to the start of the project. They did complete everything exactly as they said they would “wood”!! 11. Prior to the staining process you should have already viewed a number of homes that have the stained scraped hard wood floors. Many reasons why I have already touched on! You can determine how “wavy” (rustic) you want your floors to look when done as well as get an idea for how the various stain colors will work in your house. There are THREE primary stains I was advised of: 1. Antique brown, Coffee Brown and a mix of a Redwood/Antique as I recall. I elected to go with the Antique Brown again per their suggestion. I THOUGHT I would want the coffee brown (darkest almost appearing black) BUT in the end the floor was plenty dark. The wood showed great highlights and produced the very rustic look I was wanting to achieve. IF you go too dark……….it can take away from and even hide many of the beauties you may want to see in your floor. When the final 3rd coat of polyurethane was applied I am glad I did NOT go any darker than I did! CALL is yours though. My installers were willing to stain several wood planks with the three types IF I wanted to see them before they proceeded to stain the entire floor.