Painting, sanding, cleaning, painting, sanding…

I’m at the stage with the floor in the spare bedroom where I’ve done two coats of paint, it’s fully dry, and needs its third and final coat.

So I’m sanding it down. I sanded the base coat that was already on the wood. I sanded after the first coat. I’m sanding again before the final coat.

This picture isn't great, but this was taken whilst painting the second coat to try and show the difference between coats. Can you see that the bottom two boards are sort of scrubby looking? The top two have a richer colour and fuller coverage.

The floor in this roughly 3m by 3m room takes about 4 hours to paint. Why am I taking some of the paint off when it took me so long to apply? Because I’ll get a smoother finish.

Anyone who’s done any painting like this before will be saying to themselves “Pft, obviously!” But if it’s something you’ve never done before, it’s worth noting. It kind of sucks that so much of the time and effort spent on this sort of project is in removing your previous work. However, even though you’ve sanded and scrubbed and and vacuumed and mopped and cleaned the floors again, there will still be dust in the room. It will fall on your not-yet-dry paint and stick to it. A bug will decide to land on the still sticky paint, get stuck and breath its last breath there. Despite your meticulous attention to detail, one or two of your paintbrush bristles will have come out and are now stuck to the paint. The wood will still swell slightly even though it’s been primed. There will be lumps and bumps that you haven’t noticed. Giving the paint a light sanding before you apply the next coat gives you the chance to check over your work and get it as smooth as possible for the next coat. As well as all this, paint adheres better to a slightly rougher surface.

I used a pretty fine grade of aluminium oxide paper (stronger than sand paper), you really just want to take of a small top layer and any bumps, so this is sufficient.

The tools: aluminium Oxide, cork sanding block. Not pictured: endless patience, singing at the top of your voice to whatever music you have on to make the time pas quicker, the grim resolve to finish this so you can have your life back.

I also wore a dust mask and goggles. I don't think the risk of toxic dust inhalation is too sever from a mostly organic vegetable-oil based paint, but I have a sensitive nose and eyes so I sneeze a lot and need to not have red running eyes so that I can see what I'm doing.

Check out my lumps and bumps.

Light sanding.

So, yes you’re spending yet more time on your knees with the back bent over, and all you’re doing is removing the paint, but your finished floor will look so good that you’ll forget about the back ache and cramps in your legs.

I’ll hopefully be applying the final coat of paint to the floorboards tomorrow. I mopped them after vacuuming and I want to make sure that they’re fully dry before I apply any more paint.

I can’t wait to finish the room and start using it properly.

Hope this was useful and enjoyable!