Timber Floor - Day Two

I put a small heater in the hallway overnight to help with any changing humidity while the first coat set and I am pleased to say that by this morning, those cloudy marks had all disappeared.  Yay!  Plus it was nowhere near as dark as I feared it would be when looking at it wet.

The surface felt quite rough, not to mention the little pawprints left behind, so I went over the whole thing again by hand with 240 grit paper.  That seemed to smooth it out nicely without removing any varnish.  So then a damp mop, dry cloth, then the second coat.

Second coat finished

I locked Molly in the lounge/kitchen this time so she couldn’t walk on it, but straight after I’d finished I came into the office and she appeared beside me!  On checking, she had managed to pull open the sliding door enough to get through and leave another nice little trail of pawprints over the surface.  Sigh.  She’s determined to leave her mark, it seems.

Incriminating Pawprints

Incriminating paws being cleaned of evidence

I’m really happy with it so far though (the pic doesn’t really do it justice).  It’s nowhere near professional standard and I can see little gouges where I struggled with the gluey bits, stains where no amount of hand sanding would cut it, and little marks where the belt sander bucked away from me, but I’ve decided that I love it.  Not sure if it’s a cop out, but it looks old, like lovely burned and gnarly pieces of jarrah.  I love the satin finish too – it has a really natural look, which is just what I was hoping for.
 

I'm not sure yet if three coats will be enough, but I hope so.  I'm applying the poly with a large brush straight out of the can so as not to waste one drop - one 4lt can cost $110!! - and I'm hoping it will be enough to do the kitchen and dining area as well.  (My shoulders just sighed and creaked with pain when I wrote that.)

1.5 hours to go, then the third coat.  :)