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You can so sand your own hardwood
floors
When I bought my first house,
certain ‘helpful’ people advised me that I could tackle any
home improvement project myself, except for
refinishing the hardwood floors.
And for the under-educated and
overconfident this can be true. I’ve bid
enough floors across the Twin Cities to witness all
the horrors I was warned about: the sander gouges,
the wavy floors, and finish coats filled with
puddles. But if you’re reading this, you are
neither under-educated nor overconfident, because
you are researching the process of sanding or
installing your floor before you begin. You
can do a great refinishing job, even as a first-time
do-it-yourselfer, if you plan your job and get some
instruction first. This is where Pete’s
Hardwood Floors comes in. You can rent floor sanders
all over Twin Cities. But we are the only ones who offer a
free, hands-on, personal lesson with every equipment
rental. Our
lesson is not just reviewing the low-budget training
video that came with the sander, no. This training
takes place on a real hardwood floor with the very
machine you will rent. It is taught by an actual
hardwood flooring contractor and will address the
particular floor project that you are facing.
Look, we’re not promising to
turn you into a flooring professional with one
lesson. But we can assure you that 60 minutes
running an actual sander is better than any amount
of advice from your 'helpful' neighbor. Or from the
internet. The information we share with you is
backed up by our past and ongoing experience as
hardwood flooring contractors. The techniques we
teach are the techniques we use, learned from the
experience and mistakes of the past 12 years. The
products we sell are the products we apply on floors
for customers every week and we have a reason for
choosing every single one (and we can tell you about
the three products we won’t carry because they
didn’t work – don’t get me started on flooring
bleach).
Even if you’re not sure whether
you want to hire someone or try it yourself, feel
free to bring photos and measurements of your
project – we can talk you through all the steps and
help you come to a decision. And if all else fails,
sure, you can hire us to do the job (but that has
happened only once since we opened the store). So come down and talk to us. Knowledge is
power, my friends. Sand on.
¯¯¯
Can You Explain What
Happened Here?
We encountered a problem floor. Here's how it looked after
sanding:
Here's how it looked
after
a coat of oil polyurethane:
Here are a few hints: the home is 80 years old, but the
finish we removed was about 50 years old and there was a
runner down the center of the hallway.
Answer below.
-------------------------------
We are an accredited member of the Better
 Business Bureau!
Use the link below to hop over to the BBB of Minnesota and
South Dakota to check our record:
minnesota.bbb.org
-------------------------------
FloorLadyKadee has a
blog!
Read it and make
(nice) comments:
http://utterlyfloorboard.blogspot.com/
What was going on
that problem floor?
It may look like the center of the floor was
stained or darkened in some way, but we know that
can't be true because an applied pigment would have
sanded right out. In fact, the opposite was true:
the edges of the hall were stained and/or finished
while the center strip was left completely bare,
presumably because it was being covered with a
runner. But utterly naked, unfinished wood is
at the complete mercy of time and god. Air,
dust, moisture, lack of exposure to light and even
the content of the rug itself were able to age and
change the unprotected wood fiber. And 50
years of all those elements working on that bare
wood changed it so deeply that the discoloration
could not be sanded out. The lesson to be learned here
is, treat every part of your floor uniformly, even
if you think it won't ever be exposed again.
It will. And don't yell at your floor guy or gal if
they can't sand it out...
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This is what the store looks like:
Open
Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
Friday 8:30am to 6:00pm
Saturday 8:30 am to 3:00 pm
Closed Sunday
651-698-5888
we
Yquestions!
186 N. Fairview
St. Paul, MN 55104
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Come to the store!
 Located at
186 Fairview Ave. in St. Paul
(that's the
corner
of
Fairview and
Selby)
It's just the cutest equipment rental shop you'll
ever visit.
Mon-Thur 8:30- 5
Fri 8:30-6 • Sat 8:30-3
(map and phone at the end of left
column)
What exactly
is happening at Pete's this week?
August 2010
Rubio Monocoat and
Wood from the Hood: You can't get more
sustainable that that!
 We've
been experimenting with our favorite no-VOC finish, Rubio
Monocoat, on American Elm from Wood from the Hood.
While we really like the color they call "Pure" on the elm,
the Walnut and Dark Oak are spectacular. We also tried
their Pre-Black under walnut for an even deeper, richer
brown. Are you a maverick? Are you looking for a floor
that nobody else has? Well, You can stop searching. Come
check out Rubio on
American Elm at Pete's.
May 2010
We are now official
distributors of
Wood from the Hood!
This fabulous, local company saves
trees. They literally rescue trees that are cut down
in your neighborhood that would otherwise be ground into
mulch or pellet fuel. They use the wood for many
things, but we're all excited about the Ash and American Elm
trees that they mill into flooring. You may not realize
this, but dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer may
compromise the health of a tree, but they do not affect the
usability of a tree's lumber. American Elm is a
particularly beautiful wood that is not generally available
as flooring.
Stop in at the shop and see our
Wood from the Hood samples; a sustainable floor that may have
come from your own zip code!
May 2010
Is your flooring contractor
EPA-certified to conduct lead-based activities and
renovations? We are!
You may not realize this, but
paint isn't the only source of lead poisoning; even clear
floor coatings manufactured before 1978 can contain lead.
Sanding a lead-bearing floor can fill your home with enormous quantities
of lead dust, a major source of lead contamination.
A new, federal law
took effect in April that requires all
contractors who perform renovations for compensation in
residential dwellings built before 1978 to be trained and
certified in the use of lead-safe work practices. Pete's
is now a certified Renovation, Repair and Painting
contractor. If you hire us, you can (and should) ask to see our shiny new EPA
certificate.
Read more about this law!
The PDF is here:
Compliance
guide to "Renovate Right"
September 2010
We're Gearing up for Community
Education Classes
Six times a year, Pete's takes
their show on the road to teach community education classes
around the Twin Cities. If you aren't sure if you want to
sand that floor yourself, this class will help you off the
fence. Learn how to identify when a floor should be sanded
by a professional, and plenty of other useful stuff.
The next class is scheduled for
Tuesday, September 28, right here at the store! Online
registration begins September 3 at
St. Paul Community Education
______________________________________
What is the smallest thing
that can do the greatest damage to a hardwood floor?
A hard plastic caster.
 Look
at what we did to the floors at the shop with only one chair
with hard casters - shame!
You need soft, polyurethane
casters, like the ones we now carry. The soft wheel
doesn't grind against your newly refinished floor.
It's quieter, less damaging, and saves you from having to
refinish the floor again.
55mm flat black twin wheel swivel caster with 7/16 x7/8 grip
ring stem...$10 each
Need a different stem or caster size? We can do that -just
call the store!
¯ ¯ ¯
Click here to check out our updated article on
"Rubio Monocoat:
What We Think a Year Later"
Monocoat,
Updated
----------------------------------------------------
We're designing and
making our own
BUFFER SKIRTS!
No, not to wear, silly. To contain the dust kicked up
by the buffer so it can be captured by an attached vacuum.
Didn't you know you could attach a vacuum to the buffer?
And that we can rent it to you at a very reasonable rate?
Well now you do.
Buffer skirts are commercially
available, but they are expensive and shred easily.
We made ours from marine vinyl with a strip of industrial
brush-fringe along the bottom.
For $20 we can make one for you too. Call the store to
place your order;
we can even make you a pink one.
And the DIRT DRAGON is here!
 Have
you ever noticed that you can't get your floor really clean
in winter? That's because regular mopping just spreads the
grime around. Enter the Dirt Dragon! It deep cleans wood or
grouted tile floors, rinses and vacuums up excess water all in
one pass. And it only allows clean water and solution to
touch the floor - a recovery tank holds all wastewater. We
love using it on the store floor - you cannot believe how
grotty our white oak floors get during the winter.
The folks who opened the Cheeky Monkey Deli rented it to
remove all the construction grime from their floors before
they opened. But you don't need have a big space to make it
worthwhile - it's maneuverable and easy to use in
regular-size kitchens and dining rooms.
Mention that you read it here and get
1/2 off the daily rental
(25 bucks instead of the usual $50- hubba-hubba).
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Click here to see more about this week,
plus all our past projects.
pretty
pictures
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