I can't believe I was excited about having floors with the original finish intact, since it means more layers of crud to get through before I can sand the wood. I also can't believe what a bitch this shellac is to remove. I've stripped it with Citristrip, washed the floor twice, and mopped with denatured alcohol, and and I think it's finally off. However, the sandpaper is still gumming up, since the floor is now too damp. It's dry to the touch, but the sander must know the difference.
Lesson: Do better prep work beforehand. Don't expect the sander to do more than sand the wood. Get the shellac off before trying to sand, and give plenty of drying time...
5 comments:
"patience and prep work - master these two or you'll redo."
No kidding... Considering that I've never done this before, I'm not too angry at myself. I had no way of knowing how the sander would react to the shellac (my little palm sander didn't have a problem with it for whatever reason). Either way, everything is now stripped and I'll start again tomorrow when the wood is totally dry. At least I didn't screw up my floors! :D
Jeez, I've never had that happen. The only floors I've refinished only had wax or peeling poly though. I did two rooms with a palm sander and they came out fine. Insanity does run in my family though.
Oh man, we had the same kind of stuff our floor. Glad to hear we're not alone. More prep work is right - and we should have started with the drum sander. It chewed right through the gummy finish. Wish we knew about citristrip.
Citristrip is the next greatest thing after SoyGel. SoyGel is better, but isn't available locally, so I usually go withthe Citristrip. Thankfully, the living room is the only shellacked floor in the house (that I know of), we shouldn't have a repeat of this (fingers crossed).
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