Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

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O2Annie
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Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by O2Annie »

We have been slowly working on finishing off out walk-up attic, and are finally getting to the floor!

After years of contemplating we have decided to go with the Rubio product in the clear finish.
The floor is being sanded this weekend, and I plan to dive in on applying the oil as soon as it ships.

Anyone with experience using this (or any oil I guess!) finish I would appreciate any pointers - tips - ??

The floor has never been finished that I can tell; this was a bare wood attic with wider plank flooring. My best guess is pine, although there is some fir in the house. Not flooring but trim and what not.

One thing in particular I am curious about is if my home grade floor buffer would be strong/heavy enough to manage any of the application steps? It is a Koblenz brand trying to link here: (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s//ref=mw_ ... &k=Koblenz) - it's the Koblenz P-2600, I see the link pulls up looking weird :crazy:

Thanks for any input, I will get pictures up once I get better at adding them!

eta: explanation of the link :)

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Re: Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by Mick_VT »

Hi Annie, I just refinished my dining room floor with Rubio. I love it. The finish is nice and seems to be holding up well. It is fairly easy to apply, but seek out instruction videos and tutorials online first. I found this page very useful (https://www.peteshardwoodfloors.com/Woo ... rubio.html) There is a very specific way that it must be applied, and timing is everything. In my opinion your buffer will not give you a good job, you will need a professional 15" buffer to do it right. Part of the secret is buffing the heck out of it, even after the pads and cloths come clean. You need a powerful fast working buffer to do this
Mick...

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Re: Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by phil »

normally I
- fix and boards that need replacement
- remove all baseboards
- set any nails remove any staples etc
- drum sand
- sand the edges with an edger
- set any nails showing after drum sanding
- fill any nail holes or cracks that are wider than a credit card
- scrape out corners where the edger can't reach to flatten them with the surrounding
- sand with a large vibrating pad sander to about 100 grit
- apply danish oil
- after the oil "pops " the grain
fix any discrepancies where I don't like the putty match by replacing some with adjusted colours or darken any spots that are too light with a pen
- fix any sanding marks or spots I don't like with a card scraper or hand sanding
- two more coats of danish oil with a ouple day's between for good penetration
- usually I apply the second and third coat with about 320 grit wet or dry paper soaked in danish oil and scrub it in really well. drying it off as I go

- apply three coats of oil based polyurethane in one day with about 2 hours between and scuff sanding any bumps lint etc between coats
I use clear gloss for the first two coats and satin for the final coat of poly
- Refinish and replace baseboards. Plinth blocks , casings
- replace 1/4 round. Usually with new fir which I finish before installation
- do any touch ups from nailing etc you can use a wax crayon or fill any gaps with putty

So with the Rubio monocoat you may have less steps. The degree of finish and quality of sanding / putty repairs etc will depend on the number of hours you want to put into it.

Is the finisher doing the putty? There are different ways depending on how you approach that. I usually spend a lot of time on the putty stage as I feel it makes or breaks the quality level I also do it before final sanding so the putty is levelled by final sanding

I do it by applying tape so I'm able to press any putty right down in the cracks and pull off tape while putty is wet. This can be very time consuming and I can't imagine a commercial finisher doing it that way because it takes a lot of time.

I see many floors where the nails were sanded down and glint because they weren't set and filled or where the putty is not a close match to the wood colour once finish is applied.. or where the finisher didn't fill nIls or cracks at all

If it's wide plank flooring the gaps might need to be larger as it will change size with humidity more if the floor is tight And narrower strips you can be more fussy with gap filling

I'd think about how the filling will be done. Usually for me this is the most time consuming step but I'm fussy about it others might not care so much and if you have real expert floor finishers they may also be experts with the putty application and able to match colours well.

Sanding is typically quite fast and not the most labor intensive part.

Good luck with the monocoat and let us know how you like it. I can't comment on that product having not used it myself I'm currently finishing my living room which is the last room in my house unless I do the bathroom but it's little.

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Re: Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by Sow's Ear Mal »

Quoting Phil: "- usually I apply the second and third coat with about 320 grit wet or dry paper soaked in danish oil and scrub it in really well. drying it off as I go
- apply three coats of oil based polyurethane in one day with about 2 hours between and scuff sanding any bumps lint etc between coats"

Phil, are you using the danish oil in a manner similar to those using blopentine before painting? My paste varnish finish on old hay mow boards is failing fast, just wearing right off. My take is that it didn't penetrate the old soft wood, and my next try should have something get deeper into the wood. Unfortunately I can't do anything too time consuming as I have to keep 20 hairy feet off it during the process. Thx, Mal

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Re: Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by phil »

not sure about painting but yes I want the oil to go down into the wood pores and harden the top of the floor just below the surface. Fir dents easily so this helps, then when the poly goes down it bonds to that and forms a hard protective layer to resist wear and scratching.

The reason I use sandpaper to apply it isn't' just for penetration it helps level the surface, as you go the high spots are knocked off and tiny voids are filed and the danish oil can harden up with those particles and produce a smoother finish. the top coating will only look as good as your prep.

I also use this stage to look at how it looks with the grain popped, I will see things like scratches where the sander didn't touch or places where there is a bit of staining that has happened , well because its a 100 year old floor with wear marks despite sanding there are wear marks. As the grain pops and the color makes it's dramatic shift in color I want to observe how well the putty matches. if they look bad I have this chance to do a bit more scraping or sanding to correct issues.

I can dig out the putty a little and adjust with more putty of a better match and then just hand sand the area once dry and then go back to my danish oil so in this way I am able to work on areas I don't like. I can also ass a tiny bit of stain to the danish oil if there are areas I wish to darken. You can darken the floor at this stage. I only use clear danish oil for the first coat because I want the tiny cracks to fill with the clear oil and that works as a sealer. If I were to apply a colored oil on the first application the little cracks and areas where the grain is more open will collect the pigments, enhancing the marks but if they fill with a clear oil then they are full and don't attract the colored pigments.

one issue I have seen is the wheel marks from the edger which aren't visible but when you put the finish on they become apparent. even shoe prints and things show up. it also leaves the floor clean. I dont' want bits of hair and sandpaper particles on the floor that will get trapped into the finish. after the final sanding I wont' let others into the room and I will only walk in there with socks or shoes that I only wear in the room. the floor is very sensitive at this stage. even brushing the floor with the vacuum cleaner plastic end can scratch it at this stage.

once the danish oil is down then I can relax a little but again after the final coat of danish and before the application of poly I am very fussy about the cleanliness of the floor, after the poly is down then I try to let it harden up but you can walk on it next day, just don't move furniture etc.

when you do the final sanding , you can sand to your desired grit in stages. the fine-ness of your final sanding will determine how open the wood pores are and how much oil penetrates. You can sand to 120 and burnish the floor with a 3M pad on the floor sander if you want to and that will leave a smoother surface but you won't get as much penetration. If you dont' sand fine enough then the finish may show the scratches and if it's a hard finish such as the Rubio or poly you dont' have a chance to correct it.

one way to see how well and area is sanded is not to look at it standing up but to get right down on the floor and feel the wood with your left hand if you are right handed it will be more sensitive to touch.. you will feel the wood and can you feel the grain or not.. so dont' rely on your eyes. as an example you could just touch some of the furniture in your home and you will notice that different pieces will have a different feel. the piano might be smooth as silk but other wood furniture will have a different feel to it. if you work on the floor and sand it and try to fix hollows and such you can feel a lot that you can't see easily. your fingers can detect very minor differences that your eyes cant see. so you might not see a hump or hollow , but you can feel it , and when the final finish is done you will see more than you can in the bare wood because of surface reflection, just like you can see wavy glass from the street.. it isn't the glass you see its the reflection off the surface. a more perfect finish needs a flatter surface or it will look funny. You can hide some of that by not using too glossy of a finish. a matte finish will not be as reflective so you won;t see waves in the surface as much. it hides the flaws.

in my case I will stop at about 100 grit and then apply the poly to let the stuff in, rather than sanding to 120 and beyond.

what I did at the beginning of my reno was to install a temporary door into the living room, so I can use that to keep my cat out of there. Inevitably she will leave hairs that will be part of my final finish. If you have pets I would contain them while you are doing the final sanding and your finishing with the Rubio. if they get it on their paws they will lick it off and you dont' want that.
You might consider putting up a plastic sheet at least. or a sheet of plywood just tacked in place to cordon off the area.

your final finish might be like that of the floor of a barn or an old pub with lots of wear marks stains gaps in the boards etc or you may work the finish up to the level of a piano. that's your choice. It depends what you like , both can have their place and look nice. I like to fill most of the cracks and holes and stuff so when I'm done the poly makes a pretty good seal and then I don't have cracks to collect dust. if you fill every one the floor still needs to move so it can kind of crack where the boards meet as the floor moves, this is why I don't fill every single crack, my rule of thumb is if I look at a crack and think oh yea I could stick a credit card in there then I fill those ones. I leave the others to allow humidity changes. you don't want a situation where you have a spill and it heaves the floor and the humidity changes in your area may cause more or less movement depending if you are in arizona or in hawaii for example.

the boards are old , as wood ages it shrinks across the grain. It will never return to the original size usually but if it takes on moisture yes the wood changes size it's very minor but this is an effect to be aware of.

I had a dishwasher hose leak in the kitchen and i had rubber mats near the counter. I didn't' notice the leak until it was dribbling out on to the floor and the rubber mats probably held the water in there for a week. when I lifted them in horror I saw where the putty had got soaked and the boards had expanded, what happened is that because I use water based putty , the putty softened and the pressure made the putty ooze up and hump up a bit along the cracks. It really didn't do any other damage. it didn't buckle. so later I will go back and refill them and maybe sand lightly and do another coat of the poly if I want a bit more protection in the area near the sink. so I would advise not to use the oil based putty. its hard to keep from hardening as you use it. with the water based putty I keep a squirt bottle handy and if it starts drying up I put a few drops in my container and shake it and then open it and give it a stir, any crumbly bits will re-constitute into the mix. Don't use the water based putty for exterior use.

If I have cracks over 1/8" or so, I mean if you can stick a paint stir stick in the crack then that's too much putty. It has it's limits. In those cases I will cut tapered strips and put a little glue in and tap them down and then when dry sand them flat and fill any remaining cracks with the putty.

one way to apply the putty is to basically trowel it out with a putty knife over any areas you need and then to use the sanders to bite down through it and leave only the low spots remaining. but what happens is the putty does get into the wood where you don't want it and that can be visible. so the way I do it I use masking tape to mask the area around the putty then press the putty down then pull the tape off. the putty shrinks slightly so I try to overfill and the tape helps the gap get overfilled by the thickness of the tape. later after dry I inspect and if it had shrunk below the surface I go and dab a little more on those spots but I try not to put putty where it isn't needed. you want to see the wood not the putty.

It depends on the wood type but most floors are not a consistent color throughout as the wood has darker and lighter spots , maybe some heartwood and sapwood but also just natural differences int the darkness, so while applying putty I try to use at least a couple different colors. what I do is keep a bit of lighter colored putty on the side of my container and as I go I blend the light and dark putty but try not to mix them fully. where I see the wood is darker Ill use the darker shade and where its lighter I'll use more of the lighter shade. this is to try to break up the monotone appearance. wood isn't consistent in color so if the putty has different colors loosely blended it helps it to look more like the surrounding wood.. If it's a perfect job you won't notice it unless you really look closely.
this putty matching is very difficult to get perfect because you are working blind. our natural tendency is to look at the wood and try to match the color of the putty but that's wrong!.. it will darken at a completely different rate when the grain pops, and the color of the putty you want is a match with the finish on.. so what I do is keep a little squirt bottle of danish oil and just put a drop on to test as you can more accurately see how it matches when the oil is on both the wood and the putty and they are right on top of each other.. if it looks good with the test of a drop of danish oil on it ( after its dry) then I feel my putty is close to the color I need it to be.
when I do my first application of danish oil I will inevitably see where I have misjudged my color match. I'll fix the spots that bug me to the point where I am happy or get to a stage where it seems like just a lot of work for little gain and say ok that's what it's going to be like,,,, but then when I put on the poly , no surprises because the wood has already popped and it won't look much different in color. once you put poly down , or probably the Rubio you are done and you cant go back and fix it so easily or at least you don't want to have to.

when you look at the final finish you will see the ribbon and detail of the wood. any colorants in the topcoat will mask the grain. with a high end finish the light will kind of go through the finish and into the wood and you'll have more"depth" to the finish.. its a bit like a hollogram. if you look at it and move to a different angle you will see how the light reflects differently from different angles. so rather than looking dull and flat it almost jumps out. whats going on is that the wood fibers aren't all parallel and flat. they are natural and uneven not just in color but in the way they are arranged. that ribbon is the light being reflected differently depending on angle. some woods have more ribbon than others. if the wood was cut near a knot it will have more figure. if it is straight flat perfect "boring" grain it will have less ribbon. wood turners people who make decorative bowls and people who make things like burl pipes look for wood with complicated grain as it gives a beautiful effect. also some species have more interesting grain patterns. near the knots or in imperfections like burls the wood grain runs in all sorts of directions and when finished it looks really beautiful. all wood has some character, its not like plastic that way and that's part of the look and feel of natural wood. If you apply a stain you will mask this and if it is not stain but a tint in the topcoat the light has to travel through the pigmented area twice. so you'll have a darker color but you'll hide the ribbon.

its very comparable to the way a diamond sparkles. it does this because of all the facets. as the facets catch the light at different angles it becomes a lively beautiful thing rather than a chunk of glass which would have less "action" I love to see how wood has this beautiful character.

the other thing to keep in mind is it is a floor not a diamond. It is made to be walked on and enjoyed and If you finish it like a piano then you might not be happy when someone walks in with rocks wedged in their shoes and does a little happy dance.. so the finish really should also reflect how you use the room. that's why the old English pub won't have a piano finish.. and the rustic old english pub floor look does have a charm as well.

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Re: Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by O2Annie »

Mic and Phil - thank you for the information!

Phil, Hopefully not to your horror, we are sanding and finishing the floor ourselves with the help of some family members; they family members have some experience with sanding and using poly finish - but none of us are professionals. As for filling, I will have to do a LOT of experimenting for the nail holes and color matching. That is an area that I can research all I want but just won't know until I actually try it. I do know that I won't want those nail heads glistening, so I will have to do something...

I have set all of the nail heads that I could locate - most of them appear to be deep between the boards so I am hoping there will not be many revealed after the sanding.
Of course there are loose boards that need to be fastened down - and those nails will be set as deeply as possible.

There are very large gaps between some of the boards; other than the potential for sharp edges, what would be the biggest issues with leaving them? If it is mostly cosmetic I will be fine with them; we are not going for a pristine, brand new finished floor look. This was also part of what I like about the Rubio Monocoat finish; a matte finish that will (hopefully!) just enhance the natural wood. I anticipate that any extra oil settling into the cracks will have to be carefully wicked out as well, to avoid dirt build up along with a sticky puddle of oil.

I have been researching floor finishing for literally years in preparation for this task; For the first (approximately) 2 years of planning I was set on Tung oil, then I saw Mic's post on using the Rubio in his dining room. Since then I have watched every video that I can find...

The floor is going to be drum sanded and edge sanded with first 80 then 120 grit; is that too extreme of a difference, as in should we be going from 80 - 100 - 120? The Rubio product suggest a 100 to 120 final finish..?

Mic; thank you for the advice on the buffer. I was about 70% decided on renting a buffer, so your advice moved me to 100%.
Did you do exactly as the instructions said: Red pad, then white then a cloth? When you mention buffing beyond the point of the pads and cloth coming clean did you just continue buffing at that point with cloth until - what? - you had a sheen that you were happy with?
Related to that; did you literally buff each area to your level of satisfaction before moving on to the next area.
For example:
In a 24 square foot area
1. Apply oil
2. Red pad buff
3. White pad buff
4. Cloth buff
5. Cloth buff until well beyond clean
The move on to the next 24 square foot area and repeat

Or did you do steps 1 - 4 for the entire floor, then go back and buff buff buff?

I am being fussy I know - but this is a 900+ square foot area so I need to know what exactly I am in for :) and I can't be tempted to skimp.

Also did you use the method of pouring the product directly onto the floor and then buffing, of did you pour the product into the center hole on the buffing pads? I have seen both ways on the videos so I am just curious.

Thanks again for all of the help; I am sure I will have more questions as we are in the thick of it!

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Re: Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by phil »

these are the powders I'm using to adjust putty colors. I would try to get some. see what the finishing suppliers in your area carry. I'm not trying to sell you on a particular brand. yes do some tests to see how close you can get the color, this is important.
http://www.mohawk-finishing.com/catalog ... ictNbr=130

sharp corners near the gaps in boards. I guess it's par for the course if you dont' fill them. suppose you could round them off, getting your socks hooked in and yanking splinters out of the floor won't be great. you can try starting off at 100, but I think what will happen is you'll soon realize that you have to go down to 32 or maybe 16 grit to get enough bite. the drum sander needs to level the surface and as soon as you try you will see that the boards aren't as flat as you first thought and some are a tad higher than the adjacent board, some are cupped, so you will cut through the high spots leaving a dramatic difference where the paper didn't even touch. You really have to sand enough to get consistent color. the wood will be darkened near its surface and to get it even you will need to go down far enough so you are through that darkened skin everywhere. I'd think it will be 1-2 mm and a dime is 1mm thick.. it will vary floor to floor, if you have lots of wood then great, if it is T and G be aware that the top 1/3 is the top of the groove side and if you sand so much that that part gets too thin you can have it splitting parallel to the cracks. If it is T and G then stick a business card down until it bottoms out on the tung then bend the card over or mark it and do that is several areas to get an idea how much "meat" you have to work with. If it isn't T and G then I guess you can go a lot further just drive the nails down.

of course remove as little as you need to to get a nice surface and there will be a trade off between how good it looks and how deep you dare go.

I'm confused if you are already driving nails before sanding because didn't you say it was never sanded? so I am thinking that maybe it isn't T and G and it is face nailed so you can see the nail heads because they were never hidden?

running the drum sander, dont; be afraid to go cross grain or at angles to start with, You could watch some videos. plan it out and practice before you turn the machine on . make sure before you rent that you have looked after the nails and things like tin around heat registers. You might even install temporary blocking in the heat registers so a wheel cant' drop in the hole as you work near it , if that happens it will dig deep and gouge. If you are pulling the machine and it gets stuck against the wall or something this can also cause this issue.

if the drum is in contact with the floor and the machine isn't moving it will dig a rut and that's hard to fix, so what I would do is put 100 grit on it and try and just use that first sheet to clean the surface. You'll find you need coarser grits than that but I think it is worth a sheet just to get into the swing of it, then when you go put on 32 grit you will be more used to it and less likely to hit a wall and gouge the floor because that unexpectedly stop the machine. dont' run over the cord! clear the room of anything you might run over, this can gouge it too. even a pencil.
with the edger, make sure it is turned off before you plug it in or you'll be surprised that it is now running free all over causing all sorts of havoc.. how they get away with just a toggle switch and not a start button is beyond me but don't get caught on that.

you sort of move the edger in circles and crawl around the perimeter on your knees as you go , it mean walking around the room on your knees a few times, knee pads, take breaks, allow time to rest from the fatigue. I saw some videos where the guy ran it in a hunched over position, either way its a bit tiring and awkward.

the wheels on the edger are adjustable. if you raise the machine with the adjustment you get a different angle on your paper. You can run it a at a bit higher angle to start and then as you go to finer paper adjust it so it is more flat to the floor. what I do is set some coins on the floor and use that as a guide to know whee the adjustment is. It probably was running fine paper before you got it and it might be set to flat to the floor for that. I also run it towards the left so I set up the wheels so the left side of the machine is slightly higher than the right.
the steel wheels on the edger are like bearings, they roll on your floor and I had trouble with the wheels leaving invisible bruises in the wood that you can't see until you apply the finish..

to prevent marks from the wheels I wrap the wheels with about 5 wraps of black tape so they aren't so hard. I also used some sheets of aluminum which I move with me so the wheels can run on the sheet metal and not the floor , I put the sheet metal about 8 inches from the wall. having a second sheet is good because otherwise you need to lift the machine to step the sheet meal over.. it increased the tine and you might not need to do this with the tin.

I rented from home depot , other places might have different machines. try to get the rundown from the store rep if you can he may or may not give you lots of good info. If he's demonstrating it, be blunt and ask if he's ever actually refinished a floor. Some of them are good at the demo but have no practical experience. You could call ahead and ask if anyone there has actually sanded floors and can they demo the equipment. The experience levels are hit and miss.

another effect you may not think of is that the machine weighs about 100 lbs. so as it goes over the floor the boards can bend downwards in places under the weight.. it is sanding then,, and after you pass the board will spring back up. not a lot you can do , go at angles at first then finish up with the grain. If you know boards are springy you might drive a few more nails to help..

I had one area b my door where it is 4' x 8' I found it impossible to sand in the 4 foot direction and that was with the grain.. the only other option I see is to just use the edger for that area. the final sanding with the vibrating pad is non directional so you don't have to worry about going with the grain.

there is a different type of machine I did not use and that is essentially like several round pads. I guess they might be like several random orbital sanders. this machine will have different pros and cons I'm sure. the ROS leaves a different pattern.

the paper is pricey so be frugal but if they will take the paper you dont; use back then take lots and you can return what you dont' use rather than running to buy more paper while you have the rental.

check your circuits , these machines may draw a fair amount of current so you might need to rig up a heavy extension cord or something if your breaker is weak. You dont' want it blowing breakers as you are operating it. i found I was ok with my 15 amp breakers but it was probably pretty close to the max.

the rule of thumb is that you should go through each grit on each machine from the coarsest you need to around 100 or so. No I wouldn't skip grits or you will see it but you can go faster and try not doing too many passes if you need to.

If you haven't' run these machines or if you want to practice a bit you could nail a sheet of plywood on the floor and try on that to get into the swing. It's also not a waste of time to pull the thing around without cutting just to rehearse your footsteps and plan your approach to the angles and things you decide to run at. you may find you get the machine caught in certain places so I think this is good practice.. if you are like me and don't do it too often it takes a bit of time to get the feel again and right near the start , with the coarsest grit you use is the easiest place to mess up.

if you putty nail holes, try punching a hole in your tape. I stick the tape to a fridge magnet and use a leather punch and that makes a nice hole the fridge magnet just helps the punch cut better. of course I only use the tape on the floor.. then you can move the tape from hole to hole as you fill , you'll find this much faster than trying to surround the holes with tape. You can also just dab it on , Up to you . I like to use the tape. a pro might just dab it in and that's probably way faster.. up to you. do how you prefer..

the punch you use to set nails try not to use one too big. sometimes you can get away with a pretty small punch even though the nail heads are big. larger punch means larger hole to fill..

remember the nails you are setting are all going to run at the same angle and it is roughly on the 45, so don't try to drive them straight down, drive them in the direction they want to go.. just check which way the tung and groove are situated if it is T and G or if it's just planks I guess there is no angle to the way the nails are driven so straight down it is in that case..

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Re: Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by Mick_VT »

O2Annie wrote:
The floor is going to be drum sanded and edge sanded with first 80 then 120 grit; is that too extreme of a difference, as in should we be going from 80 - 100 - 120? The Rubio product suggest a 100 to 120 final finish..?



I would do the three step

O2Annie wrote:
Mic; thank you for the advice on the buffer. I was about 70% decided on renting a buffer, so your advice moved me to 100%.
Did you do exactly as the instructions said: Red pad, then white then a cloth? When you mention buffing beyond the point of the pads and cloth coming clean did you just continue buffing at that point with cloth until - what? - you had a sheen that you were happy with?
Related to that; did you literally buff each area to your level of satisfaction before moving on to the next area.
For example:
In a 24 square foot area
1. Apply oil
2. Red pad buff
3. White pad buff
4. Cloth buff
5. Cloth buff until well beyond clean
The move on to the next 24 square foot area and repeat

Or did you do steps 1 - 4 for the entire floor, then go back and buff buff buff?



I did as much as I could do in the time allowed before buffing (around 15 sq ft in my case) then buffed away. Very, very important if you are using the two pack system to get it off at the allotted time. Even more so when using a tint like I did

O2Annie wrote:
I am being fussy I know - but this is a 900+ square foot area so I need to know what exactly I am in for :) and I can't be tempted to skimp.

Also did you use the method of pouring the product directly onto the floor and then buffing, of did you pour the product into the center hole on the buffing pads? I have seen both ways on the videos so I am just curious.

I used the squirt bottle provided with the monocoat, I saw the hole method, looked too messy to me
Mick...

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O2Annie
Settling in
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2017 7:52 pm
Location: Western Wisconsin

Re: Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by O2Annie »

We'll we are very happy with this choice! After about an hour of very gingerly squirting the product on and getting nowhere fast we got the hang of it and the rest was smooth sailing.
I still can't figure out how to add a picture but if I have time later today I will get a couple posted.
We had 2 of the larger compounds for the floor but still came up about 100 sq feet short; so I'm ordering on more small can. Fortunately the edges blend very well so we shouldn't have any trouble getting the next round done.

So if anyone is considering this product but worried about being a rookie DIY'er I say go for it.

phil
Has many leather bound books
Posts: 4616
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:11 pm
Location: Near Vancouver BC

Re: Taking the Rubio Monocoat floor finish plunge

Post by phil »

looking forward to seeing pictures! that got done fast! I just finished my putty and it only too oh a month and a half or two months of spare time , not sure how much time that adds to but over 100 hours for sure. I had lots of nails as my floor was previously sanded lots and it was also pretty scraped up but Ill persevere.. I'm ready to rent the vibrating sander soon, I just have to look after places where the drum couldn't reach like the corners. I had to do the bits near the fireplace tile with a hand plane to get it flat there.. at least it wasn't expensive , just very time consuming. every floor is different. the bedrooms didn't need nearly as much putty work as I was able to sand those with out hitting all the nails.

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