Have Heatgun Will Travel

Have Heatgun Will Travel
Day One

The nails are pulled or countersunk (all eight million of them) in the kitchen floor, and I’d like to do a preliminary sanding to make it easier to see all of the holes I now need to fill.  My initial plan was to use a belt sander to remove the old adhesive polka dotting the floor, but, as with every plan, I’m finding that that’s not working out as well as I would have hoped.  The heat generated by the belt sander is actually softening the old adhesive, thus gumming up the sandpaper, I could continue sanding, replacing the belts every 6 square feet or so, but I’d end up spending a small fortune on sanding belts.  Being unemployed, I’ve got more time than money

So I’ve brought out the heat gun and the scraper.  There is a big glob of adhesive every six square inches (I can say one thing, when they put in that old flooring they did NOT mess around!),

Scrape, scrape, scrape… I’m sitting on an old milk crate with a folded towel on top for padding…I found the crate in the basement, amongst the old canning jars, light fixtures, and gallons of paint.  This wreaks havoc on my lower back…but after having surgery on both knees kneeling is just not an option.  Scrape, scrape, scrape some more, when I’m all done I’ll have a pristine floor.

Days Three and Four

Had to take an off day yesterday.  Started out the morning looking for jobs via the internet and found myself applying to a couple, then started looking for advice on fixing up the house and was sucked into the internet…five hours later I emerged with numerous ideas and no physical labor completed.  Such is life – I learned a lot though.

This floor has got to be finished.  Can’t pull out the sink until the floor is sealed (oh yes, once I finish the floor then I get to move onto replacing the sink and countertop…will the fun ever end?)  Scrape some more…using toothpicks and wood glue to fill in the holes where I was able to pull the nails out of the floor.  I would hate for the next generation of remodelers to come along, start sanding the floors, and find a bunch of holes emerging…thus, toothpicks.  There are a number of spots where the circular saw scored the floor though, despite my best efforts, that’s going to be problematic.  Hopefully sanding will take them down a notch.