The trowel-on fillers for oak floors do not match my floor. Has anyone tried mixing sawdust from the floor with varnish or laquer to make a filler? I vaguely remember seeing this idea in a book, but cannot remember the title of the book nor any particulars. I plan to finish the floor with an oil based poly, unstained. Any hints on technique will be appreciated.
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Will,
Mix the fine sanding dust from the last few cuts with some of the poly you will be using on the floor. You should trowel fill the entire floor. The consistency should be such that you can pour a line of it starting along the wall and trowel it across the floor. Always trowel across the grain and always use a heavy gauge, stainless steel trowel. I use a trowel attached to a pole, to save my old knees. Give it a good long time to set up, a few days at least. Apply it just before your 60 grit cut. Expect the filler to be a little darker than the host timber.
Did you try Bona-Kemis water based filler?
Ditch
Go to a wood floor distributor or supplier and buy some wood flour cement. Glitsa American makes it. http://www.glitsa.com I believe. It is a binder that you can use with wood sanding dust (100g or finer) to make a patching mix. It dries fast and creates the best match. I like to use it on larger cracks or defects. Unless you have alot to filling to do, you can just mix up a small lime size batch and just fill the holes and cracks that you see. Trowel filling is a method to save time on large filling jobs. Old refinish jobs sometimes have lots of cracks. GW
Will,
Keep in mind that any filler applied to the floor defects essentially fills the grain of the timber surrounding the defect. I have seen floors that contained a lot of filled nail holes or gapped boards, and these filled areas flashed through the final finish, creating a 'spotted leopard' or 'striped tiger' effect.
Ditch
Ditch
Will
What Ditch said....my only other input would be to use a two part epoxy glue such as Minwax mixed with the dust. Its should hold up forever that way.
Be well
Namaste'
Andy
It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM