loft floor varnished, no, not vanished, varnished!

Sometimes things go well, other times I want to cry!

I've gone through the antiques and mahogany phase of my life.  In a large house they look good.  In my smaller bungalow they look too heavy and cumbersome; consequently I have gone for lighter woods, oak being the darkest I have now.

So, when it came to selecting the finish for the new (salvaged) oak block flooring in the loft extension, I wanted to keep as near to the original shade as possible.  I have a couple of tins of high gloss natural varnish, and a plastic container of water-based clear gloss finish for interior wooden floors.

Since we have two tins of one product, it made sense to use that, so that we wouldn't run out.  After about an hour David called me upstairs to look at the result.  That's when I wanted to cry!

The floor in the storage area looked almost black!!!!  You can see, behind the upright supports in the photo how dark it is, although I must say, it looks a lot less grim than it did when it was wet!

We decided to use the water-based varnish on the main body of the floor, and this has given the look I was expecting - a lovely, warm, golden brown.

I think it looks stunning, and is worth the time and trouble it's taken - David's worked very hard on it, and learned a lot in the process.

The dark area?  Well, it's only in the cupboard, I can live with it - it's not as if I'll see much of it, the doors will be closed unless I need something getting out:-)

Soon, we'll be sleeping up there - wow!

the flooring is going down in the loft!!

Finally, finally, finally, we have started to lay the flooring in the loft conversion.

You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to know the right way to go about things when you've never done it before!

We decided it was better to insulate the remainder of the loft, and board that out before we installed the floor.  Seems more sensible than laying and polishing the oak flooring then trailing all the rubbish etc through the room!

So, I bought zillions of rescued oak floor sections on eBay.  David has manfully cleared all the bitumen from the backs of them - there really are zillions!  He got very black and sticky at times, I'm so lucky to have him to help me:)

We ummed and ahhed, as you do, about the best underlay, and finally opted for 2mm thick cork, which I bought on two long rolls.

We smeared PVA glue on the chipboard base, and laid the cork at the weekend.  We used the oak blocks as weights to hold it down, as you can see.

Maybe next weekend we'll lay some oak.  Who knows?