Repairing a Tasmanian Oak Floor

Black Japan Stain

Lo-Sheen Finish

Frankston, VIC

This Tasmanian Oak floor in Frankston South is easily one of the most spectacular transformations my wife and I have ever completed. To say the original floor was rough would be an understatement!

The home itself is about 70 years old and features incredible single floorboards up to 5 metres long. It’s a rare sight today; modern timber is harvested from younger, sustainable plantation forests, meaning trees rarely reach the giant proportions of the past.

Over the decades, the home had undergone several layers of mismatched renovations—a common trend in the late '60s and '70s. Our first task was to undo some of these older DIY efforts, replacing sections of particleboard and pine with genuine Tassie Oak to match the original layout.

With the carpentry wrapped up, we superfine-sanded the entire floor and applied a full-strength Black Japan stain. Aside from being a stunning, dramatic choice by the homeowners, the deep colour was perfect for masking decades of old pet and water stains. We finished it off with Handley Lo-Sheen polyurethane for maximum durability and a sleek, modern look.

Take a look at the photos below to see how we turned this old mess into an absolute masterpiece!

There was glue. There were boards missing.

There was Pine when there shouldn't have been Pine

As pictured, the state of the floors is very poor - but there was still enough potential to work with, so on with it we got

Lots of preparation before we could even commence sanding

Pulling out the old false floor gave us enormous satisfaction and a few surprises as we had no idea what we might find underneath it all...

We ended up finding an old back verandah, some steps, landings, and a whole heap of mouse poo

With all the old and damaged flooring out of the way, it was now time to start re-building the sub-floor and laying our second-hand boards which we sourced from one of the many second-hand flooring places we deal with

At last we get all the boards in and it's time to get serious with the sanding side of things. As you can see, it's almost a miracle just how clean the boards can come up once we hit them with our heavy-duty sanding equipment - this is a pretty exciting time for us, as Lisa and I get to see all of our hard work starting to come together

With the boards now superfine sanded the real fun work begins, as we now get to apply the Feast Watson Black Japan stain. Lisa and I apply the stain by hand. I put it down and she comes along next to me blending it in all nice, neat 'n' even

As always, with staining floors we do the tricky, hard to reach spots first. Once dry, we can then easily fill in the blanks. It's a brilliant system

Applying the coatings over the stain is the next piece of the puzzle. It's easy enough to do, just as long as you're willing to take the time, as we do, to get it right

Resisting the urge to rush through the final finishing is the key to a brilliant stain job - fortunately, we are both blessed with great patience

The Black Japan isn't..., well, it isn't as black as many expect it to be. It's more of an intense dark brown colour. The Black Japan still gives enough coverage to hide many of the old stains from 70 years of being lived on

The Feast Watson stain picks up each and every twist and turn of grain - it's even more impressive in person than it is in a picture. But, nonetheless, here's some more pictures

THERE!!!

From a mess to a masterpiece

Lisa-Jane

Big Bertha

Lisa & Bertha - two of the hardest workers in the industry

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