Stripping the last of the hallway woodwork

It's taken me weeks and months to build up to finish this job, because it's just. so. ghastly.  I HATE stripping paint, and I really dislike sanding - it's just so dusty.

But as I'm starting to run out of jobs to do in the hallway, I'm starting to run out of excuses.  That and I had bought the carpet so I needed to crack on and get the painting done.

This is how I had left it before I painted the walls, so the majority of the architrave was done, but I still had the doorstops to do.

I tried to protect the flooring a bit with an old towel, but it still made a big old mess.

Years and years of layers and layers of paint...

The greeny coloured layer was really stubborn, to the point where the heat gun didn't seem to be shifting it.  I stopped for a rest and just thought I'd give it a go with the mouse sander with a really coarse grit sandpaper (40), and like magic, it all came right off - yay!  I'd already taken off layers and layers of paint before I got to this point, so I don;t think a mouse sander would have been time efficient without the heat gun first, but just look at this beauty.  Bare, naked wood.  All ready for a fresh lick of pure brilliant white paint.

The mess along the way...

I had to take off the kitchen door to get to all the nooks and crannies, and it's still off its hinges until I finish painting. Probably should get round to doing that...

All in all it took me a whole day to do 5 door frames (and remember that's 5 half, half, door frames really as I was only doing one side, and I had already done most of the architrave bit).  I wore safety glasses and a dust mask, but I think I should have been a bit more careful.  I was so ill that night and for a few days afterwards, that I'm not sure if I fumigated myself or something.  Not good.

But it's done! Finally!

I can;t believe how much I underestimated the job that is tackling a hallway/stairs.  It's just such a huge space as it's so tall, and it has sooooo many doors!  Ours has 8 in total - nuts.  This means lots of architraves, lots of corners, lots of tricky bits.  And stairs also mean lots of spindles to paint!  But I love how far it has come, just the last little bit to go now.

Which jobs have you done that you completely underestimated the time investment?

Sanding the hallway floor!

Yay! The time has come to make some jolly good progress with the floor.

It started at 7am on a Saturday with a trip to the local hire shop to pick up a floor sander and edging sander.  The local shop allow you to take the equipment from 7am Saturday to 7am Monday for just one days hire - bazinga! I did look into the national firms like HSS Hire etc. but the deals weren't very good at the time I was looking so we just went for the local firm instead.  They were also only 5 mins down the road, instead of 25 mins so more convenient too.

The guy in the shop was really nice and helpful and explained to me how to use both machines.  We also then discussed what the floor was like at the minute, and what I was expecting, so that he could recommend how much and what grit sandpaper to use, as I had no idea.  He even helped me load them into the car - a feat I couldn't have managed myself.

This was a shot 2 seconds are Dan had started with the edging sander.  You can see where it's been already, just to the right of the sander.

Some edging done to get us started. I think ideally we would have taken the radiator off, but given all the palaver over the last couple of months with this radiator, honestly, I couldn't be bothered!  It was ok in the end, and we got as close to the edge as we needed to, but it just meant I had to rub some scuff marks off the radiator at the end - nothing too major.

Fitting the sandpaper wasn't too bad either.

Making some progress with the floor sander.  Note: these machines are so heavy(!) and have a mind of their own!  The whole weekend was a workout for my arms, core muscles, back, hamstrings...

You can see we left the access hatch in and didn't replace these boards.  We insulated from the top here as there was no other choice, but I wanted to keep the hatch in case we ever needed to get under there again.  I've asked Santa for a large doormat for this areas though which should cover it up a treat.

(Ignore the actual stairs - these still need some work!)

I had a go with the edging sander upstairs and it was amazing the difference in made.

How long did it take?

I think we probably did it in about 5 or 6 hours of the both of us.

How much sandpaper did you use?

As the floor wasn't in too bad condition, we used 10 sheets of 80 grit sandpaper on the edging sander and the floor sander each (so 20 in total at 80 grit), and probably 3 sheets of 120 grit each.  I know people who have used 24 grit, but our floorboards really weren't that bad.

We did an area that was approx. 12-13m2.

How much did it cost?

A few pennies shy of £100 (literally).  The hire of the machines came to about £65 for the weekend, and the sandpaper approx. £35.  Obviously the more rooms you plan to get done in one weekend, the more cost effective it becomes.

Did it ruin your body for days afterwards?

YES!!!!!!!

(On the plus, no need for the gym!)

Did you have any problems?

The large floor sander kept on disintegrating (not sure this is the right word... it just made a load noise and the sandpaper would come out all shredded) the sandpaper, for reasons unbeknownst to us.  I had punched every nail in so it can't have been getting caught on anything, so this left us a little confused.  Even though it wasn't hard to change the sandpaper, it was time consuming (and money consuming), so it was very annoying if it needed a new sheet after just a few seconds.

Can anyone do it?

If you are up for a full body workout, then yes!