Saturday 13 July 2013

Jam & Wax, an odd combination !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, lots been happening since my last blog.

Camper Jam went extremely well, my VW crossword was well received with lots of entries, someone very soon will be getting a fabulous FREE roadstone plaque of the ride of choice. Weather was scorching, higher than in Spain over the weekend, lots of folk doing the crossword to keep out of the sun.

 If you're reading this as a VDub fan and going to Harewood VW Fest in August, there's another opportunity to have a go and win a plaque AND we've even got another chance as Malvern Bus Fest have taken a third VW Crossword to go in their show programme in September.

Our 'Reclaimed Madness' kitchen project is going particularly well ( see earlier blog for details ) with all the doors & panels etc now finished, just waiting for the cabinets to arrive on Monday and off we go again towards the finishing line. Going over on Monday to lay the new floor, made from timber salvaged from an old Victorian Engine Shed, it's all prepped and cut to length so hopefully it should be a doddle to lay.
As a detail thing, I'm even going to use old victorian floor nails to lay it that I've salvaged myself from old floors I've removed over the years. You can't beat authenticity !!
The timber is very old and gnarled and I want to preserve that, so instead of sanding and lacquering I'm going to use a good brand eco friendly floor oil to treat it with and to give good long term durability.

Massively Important Top Tip:

Definitely worth mentioning here about oil finishing timber floors. If you're looking to do this yourself at any time, when you select your oil LOOK AT THE INGREDIENTS on the side of the tin, many floor finishing oils contain a wax of some sort as part of their formulation and they're not very eco friendly !!

DO NOT BUY THESE OILS !..They will give you loads of problems when you come to refinish your floor in the future. If your floor needs a good sanding back during refinishing, trying to sand a floor that's been treated with wax content oils will clog up your sander for fun !!.... Except it's no fun, trust me !..... It will take far longer than it should  and you WILL have to scrub it all with a brush and white spirit to get the wax out and use a hell of a lot of sandings discs, I know because I've done it on floors finished by other people using wax oils.

You can, of course, leave your floor as it is and re-apply more oil over the top .... Don't ..... when the Victorians etc. had waxed floors, they had staff to continually buff it up and polish it and keep it looking nice and I wouldn't mind betting ....... you haven't ! ..... so don't go there unless you plan on selling you house and leaving the problem for someone else, which is a bit of a dirty trick ! You never know it might be me that has to sort it out.

When this job is finished I will be posting the story of the kitchen in photo's for you to have a look at and hopefully gain some knowledge of it if you were thinking of trying this style yourselves. It really is going to look fantastic. Our client is so blown away with what she's seen already that I do think the odd tear may be shed when she sees it completely finished.

That's all for this folks !

Jules.













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