Since we began renovating a year ago, our bathroom floor has been exposed to some serious dirty dirty work and was now looking a little worse for wear. As we’re nearing completion on the bathroom(!!) I decided it was about time we sorted these ugly floorboards out. We decided to keep the flooring in the bathroom as exposed floorboards, partly to save money, partly so we can access to any cables we might need throughout the rest of our house renovations and partly because I love exposed floorboards and couldn’t quite decide whether or not I wanted to tile the floor in here anyway. Here’s what we were dealing with..
To begin with, I cleaned the floor using a diluted mixture of vinegar and water. Since we only had apple cider vinegar in the cupboard and I was too lazy to go out and buy some cheaper stuff, this was possibly the most expensive and luxury cleaning solution EVER. But it did the job. A pretty darn good job.
I patched up any holes, which you can read about here before beginning to sand the floor. We decided not to hire out a professional floor sander since the floorboards were in reasonably good condition and didn’t need such a perfect sanding that a professional grade sander achieved. Instead I used my trusty Worx Sonicrafter to get rid of any problem areas that might give us splinters under-feed and just a general quick smoothing down. I quite like the rustic look this achieves, it means the floorboards still look old, which I love!
I decided to use a floor wax rather than varnish because I didn’t want the rustic look of the floorboards to be covered up by thick colour; I love the natural character of the floorboards and wanted this left unmasked, so floor wax seemed to be the next best option. I don’t know whether wax is quite as hard-wearing as varnish, but for use in the bathroom (as opposed to a hallway) it’s definitely a suitable choice.
I used just a regular wide paint brush and applied two thick coats to ensure a good spread. The colour ‘natural’ made the floorboards a smidge darker in colour and also brought out the gorgeous grains of the floorboards. I love it!
The floor feels much more finished under foot, it no longer has that unfinished wood feel, but is much smoother and more comfortable to walk on. Plus, no more splinters means we actually use this room bare foot, which is pretty much essential for bathroom use 😉
I also used some of our trusty draughtex rubber seals that I’ve mentioned before here and here. I love this stuff, it’s so easy to use and makes a huge difference with draughts as well as helping prevent dust coming up from under the floor. Plus, it also stops you from losing small items (screws, back of earings) through that small gap between each floorboard. Bonus! Once in place, it’s not even noticeable.
A room this size only used about a quarter tin of floor wax, so I’m now itching to get some more carpet up and use the rest elsewhere in the house! It has quite a natural low sheen too which I much prefer unlike glossy varnish. An all round success!
Have you ever used floor wax in your home?
COSTS
(rounded to the nearest pound)
New Tools Purchased:
Wide Paint Brush £5
Materials Used:
Floor Wax £40
Total: £45
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