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Farmhouse 1820

DIY, Home and Garden, Food

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Meanwhile, The Front Porch Floors Look Fab….

porch - the porch floor before

One would think that by now I only prefer to walk on floors rather than fix them up, but when I was on the front porch hanging out with Sean, we got to talking about how the floor looked awful. The main front porch ( I say main because we also have a second front porch off the kitchen) was painted and the paint was peeling in spots and the stain below it was a funky discolored grey. The floor had seen better days and since we were about to celebrate the bicentennial of our house, we couldn’t have our porch floors be such an embarrassment. So………

Not to worry, this story has a happy ending.

porch - using a stand up power sander on the floor

This time we rented one of those stand up sanders. We had it for 24 hours and it was a timesaver, of course, but it wasn’t a quick job as the paint and stain were baked on, it seemed. The thing was heavy and moving it slowly was a challenge, but whatevs, I got the job done. I did have to use my little hand sander friends for the edges and corners, natch. The kitchen porch was newer – like last year new. We had a new floor put in but we didn’t stain or treat it until now. So all my sanding focus was on the main front porch.

porch - sanding the edges of a floor

With all of the paint and stain off, the floor already looked so much better. I chose a gelled stain from Minwax – my favorite brand of stains – aged oak, to be exact, and painted it on, board by board. I worked early in the morning, as our porches face south, so I could beat the heat a little. I worked from the outer edge to almost the center, switched sides and stained the other side, then from the center, stained my way off the porch. I used this method on both porches.

porch - how to stain the floor on a porch

Remember that brown tinted marine varnish I was telling you about yesterday? Worked absolutely perfect on the porches. Went on like a dream and is ample protection for the floors.

porch - refinishing a porch floor

I was able to get this project done in about 4 days. We let the varnish dry for about a week, then put our rocking chairs back up and added a couple outdoor rugs for decoration. And too, I’m a firm believer if you have a chair, a rug needs to be near it. I’ve gotten asked several times why we have rugs on our porches. This is why….

porch - the front porch floor reveal

Anyhow, I love how the floors turned out and boy did I need to complete a winning and satisfying project. Refinishing the porch floors was wicked hard work, but man am I happy with how they turned out. Worth every minute.

porch - how to decorate a front porch with rocking chairs

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