It started out rough. Real rough. Real annoying. And more than once I caught Ron having a major tough talk with the stripper/scraper/sole/boat/you name it. But, as is usual with most boat projects, you get the hang of it after a bit and the quality and quantity of progress gets better and better.
Bare spots and minimum finish on most of the floor |
Edges taped and floor hatches removed. We opted to remove the metal frames from the hatches to make refinishing them easier. Good thing too, LOTS of dirt and grime wedged underneath. |
This project taught us a lot about stripping wood, mainly to disregard the directions on the can and find what works for you.
What we used. NOTE: The following 'lessons' are based on our personal experience and DIRECTLY oppose instructions provided by the manufacturer. Follow our 'lessons' at your own risk. |
Then, in a desperate attempt to start making progress, Ron made a trip to Home Depot and came back with a super stiff plastic scraper and two metal scrapers. I got the new plastic scraper, definitely an improvement, but still very.slow.going. Ron on the other hand was tearing it up with the metal scrapers. Soon I grabbed the small 1 1/2" scraper and was amazed at the difference. Not only was it easier to actually get the finish up but I could also tell by feel where there was still finish and where it was down to bare wood. So.much.better.
It probably only took us about 2 hours to get the entire floor stripped once we were working with metal. If you choose to work with metal scrapers, I would HIGHLY suggest you use brand new scrapers instead of used ones to avoid putting more scratches in the wood from using a bent scraper.
2. Don't wait 15 minutes- Again, the instructions say to let the stripper sit for 15 minutes before scraping. Uh-uh. Don't do this. When we waited for anything over 10 minutes the paste would dry out and be a total waste. We found that it worked best to put the stripper on a small area that takes 1-2 minutes to cover. Once covered we started scraping the first area covered and were able to easily remove the finish...all of it.
Get that finish rolling! |
4. Where the gloves- One part of the directions we did follow was wearing protective gloves. While doing some taping my hand brushed across one of the floor hatches that had stripper on it and within a couple minutes I could feel some fairly intense burning where my skin touched the stripper. I wouldn't even think this job could get done if you weren't wearing gloves. Yow.
5. Get in the groove- Once you get used to the feeling of how to get the finish off you can really get into a groove and make progress pretty quickly. I'd estimate that if we'd found our groove from the start we could have finished the project in about 3 hours instead of 5.
The bare spots were hit once with metal scrapers, the parts that still have finish were done 2-3 times with plastic scrapers |
Again, bare areas from metal scraper and finished areas after using plastic scrapers |
I told Ron that I don't care if it takes us putting multiple coats of polyurethane on every year, we're NOT doing that again. But that might be my sore muscles and tested mentality talking.
Glad to have this part done!