I need to varnish the stairs, hall and landing and have a bit of a logistics problem. Short of shipping the animals out for a week and living in a hotel I can't see how to do this. I can only think of doing small areas at a time then boarding it over to protect it leaving a narrow walk way. Then next day doing the adjacent strip. I assume that oil based varnish will never go off if I cover it with a plastic sheet such as dpc.
Kevin
Water-based floor varnish, such as the stuff that Wickes sell, dries in a few hours so can be walked on/ re-coated the same day. I found it to be effective when I used it.
You should keep a wet edge on the varnish, so shipping the animals out and moving into an hotel is probably your best bet.
Colin Bignell
Not used it, but maybe a 2 part epoxy varnish - eg:
Hard wearing, quicker drying than oil based, you can probably do 3 coats in a day if you have the time to do it all.
I would probably look to move out for the night though anyway.
On Wednesday 12 February 2014 12:55 mike wrote in uk.d-i-y:
Treatex is nice stuff. It can be ragged on and dries fairly quickly (few hours if warm). I'd give it all day though if possible (do it in the morning, let people back in in the evening.
It needs 2 coats typically so you'd be best doing it on 2 seperate days.
Not as hard wearing as certain varnishes, but low odour, easy to apply another coat later and does not look like varnish (unless you put lost of coats on).
Have you considered something like Liberon Finishing Oil? This can be built up in multiple coats, and dries quickly. Its very easy to retouch and reapply.
I'd use this, but only ragged on sparingly. IME one such coat is enough to totally seal floorboards without developing any kind of garish plasticky look.
Granted the fumes are awful, but they really are gone in a couple of hours.
Not used it, but maybe a 2 part epoxy varnish - eg:
Hard wearing, quicker drying than oil based, you can probably do 3 coats in a day if you have the time to do it all.
I would probably look to move out for the night though anyway.
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