The Art of Floor Sanding (part 9) The legend of the brown cardboard box !

Floor Bore here .

Today we talk about the legend of the brown cardboard box and advanced
lacquer application techniques.
We are constantly trying to use more natural products and less plastic,
(and one can end up using a lot of plastic.)
It’s one of the reasons why we are increasingly promoting oils and soaps etc.
However sometimes a lacquer is still the best solution .

Normally a lacquer is placed in a plastic bucket or cardboard box covered in
a plastic bag ready to be applied to the floor with roller or brush.
The problem is…

1. As lacquer dries it sticks to the side of the plastic bag or bucket which then can flake off
causing contamination of the product.

And

2. It’s plastic !!

So we wanted to stop using the bags and the buckets.
We started looking at cardboard paint trays .
The key point i noticed was that paint or lacquer dries to the side of cardboard and does not flake off
as in plastic containers.
So this could solve the contamination problem but how then to apply?
We decided to pour our lacquers/ primers direct from the container .
This obviously massively reduces chances of contamination ( i.e no flaky stuff)
It also has another advantage .
When we pour the primer direct onto the sanded floor it creates a puddle of sorts which is expanding slowly .
This slow expansion prevents any dry lines from occurring on sensitive woods such as oak.
And where does the cardboard box come in .
Well we use the box whenever we want to put down our roller or brush .
Any excess lacquer will dry to the box and not peal off .
In fact we can use our box over and over as it slowly becomes waterproof from the drying lacquers/ primers.
And that’s that .
Less plastic and a perfect finish.
In the next chapter we will explore the phenomenon of the “controlled spill “ and high end lacquer application techniques .
Bye for now.