Wow ! Lot’s of posts on this topic since I left it. Certainly looks like it should be helpful for others perusing the archives.

I actually took off Friday to do the work, so I did not get to see any of the info posted after June 10. Since the advice from Frankie and PaulB was SO strong, I just went out and bought a better (Sandvik) scraper. I basically agree with Piffin about hand-tools, so I was not unhappy to go that way; i.e. I did not run out and buy the Fein.

It certainly was not any 5 minutes per corner, Brick, but I did get through all 20 corners in one day. Here’s how it went for those interested:

Yes, of course the quarter-round shoe molding was off before starting any of the job, Jet Boy. This house was built without any shoe-molding at all, so all of the sanding had to go right up to the baseboard (which was a full 12″ high). So that meant, I REALLY had to get into the corners.

The scraper votes were right on. The Sandvik took the paint off in less than a minute. Not so easy, however, to scrape this petrified wood down an eighth or so. I guess the chisel could have worked, DP and Firebird, but I think I would have had more gouging. And I figured the floor did not have to be absolutely level in the corners. Unless a stray table leg lands up there, it is purely a visual issue. So I only had to go down far enough to get the wood discoloration/darkening off.

There is no way my belt-sander would have gotten close enough to help on this, John. In addidition, they are difficult to keep from gouging when not continuously moving over a larger sized area. So I basically took it down with a sequence of hand-sanding (60, 100, 150) way in the corner, then feathered out a bit to eliminate the big humps/ledges with my 1/3 sheel orbital sander. (It’s got a felt backer over the metal platen, Mitch.)

The paint stripper would have probably worked, 3D, but I am fairly certain that it would have left some discoloration where it ran over onto and penetrated the bare wood – perhaps leaving even more sanding to be done.

I did wear knee pads, Frankie, the soft rubber kind. I definitely did not want to use the hard-cap kind for fear of denting the floor. And I stayed away from the black rubber tire-tread kind for fear of leaving dark marks (like the ones the rubber backer of the edger left whenever the sandpaper ripped). I wore out my trusty old red-rubber ones on this job, so I will need to consider what to buy next.

Finally, I crawled around on the whole floor looking for gouges from the drum or terrible height differences between boards that left areas inadequately sanded. Those little spots I touched up with #80 by hand (can put a lot of finger pressure on a small area), then went over them again with #100 and feathered with the orbital. I think that step was well worth it, and only added about another hour or so to my day.

It’s beautiful, and the first coat of varnish goes on today. LET”S EXTEND THIS THREAD TO EVERYONE”S CHOICE AND/OR EXPERIENCE WITH VARNISH. I wanted long life, tough finish, abrasion resistance, and no lap marks. I was not concerned about fast drying, and I preferred a slight ambering in order to match what the other floors looked like. That led me away from water-based varnishes. Based on two articles in Fine HomeBuilding and one in Consumer Reports, I went with the MinWax Oil-based Polyurethane (not the spar varnish obviously). I am sure you guys have lots of other input however, so let’s hear it. In addtion, what about sealer/filler underneath the varnish? It is my impression that it just saves a coat of the more expensive varnish. So for the extra 10 bucks, and because this is not a softwood, I am going with 3 coats of varnish, instead of the sealer plus 2.