I'm FLOORED By How it Looks

Yesterday, in between rainshowers I was able to attach the 1 x 8 sheathing over the porch frame. I had cut it to fit already and had painted it in the garage.

Then I took my porch flooring and started to sand. Every board got hit three times with the random orbital sander. First with 40 grit paper, then 80 grit and finally with 120 grit. By the time I had done that all the old varnish and stain was gone from each one. I took a few boards and hit them with the exterior stain I'll use on them. It is a semi-transparent oil based stain. The color is "Cedar" which was the closest to amber shellac color I could find.

When they were pretty dry I got out my pneumatic floor nailer and got the first few boards down, it took a lot of measuring to make sure they were cut and lined up correctly. I'm leaving the board ends to "run wild" as it will be easier after they are all installed to go and cut them all even at once.

I screwed the first board into place so it would hold firm when installing the others. When I went back to fill the holes. I tried cutting plugs from some extra fir I had, but it kept falling apart. I went down and got a scrap piece of maple from the kitchen floor. It worked fine for plugs.

Then I went and stained the rest of the boards and let them dry overnight. I'll install them today.