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gregmills_gw

Attention pros. Need advice

gregmills_gw
10 years ago

Been holding out as long as possible but im find myself needing to use Rubio monocoat as a finish. 1600 ft. Maple/red oak.

Just looking for any tip/tricks/advice anyone woud be willing to share to make this job go smooth.

Thanks.

Comments (5)

  • User
    10 years ago

    It's fairly simple to use but apply it sparingly and you'll have to buff a lot to remove the excess. The biggest issues are making sure the floor is extra clean before applying and removing all the excess finish, paying extra attention to edges, corners and doorways.
    We apply it with a dish soap bottle and buff it in.

  • gregmills_gw
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks JFCwood. Im applying it tomorrow. Will let you know how bad i mess it up haha. :)

  • MiaOKC
    10 years ago

    I'm not a pro! But since your thread hasn't exactly blown up with responses ... I'll throw in my two cents. We used Pallmann's Magic Oil, which is somewhat similar, but I haven't used RMC. My husband and I did 1500 sf red oak in a dark brown/black custom mix. Since you are a pro yourself I won't bore you with all the details, but we followed the directions to a T and had a fairly good experience. A few things of note that we learned from our experience:

    They are not kidding about the screening marks - swirls are evident to my critical eye in a few places where the grain was very clear, even though we thought we'd done a good job with very thorough sanding. This is obviously more important with the darker finish. Just for posterity in case anyone uses this to research later - as a DIYer, I will do my final pre-sand with the square buff sander when I do my downstairs floors.

    We have two places with phantom footprints that are on our to-do list to spot repair. Supposedly the product is bonding at a molecular level with the wood and shouldn't be able to take in more of the product than the wood can bond, and thus should be seamless, but it was not for us. There are two areas in our hall that have light outlines of footprints, I think from one of us leaving a slightly wet print moving from bedroom to bedroom prior to actually doing the hall's oil application, and one bedroom where we had to mix up additional product mid-way through the room (maybe a delay of 10 minutes) and has a faint ghost seam where the two areas blended.

    Regarding excess product, I found the area right behind the doors where it was really tight and we hand-buffed the excess up was still a little gummy a few days later. I'd say double up on hand-buffing those nooks and crannies - you may think it was completely done but might be surprised.

    Lastly, we had a few slightly gapped 8' long boards (3 places are about a coin's thickness separated in our whole job -- installed during heater season so I wasn't too worried) and the excess product in the gaps needs extra attention. We applied thickly in those areas to get down into the crevice, and it disguised it well. However, in one of those gaps, the excess product dried at a slower rate than the surface and an approximately 6" long section ended up sort of bubbling out of the gap sometime (weeks, I think) after the initial application. I've got to get in there with a razor blade to scrape it and repair it, too.

    Even though we are novices to staining (we've done sand and poly in three homes prior to this) I would attempt it again and believe I'll have an even better result next time. I think you will have no problems with your much more extensive experience and hope my few little tips on the quirks (of a similar finish) might help!

  • gregmills_gw
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks for your tips. Job went well. Was shocked of the smell. Its a familar smell like a spice or something been drivin me nuts trying to figure it out

  • User
    10 years ago

    Glad to hear it went well. I had a Rubio finished sample in my truck and it reminded me of an olive oil smell or something.