I am just done oiling my brand new oak parquet in the bedroom.
After 2+ weeks patiently waiting for some moron to give back the machine to the rental agency.... and him still not returning it, I got bored and drove 20 miles to find another agency that did have one.
It's a total disaster. First the oil that was supposed to be good for 80m2, was juuuust about enough to cover the 10m2 of that room. Manufacturer, Rubio, is top quality stuff well used and known by wood workers in Frog land. They all say they get the 80m2 advertised... but I got only 10m2 out of it. Oil so sirup-like, so thick, even the micro-fibre rectangular flat "broom" I used (recommended by Rubio for Joe public), could not spread the oil because it was so sticky. I could push the oil with it, using a lot of force, but pull the broom towards me or make it go sideways, the joint of the broom would go haywire every time.
So a pain to spread. The can says it's "pure".. but they don't say to dillute it, at all. The instructions just say to pour a liiiiitle bit then spread it and then wipe the excess... my ass.
Waited a few minutes as per the instructions, then went to use the machine to soak the excess and buff it off..... bad idea.
The machine is too powerful, 1500W IIRC, and the oil is sto thick and sticky, it's like glue, sirop d'érable, what have you... so the huge buffing pad gets so much grip on the floor that the machine develops a tremendous amount of torque... I am big guy, twice your average Joe, but this thing was un-con-tro-lable.
So I ended up pleasing the Cerebus divinity. Had to do SOMETHING to get out of this mess... so I sacrificed a white bathroom towel and tried to soak the excess oil by dragging the towel, walking on it. didn't work... was so sticky that even though I am fucking heavy, too much to admit, my feet could not move the towel. I had to go Cerebus way kneel on the floor... knees have much less contact area than my feet So it worked at last, I was able to rub the towel and move around the room. Much sweat later, I realized it looks nice as it was and didn't feel the need to use the machine anymore... it looked mat, an even finish, looked nice... but since I had the machine around an paid for it, I wanted to have my money's worth. So I gave it another try.. With most of the sticky oil now gone, it was A LITTLE BIT more controllable... but still nowhere near enough to call the machine useful. You can't steer it, too much grip with that buffing pad on the oil. Machine just keeps spinning CCW and after a split second it bangs onto the dry wall, almost ripping a chunk off of it. Machine just keeps "driving" over the mains cable/cord, over and over again, no choice.. and 50% of the time the cable gets caught between the pad and the platter that it's mounted too. Before you know it the cord is wrapped around the machine and pulls the plug off of the wall socket... then you have to remove that platter an try to un-entangle the cord.. then the platter as it comes off, impacts the parquet, leaving black marks on it, ruining your nice expensive parquet... Oh and to finish, the wheels leave traces on the parquet so you need to buff that off as well, but of course it's a never ending game...
So no... no no no ... NO !
I know understand why the agency had only ONE of these machines, and the guy told he had been working there for 3+ years and I am the FIRST guy to ask for this machine !
I think it could have worked with a machine made specially for parquets.... they list one on their website. It's much less powerful, only 500W not 1500W, and has 3 small 150mm pads arranged in a triangle, rather than one huge 400mm circular pad. Also has not plastic wheel at the back so it can't leave any nasty traces on the parquet. But they have only ONE such machine available, in the entire region, and it's in Le Mans !! That's 250+ kms away or something !!!
So all in all... it was quite an experience. Next time I oil that parquet (recommendation are once or twice a year I gather), I will just do it manually like I just did... sacrifice a towel, and kneel down, and rub, rub...
Thank goodness the room is only 10m2 !
What does that have to do with TE ? Well it's obvious : short term this will be my bedroom, but longer term bedroom will I think be relocated in the attic and the current bedroom will be used for the lab, allowing it to move out of the living room...
so there will be TE in this room one day.
Instructions say to leave it alone for 6 to 8 hours before I can walk on it, and once week before I can use water/detergent to clean/maintain it.
Will allow extra margin just in case... will wait 'til tomorrow...
Then I can re-install the door, then start searching for a place that can make me plinths of the dimensions and style I want.
Oh, now that the towel and micro-fiber "broom" pad are soaked with oil... I made sure NOT to soak them with water... I WANT to see if they will catch fire !
Will leave them outside of course... don't want to burn the lab and house down !