We are in the habit of photographing most loads we haul. Here are three photos that show the floor. The first one is with the truck empty and our equipment orgainzed in the usual manner. The second is shot at an indoor loading dock, standing in front of the truck, looking out the back. The third is from the back looking in.
Shortly after we brought the truck home for the first time, I sanded and stained the floor. Not liking how that turned out, I sanded the floor a second time and used the Key Polymer Crack Filler and Key Polymer Floor Restore products. We are very pleased with the results and believe it to be a once in the truck's life application.
Hints:
1. Read and follow the directions. This is some nasty stuff to work with.
2. Study carefully the instructional videos on the Key Polymer web site.
3. With both products, do not use them for the first time in the truck. Practice first with some junk lumber outside the truck. This stuff takes a bit of getting used to if you have not worked with such products before.
4. The Floor Restore comes in two containers. To use it, you mix them together into one. Do not mix it all up at once. Mix a little bit in a small container to see and learn how it acts. Once it is mixed, it starts setting up immediately. After a certain amount of time passes, it will be to late to use it at all if you did not apply it.
5. If you plan to sand your truck floor before applying the Floor Restore, rent a floor sander to do so. It is a big job to get the wood looking good before putting on the Floor Restore.
6. Once the floor is sanded, use a damp rag to remove all dust before applying Floor Restore.
7. If you are doing a floor bigger than a C-unit, it would be wise to rent a large fan to keep the air fresh inside the truck when you are in there working.
8. If you have a reefer body with Kazoo drains, make rolls out of thick paper or thin cardboard, shaped like a small toilet paper roll, and stick them in the Kazoo drain holes. Otherwise the Floor Restore will drain into the holes and you will have another problem to solve.
8.1. The same goes for bull rings built into the floor. HEAVILY mask them before using Floor Restore. Once the Floor Restore dries, you will need to chisel through the product to remove the masking tape. If Floor Restore gets down into the rings they will be fixed in place.
9. Mask the walls near the floor. Once it is on and has had a little time to set, the only way to get Floor Restore off anything is to chisel or sand it off.
10. Be careful working at the back of the truck. The Floor Restore can run and drip when applied. Wherever it lands is where it will stay. Have a few sets of latex gloves handy to use through the process, and wear clothes that you can throw away. It may not come to that but don't risk good clothes and shoes on this job. Follow all manufacturer warnings and cautions on the label.
11. You can apply Floor Restore as a thin or thick coat. I put ours on thick, which gave it a nice deep shine. We had a couple places on the floor where air bubbles formed on top of the Floor Restore as it set up. Those became small divots in the surface later on. If I had it to do over again, I would position load bars over the floor so I could walk on them as the Floor Restore dried. I would then pop any bubbles that formed.
This stuff is not the easiest stuff in the world to work with but it will last a long, long time once applied. Time put into applying it right will be time saved by eliminating the need to retreat the floor with stain and/or polyurethane products every year or so.
I recommend the crack filler too. Filling the cracks and countersunk screw holes creates a smooth surface. That and Floor Restore makes it a breeze to sweep the truck out. Dirt does not gather in the cracks or wood grain like it would with an untreated floor.
The floor you see in the photos was sanded only and not stained before applying Floor Restore. The floor looked pretty bland before applying the product. That was OK, I thought at the time. I was not trying to achieve anything more than seal the floor. I was shocked to see how Floor Restore brought out the wood grain colors.
The treated floor will show scratches when freight gets slid across it. Heavy freight pushed across the floor can cut through it and into the wood. Floor Restore creates a great seal but it is not bullet proof. Surface scratches can be easily removed by using Orange Glo floor wax. Spray a little on a rag, wipe it over the scratches and the scratches disappear.
