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single pole GFCI breaker is not materially different than switching the load side of a single GFCI since he has a shared neutral and single shared breaker.

If it was a double pole GFCI and two circuits it would be different.

But in this single pole config, the circuit can't tell whether you have a GFCI breaker and switch the load downstream, or use a regular breaker + GFCI outlet and switch the load downstream of that.

It's the same exact circuit. You've just separated "thing providing overcurrent protection" from "thing detecting ground fault" instead of putting them in a single thing.

IE a GFCI breaker is the same as if you used a regular breaker and ran it all to a GFCI outlet next to the panel, and then ran everything downstream of that including the switch.

Switching in any of these cases (GFCI breaker, single GFCI + load switched beyond that, shared neutral and two GFCI's, etc) will likely cause nuisance trips, though the two former will probably be way worse than the latter.

Yes, if he runs them to the same breaker, it would be fine. But also pointless to GFCI both of them in that case. You can still switch the outlet with a single GFCI and GFCI protect both outlets if you want.

You actually can't safely share a neutral between two different GFCI's with different hots, and run them to separate breakers - the neutral here will carry the difference between the two hots (and even if that was safe, it would trip the GFCI). The proper way to do it is a dual pole GFCI breaker.

This is the only safe way to get 2 15/20 amp GFCI protected circuits out of this situation. This is a standard MWBC application.

If you share a breaker, there is no point to using multiple GFCI's, may as well use one and run the other downstream, and ignore the extra hot.

If you share a breaker (IE double tap a single breaker, rather than a single tandem breaker), there is no point in the extra GFCI. You gain nothing but work. You should ignore the extra hot in that case. You don't need it to switch the outlet.

If you want two 20 amp circuits out of this, it's a multi-wire branch circuit.

You can't share a neutral between two separately protected GFCI's if you use standard GFCI outlets (IE you can't run each hot + shared neutral to two different circuits with single-outlet GFCI's).

You can do it with a dual pole GFCI breaker instead.

https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/20364/can-i-share-the-neutral-in-12-3-cable-between-two-gfi-circuits-with-different-cu goes into detail about this.

Dual pole GFCI breakers can be expensive - like 120 bucks.

I have a handheld, and borrow a non-handheld if i have to.

The handheld is one of the variants you find if you search amazon for "handheld steam cleaner". There are a few real companies there (dupray, etc), and the rest is everyone selling the same mass-produced models.

I have one of those :)

If you are trying to steam clean cement grout, then using something larger because it will take a bunch of steam pressure to clean it.

For a non-cement grout, it's usually just stuff stuck on top, so it takes a lot less steam to get anywhere. Just enough heat + pressure to unstick it. Which is easy for a handheld.

You basically have to steam it repeatedly until you have gotten it all out of the pores.

If you want it to be easy to clean, don't use cement grouts. Polymer additives that promise stain proofness are not good enough Cement is quite porous, and so stuff gets in the pores and gets very stuck. Or just plain absorbed (in the case of oils, for example).

Polymer modified cement does not fix this. It just makes it a bit more flexible. LIke modified vs non-modified thinset.

Use reactive resin grouts, epoxy grouts, etc.

Then it will always be cleanable because they are not very porous (and some are just non-porous), so nothing can really soak into them except by being left forever, or being a chemical the grout is weak to softening the grout enough for something to stain it.

It takes me like 5 minutes with a steam cleaner to clean the grout in the bathrooms that have resin grouts from "a 6 year old uses this bathroom" to "it looks as new as the day it was made"

(Epoxy grout is nicer but if you don't get an aliphatic epoxy grout it will yellow in UV. Most people are not running around calling the tech line to talk about the chemistry of the grout, so resin grouts are usually a more solid DIY choice)

100%. It's like any woodworking i do - I know where all the mistakes are, and they bug me, but nobody else can ever see them. As someone once said, as you become better, you don't always make less mistakes, you just get better at hiding them.

I would put something on top of it and never worry about it. Like maybe a silicone mat or something. If you use a coffee maker or anything you should put something like that under it anyway to control spills.

There are people who want super-clear countertops 100% of the time who this would bother. I'm not one of them ;)

If i really couldn't deal with it, i'd save up the thousand bucks to get a solid red-oak plank countertop (This looks to be about 8-10 lineal feet of countertop, but maybe there's more elsewhere), and do that.

When you account for all the work and cost that would go into refinishing what's there, the price difference is not likely to be huge.

This is just about 100% right, but just to say two things:

Even with a colorless oil, or the right color (you could take colorless oil and use tints if you had to, to get it the right color) the sheen will likely be wrong, and you will still notice because it will still catch your eye.

It is basically impossible to permanently change the sheen of a non-film forming finish, because the sheen change is done with flatteners (usually silica dust or something) that sit on top of the cured finish[1], and in a non-film forming finish, it will just wipe away ;)

Also

The film finishes still wet (they have to), just not as deep. This is why some of them are not great at bonding, like epoxies - they have trouble wetting the surface, and thus, you only get a mechanical bond instead of a chemical one.

How much they wet can still be noticeable on thinner veneers, depending on the finish/backing.

Normally i'd say 1/8th veneer like this is would be fine, but red oak is very porous, and so it's harder to say.

[1] The final sheen is always determined by what is on top

Using veneer for countertops is .. living dangerously already.

Sanding more is dangerous. This is 1/8th veneer, which stands some chance, but ...

Ikea also claims to use a UV cured finish on these. You will never match that, either in toughness, or in exact coloration, with a random mineral oil. If you want consistent coloring, you will have to resand the entire thing.

Depending on veneer thickness, and also what's under it, it's also unfortunately possible for the oil to soak all the way through the veneer and puddle a bit. Sort of like stains under your carpet.

Honestly, i'm not sure i'd try to fix this unless you are willing to redo it entirely.

A. It's very easy to sand through veneer if you aren't experienced

B. You will have to have strip the entire UV lacquer off (which will be very difficult) to get the color consistent with any form of oil (since it will need to soak into pores at an identical rate everywhere). This is going to be hard without sanding through the veneer, depending on the coating. Some UV coatings i have had to strip are tough enough that anything less than 120 grit takes forever. But once you are through at that grit, if you hit it for one more extra second you will destroy the countertop by sanding through the veneer.

C. You are going to take off a much more protective finish and use a much less one, which, on veneer, is going to dramatically shorten the usable lifetime.

This is pretty risky. I would also say - if you do go for it and accidentally ruin it, you can get wide plank red oak countertops (non-veneer) for reasonable prices if you look around. These will last basically forever and you won't have to worry about (you can steam out dents, etc).

You can also just get them in custom lengths/widths/etc made for you, so you have no seams in the straight part.

Example: https://hardwood-lumber.com/red-oak-wide-plank-butcher-block-countertop/

(this was the first one that popped up, there were a lot)

Gouges depend a lot. You can try it - it won't hurt (assuming you don't burn the wood/finish, which is often pretty hard to do).

Dents usually just have bent fibers. They are pressed in half or whatever, but still together.

Steaming works because it straightens the fiber back up into the original shape. They want to be in their original shape.

Gouges usually have ripped fibers on the edge. Steaming will not work because it does not put the fibers back together :)

Now, it's never quite this distinct. Even gouges are usually a mix of bent/dented fibers, and ripped fibers.

So steaming is worth a shot, and can often make it better depending on how much was a dent vs a rip. Just don't expect miracles. Especially, if it's visibly torn. You can often see whether the fibers are ripped with the naked eye.

(and if your eyesight sucks, a 20x loupe from cvs or whatever will definitely show you)

I'll give you a very long answer, sorry.

First- for rubio - 0.1% is low, for sure. Most hardeners contain 10-25% HDI. Their MSDS claims 0.5% of free HDI, not 0.1%, FWIW.

Claims that it is not toxic are wrong. They are a huge offender in the "sell people bullshit" category. Do not get me wrong - it is definitely less toxic - it is about two orders of magnitude less toxic to use than other things.

But it is not non-toxic. Don't take my word for it, look at the MSDS: https://ardec.ca/media/catalog/documents/MSDS_Rubio_Monocoat_Oil_Plus_2C_-_comp._B_EN.pdf

Look at what the PPE requirements are, etc.

If it was non-toxic, it would say it was not toxic and had nothing that required reporting at all. The MSDS for non-toxic things do not say "wear gloves and a respirator". They say "no hazardous chemicals or chemicals required to be reported".

Their MSDS does not say that, because it's not non-toxic.

If you look at older SDS from ~2008, it was classed also as specifically toxic to your respiratory tract, but no longer. Part of this is just that these are not sprayed, and warn against spraying. Isocyanate reacts really fast. So the most hazard is often when spraying it, from spray bounce back. It reacts fast enough that, say, rolling it does not generate a detectable level at breathing height. This means when they are meant for wiping, they are classed as less dangerous, and the precautions are mostly around skin contact.

So monocoat is better than most things. Despite hating them taking advantage of people, I would use it!

You can see it is low enough that it is generally classed as sensitizing rather than dangerous.

Compare to the bona traffic hd SDS: https://www.bona.com/globalassets/catalogassets/bona-traffic-hd-hardener-english-us-bona-us-united-states-us-sds-hcs-2012.pdf

But even for monocoat the PPE required is still gloves and respirator, and you should do that.

They probably mean that it's not toxic when cured, which they are required to test/prove. This is true of basically all wood finishes in the US due to various regulations.

In the end, look, lots of things in your body can be replaced. Not that you should live life trying to kill your organs, but like, liver and kidney transplants and such are not a complete death sentence. People often live full lives.

Lung issues, however, are often quite bad. IPF, etc are basically a death sentence. Lung transplants have one of the lowest 5 year survival rate of any organ. As a careful woodworker, i've seen too many woodworkers not use a mask with wood dust or spray finishing, and end up dying of lung issues at 55/60.

Don't fuck with your lungs, and don't let some company selling shit like this convince you to do it.

Second - VOC is not about direct human toxicity. At all I wish all these low-voc companies were literally required to tell people this. Companies know that people associate VOC with toxicity (IE low VOC = non toxic) and take serious advantage of this to try to sell things as better for you by being low VOC. Ignore all of it. It's all basically meaningless for the purpose of determining whether it's something safe to use in your house.

VOC = Volatile Organic Component. Theoretically about vapor pressure, actually. But in practice mostly about air pollution.

In the US (at least), VOC's basically equate to chemicals that cause various forms of air-pollution through photochemical reactivity (IE exposure to sunlight). The rest are exempt (acetone, etc). VOC's includes most things that smell good, like perfume, FWIW.

Isocyanate, while dangerous for humans, is not a VOC - it is not photochemically reactive. Instead, it reacts very quickly with moisture in air (which is why most danger is from bounce back from spraying it)

This is totally orthogonal to direct human toxicity. There are very low VOC things that are very dangerous to breathe. There are very high VOC components that are relatively okay.
As a first step, never confuse whether something is a VOC with whether it is safe to breathe directly.

What VOC compliance has often done a lot of is replace chemicals that are horrible for pollution but not that directly toxic to people, with chemicals that are better for pollution but more directly toxic to people. This is sort of a deliberate tradeoff, under the assumption that air pollution (which gets to everyone) is more dangerous overall than the toxicity (which gets to those spraying it).

For example, butyl acetate (a VOC), which is what makes a bunch of fruit smell/taste sweet, has been replaced with acetone (VOC exempt) in a lot of formulations.

This ends up worse for people spraying it - acetone is much harder to protect against with PPE. Butyl acetate is not carcinogenic, acetone is "unknown", etc

But better for the environment overall.

If you want to know whether and how something is toxic to you, ignore whatever marketing material they produce, and read the MSDS.

So first, the white stuff is just the visible clear coat damage.
That's what aluminum oxide + polyurethane looks like when you abrade it. You need to get rid of it to see what is really going on.

Take some denatured alcohol and paper bag (or no-scratch sponge), and remove it by carefully rubbing. You can also use a white woven pad.

Most of the damage seems like it will look like your 3rd picture.

Those are mostly compression streaks (or look like it from this distance - they don't have a visible ragged edge from this distance), which is good because it means you didn't gouge the floor, you just dented it, at least there.

Those will steam out for the most part - use a wet (but not dripping) cloth and an iron on high heat, and you should be able to decompress them. Your goal is to get the wood fibers to uncrush. That happens through steam. It does not take a lot. Note that for those who don't have properly-finished floors (which, if an installer did the finishing, happens sometimes. It's very rare with factory finished boards), you have to be careful not to delaminate

Once you've steamed out all the dents and removed any visible clearcoat damage, i'd need a picture of what's left - where are there real scratches vs dents vs whatever.

Note that you can't repair the clearcoat without some amount of refinishing.

I do a lot of wood finishing. Factory floors are done with multiple coats of 2k urethane. Even home floors are at least 2 coats when done by good finishers.

You aren't going to be able to perfectly reproduce that. To try to get somewhere, it needs to be level first, since it will otherwise catch your eye (hence steaming out dents, etc).

Once that is done, you can try repairing the spots with 1 component floor urethanes, but it will be very hard to feather the edges properly so that it's not noticeable - you would need a very good gloss degree match for starters (If i was trying to repair something serious, i would use my gloss meter to see what the sheen is), and then good sanding skills with high grits.

Do not mess around with 2 component (resin + hardener) urethanes (IE Bona Traffic HD, etc) yourself without proper PPE . Stick to 1k. The 2k hardeners are just about all isocyanate based, which is odorless except at concentrations that are dangerous for you. This makes it hard to tell if the vapor cartridge in your respirator (which is 100% a must) is working because you can't use smell to tell if it's working until it's way too late. It can also be absorbed dermally so you must wear a suit + gloves. It is otherwise easy to protect against - it is not going to get through normal nitrile gloves, etc. This is why you see most flooring installers and spray foam contractors in breaking-bad style chem suits these days if they have any sanity ;)

On the plus side, the hardener reacts very fast with moisture in the air, so if you wear proper PPE and rolled it with a paint roller, it would be 100% fine. Isocyanate free formulations are starting to come into vogue, but not in floor finishes yet.

Also note that most "hard wax" oils people now seem to want to put on floors are also hardened with isocyanate - it is perfectly VOC compliant, even if it's dangerous to people (since VOC's are about air pollution and not human toxicity). They play a lot of marketing games to try to act as if the stuff is super-safe, but you also need PPE here too. All of these (1k urethane, 2k urethane, hardwax oil, etc) are perfectly safe once cured, which is quite fast.

Outside of 1k urethanes, clear waxes are going to be your best bet for something a DIY'er can do beyond refinishing.

Vampliers are what you want.

They do make extractors that can deal with missing heads of screws. Look at socket extractors. You just need one sized for the screw shaft. They are mainly meant to remove damaged bolts, but work fine for this type of thing.

Not worth getting just for this, since the vampliers will get it out with no issue. But something to keep in mind for the futre.

This is a #4 finish (or close to it). It can be redone, but it will take some tooling (belt sanders, etc), or some careful hand work.

Yeah, for a one-off it's easier to find someone with one.

If you are going to do stuff like this overall, i'd take a community college metalworking class. They are usually very cheap, and things like lathes/mills are very easy to learn. They often have ones you can use once you pass safety training.

Metalworking lathes, for simple things like this, are relatively safe. Definitely much safer than woodworking lathes.

This is totally trivial with a lathe and cutoff/parting tool if you can find one - community colleges, maker spaces, etc. Also any metalworking shop, of course.

Lots an lots of places have maker spaces these days, so even if you didn't want to bug a local metal shop, i have to imagine it wouldn't be that tricky to find a maker space with a lathe that can handle this.