morganwu

u can get this either one of this: 1 2 3 4 and replace the top with ur nice acquisition. no idea how big your wood is though, so dunno whether will fit on these ikea products.

i wonder why no body replied...

@ bekind, PMed you the contact

yes, you can bleach it to a lighter color. although not advisable, because it is risky and may not turn out to be the color you want. the person doing the bleaching has to be very experienced. if the H2O2 and NaOH mixture's proportion is not right, the wood may exhibit a 'dead' color, like kinda like zombies like that. most installers i believe are not interested to undertake this sort of risk for something they cant quote high on. you need to give us a estimated area for us to estimate a cost for you. your description is too vague. in summary, There are 2 ways to make wood look paler, lighter. 1. Bleach. Just as the name suggests, you bleach the wood. 2. Whitewash. You dilute white paint/oil/latex/stain and coat it on the wood. Would give you a white wash effect. Advisable to always try on a small area first. Works well on Oak floors, not fantastic but still quite nice on Teak floors. Bleaching should be done by professionals, because of the potential hazard posed by the chemicals used. Whitewash can DIY, but your installer would probably be more happy to do whitewash than bleach. IF your installer have no idea what is whitewash.... u go figure.

sure, also can. but their variety may give you headache. it would be helpful if you can post some pictures of your furniture you want to varnish so that i can see what wood it is.

cheapest and fastest way is to buy the varnish IKEA sells in their store and follow the instruction on the cans. will give you decent results.

well, i am a mobile audiophile. i only dips my toes into the water. to TS, better to invest in a good rack then. imagine your rack crashes with your equipment on it. where do you stay? PM me if you need any assistance, one of my family's business is furniture, i can help you with some of the DIY if i can.

@manutd1972 Lol, we have an audiophile here. To TS, to cut down on the cost, choose lesser grades of White Oak and Walnut like 1 common or 2 common. The grade of the wood does not affect the sound. The best grade, First and Seconds (FAS) are gonna be very expensive. You can try Maple if you fancy pale color tones. I just updated Kenwood's address on my reply above. They are the one whom i source my lumber from, if i only require small quantities.

pine is not strong enough for Hifi equipment. like i mentioned, you can get Solid White Oak, Walnut or Maple, even birch and beech planks at Kenwood. They are along Sungei Kadut Street 1 also. However the thickness shown in the pictures are gonna cost quite a lot. It is more practical to use a 20 or 25mm plank. PS: Kenwood cuts to size for u. Edit: Kenwood's address is 10, Sungei Kadut St3, Kenwood Industries I am the distributor for OSMO Woodwax and Oils, which are very user friendly and great for DIY. Check my signature link for more info.

@ Sportyger, PMed you the contact

try nature wood wood @ 56 sungei kadut street 1, or Kenwood, also located at sungei kadut.

A. From a health/safety point of view, First you need to ask WHY it is 'resistant' to fire. Next you got to ask WHAT is gonna to be released if it actually got hot enough for it to burn. A lot of fire retardants (chemicals) are being newly classified as harmful to health or environment. The claim can be that the substance used is not harmful. But if you look back in history a lot of building materials once considered harmless are been reclassified as toxic. E.g. Asbestos Hence the chemicals being used in the laminate may be considered harmless now, but in actuality nobody knows, because only time can tell. Everything burns; as long as the temperature is high enough. So you also need to ask what chemical/substances are released when the product actually starts burning. More people die from smoke inhalation than the fire itself. The smoke itself is bad enough; if the fire retardants in the product are also released... Imagine being in that smoke. B. From an environment point of view, This is highly contentious. However, from my observation using natural materials like timber produces the least pollution. For a few reasons: 1. They last. I can easily find wooden floors that are over 2 decades old. 1a. Less waste; because they lasts, and can be repaired. I can renovate old timber floors and they may look even better than fresh timber floors. Laminates can’t be repaired. Laminates have a use and throw philosophy. 2. The manufacturing processes of timber floors are relatively simple compared to laminates. Think of the industrial processes, chemicals, petroleum products and energy required to manufacture laminates. For solid timber floors, we chop down the tree, mill it to size, shape the tongue and groove, then install... That’s about it. 3. Trees help store carbon dioxide. Using timber products, as long as you choose timber from a managed/sustainable forest, it is virtually guaranteed that the supply is unlimited and continuous. The plantations will grow new ones. The new trees will continue to take in and store CO2 from the atmosphere, and those that ended up as your floor will store those old CO2 until you burn it. C. From a economic point of view, 1. Solid timber flooring are not substantially more expensive than laminates. Yes they are more expensive, but it all depends on the size and species. The cheapest teak floor i ever work with retails for only 5+ bucks psft. But this depends on availability, Forex rates and such. In a nut shell, your luck. But it never hurts to ask what are the current rates for the different species and sizes. D. From an aesthetic point of view, 1. This is where it hurts me the most. I grew up with wood (family business). Perhaps that is why i can differentiate between printed wood patterns and real natural wood patterns almost immediately. Some customers tell me the laminates look the same as wood, but i show them a few pieces of real wood and they would retract their statement. I am beginning to think this could be because city dwellers have little opportunity to see what real timber looks like (not those pine furniture in IKEA), and hence missed out on the opportunity to fall in love and appreciate real wood. Renovation is a significant cost and commitment. I suggest you pay a trip to Sungei Kadut and visit the timber wholesalers there. Take a look at what real wood grains of White Oak, Walnut, Asian walnut, Teak, Tasmanian oak, Merbau look like. Then decide for yourself. 2. Have you seen old laminates? They fade, the 'wood grains' get rubbed off, dirt accumulates at the joints, and they absorb moisture and swell. Their surfaces crack and reveal fiber boards beneath. They peel, they disintegrate. The list goes on and on. Of course, modern laminates may have solved all this problems. But the fact is, laminates do not age beautifully. Wood does (when used with appropriate coatings). E. From a non-scientific/rational point of view (other than aesthetics), 1. If you are a Chinese, you should understand the concept of '和' and '氣'. For some reason, and i do not know how to explain, only natural materials (natural stone, granite, marble and timber) can provide a very comfortable 'feel'. Have you ever entered a room and feel something is wrong, but couldn’t say why? Why do spas and resorts (the good ones) only use real wood? Because the result of using these natural materials helps us relax. It’s a combination of visual, smell and feel. F. From not so much of a reason but 'shuan, song' point of view, 1. NO ONE, i repeat, NO ONE else in the whole wide world has the same timber flooring as you. Every piece on your floor is unique. For laminates give me a floor area large enough and i can hunt down 2 pieces of laminate that looks exactly the same. The last time i check, some laminates have 60+ different patterns, to reduce the chance of repeating in the same room. But why settle for 60+ patterns when you could have an infinite number of patterns? (However, if you want your floor to be uniform, laminates are the way to go) These points are all i could think of in a short notice. I decided to list only the advantages of real timber. I am sure someone in this forum would list the disadvantages of real timber floor for you. To sum up this ridiculously long post, i recommend you to spend some time, do your homework, make the effort to understand and see all these materials that may go into your home. The floor is a large surface in your house. The extra effort to understand the safety, cost and aesthetics of the different materials is gonna be worth it. Don't be lazy. PS: Click on my signature to see what my business is. For home owners looking to renovate your timber floors, feel free to PM me for quotes.

Hello Endlssorrow, 1) I believe Krono and Supreme Floors do not produce timber flooring. I do not know why, but you seem to be under the impression that laminate flooring=timber floor. They do not. Laminates are man-made flooring designed to mimic the look of natural timber floors. Their first layer is a layer of plastic (resin, if you prefer to call it that). This layer of resin protects the surface has 'wood' patterns either printed or pressed into it. The second layer is a layer of substrate usually made of high density fiber (HDF) board. This layer forms the bulk of the flooring panel. The third layer is a layer of water proofing material. This layer is necessary because HDF is not water resistant. They absorb water and swell. So this layer is there to protect the substrate from water. Most houses, if you are referring to condominiums, do not use laminate flooring in their rooms. They use solid timber. Laid, sand and then coated. Laminates have their own set of characteristics, and have both benefits and disadvantage over real solid timber floors. I do not wish to go into a detailed comparison here, but my advice to you is that you should also consider using solid timber floors for your house. They offer lasting value over man-made materials. 2) It would be cheaper for you to go to a flooring contractor directly. At least this is true if you are using solid wood. Disclamier: I am a distributor of OSMO coatings from Germany for real timber floors. You may PM me if you wish to contact the installers i work with to gather quotes for timber floors.

u looking for granite flooring only or also timber flooring?

yes it is better for you to wait at least a year or 2 after the floor has been laid before doing any 'patching'. i placed 'patching' in inverted commas because it is not that simple. if you simply fill up the gaps with a wood filler, there would be no coating above the wood filler. not advisable because water can wet the wood filler. you could have mold growing. you also cant simply apply another layer of lacquer or water based coating above the old one because they would not stick to each other. soon you would have problems with peeling. best for you to wait for at least a year till the wood stabilizes in your home environment, then get a flooring contractor to re-sand, fill up the gaps with wood filler and re-oil. that way you would not get the crack lines anymore. lastly, yes, you would get the cracks again if your fill up the gaps before the wood fully stabilizes. which takes time.

are the hairline cracks between 2 separate pieces of timber strip?

Tech_wizard i have PMed you a contact.

i PMed u a contact.

sanding will cause the color of wood to become lighter. but after applying the varnish/coating the color of the wood will darken again. its like pouring water on dry wood.

u cant stain a wood to a lighter color. u got to bleach it.

Yyou need to find out if the your cabinet is plastic veneer or wood veneer. If it is plastic veneer you can try to pull out the old layer and stick a new layer on. Sounds like your kitchen is wood veneered. Veneer = They paste a thin layer of wood with nice looking grains (patterns) onto a cheaper material (MDF or plywood) to make the final product look better. I would recommend you first remove the door panels, then either 1. Use spray paint to respray the surface Advantages: quick, easy and cheap, and to a large extent you can DIY, wide variety of spray colors to choose from. Disadvantages: wouldnt last long, the surface is unlikely to be flat (since you didnt sand the surface), and a spray job does require some experience to do it nicely 2. Use a chemical paint remover to remove the old paint (cannot machine sand as veneer is very thin), sand it lightly using hand, then apply whatever new paint you fancy, nippon, spray, wax, oil Advantages: looks better, last longer Disadvantages: more troublesome than simply painting over

is the first picture the actual object u wanna redo? well, no matter. I would assume that your current varnish is water-based. Water-based varnishes need to be sanded off completely before applying new varnishes because they would not be able to bond with the new varnish. the oil varnish can also be stripped chemically without sanding using paint remover/strippers. for the new varnish you can use. 1. OSMO oil/waxes just brush it onto the furniture. can choose from the color ranges here: OSMO Woodwax Transparent the coating will dry into a protection that is water resistant and will not crack, peel or blister. 2. Oil stain use the oil stain to color the wood, u can get this from any hardware and DIY stores. however the oil stain would provide limited dirt and water protection. people would usually apply another 2 clear coats of lacquer to protect it. disclaimer: my company is the sole distributor for OSMO in SG, but our main business is in construction projects. i am responding to TS request for opinion as a fellow DIYer, recommended OSMO because its good, not for extra business.