Floors
The old floor in the new kitchen area is maple. I didn’t want to rip up perfectly good floors to put down my first choice for a kitchen floor, porcelain tile. Porcelain tile is ideal for a kitchen and I don’t feel it is too cold on bare feet or more likely to cause items to break that drop on it. The maple did require some weaving of new pieces into the spaces where walls had been as well as replace the damage caused by radiator valve leaks over the years.. Since 21st century maple wouldn’t fit, Tim the flooring installer, found old maple flooring at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore.
In order to weave replacement wood into an existing floor, the new and old have to be dimensionally identical. New maple flooring doesn’t have the same dimensions as the maple from 1925. Tim was able to find some old maple flooring at Habitat’s ReStore.
You cannot tell where the old and “new” pieces were woven together. Below is the maple before and after repair. Pretty good job, don’t you think?
The maple floor after the walls were removed. Replacement maple needs to be woven in.
The kitchen floor refinished.
The bedroom and bonus rooms are in red oak to match the oak in the rest of the house. I had considered maple, but unlike new oak which is the same dimension as old oak and old maple, new maple is dimensionally different. It would have been more work to make the two sizes match up. I chose not to stain the new oak, though, and just use a clear finish. I like to see the transition to the new space.
The floors were sanded and took two coats of sealer right away. When everything else is finished the floors will be buffed and a final coat of Bona Traffic will go down.
Below are the photos I took of the process, most are of the maple floor. Read the captions to see what is taking place.
When a radiator valve leaks over time the wood floor can rot away. Chris is clearing out the old wood and preparing to weave in the wood from Habitat’s ReStore.
Sanding the old maple floor. The “old” maple pieces from the ReStore were weaved into the existing floor. It is hard to tell the “old” old from the “new” old.
After he sanded the floor, Chris vacuumed it, then used a “tack” mop to get all of the dust.
After the floor is sanded, Jason carefully scrapes the corners smooth.
Jason and Chris start in a corner to apply the sealer. Jason works the sealer around the perimeter and Chris works from the perimeter to the center. Their process was like choreography.
Chris and Jason finish the second of three coats on the kitchen floor.
The old and new oak meet at the upstairs hallway. The old oak has a polyurethane finish that has yellowed with age. The new floor has a water based image and its color will not change much with age.
The finished oak floor in the bedroom.
The floors are absolutely gorgeous. The next steps are to install the doors, apply the trim around the windows and doors, and apply the base trim.
The exterior work is still ongoing so the next two posts will be about the kitchen.
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