Log in to view the full article
Some creative flooring projects start strong but eventually run out of gas. This project wasn’t one of them—and not only because it was designed to showcase a collection of historic gas pumps.
When he was approached for the project, Austin Hill of Warren, Mich.-based Hill’s Hardwood sketched pages and pages of designs incorporating a starburst, and he worked closely with the homeowner during the initial design process. While Hill drove for elaborate concepts and “crazy borders,” the homeowner pumped the brakes in favor of more simple styles. They met in the middle, and the result speaks for itself.
Because the existing floors outside the approximately 500-square-foot space were red oak, Hill knew he had to incorporate the species for the rooms to flow. He chose red oak for the field and select-grade rift and quartersawn walnut for the borders. The wood was custom-ordered, as all the boards needed to be a minimum 10-12 feet long.
Before installing one board, Hill carefully mapped out the design on the subfloor.
“The first day, I probably saved myself a headache by chalking out the whole pattern on the floor before even installing it,” Hill says.
Hill and his team began by installing the boards from the center out. After dry-fitting the boards, they glued and nailed them. It was slow going to ensure all the points lined up properly. “There was no loss of patience on this job,” Hill says. “A lot of thought went into it.”
They used a track saw to cut in the walnut borders once the red oak field was installed. From there, they used a template and a router to cut the center for the medallion, which was produced by Winneconne, Wis.-based Oshkosh Designs. Each point in the medallion lines up with the corners in the floor.
Sanding was a challenge of its own in the relatively small space, where boards were going in different directions. “It was almost impossible to go with the grain on the whole pattern,” Hill says. They began with 60-grit on a belt sander, cutting at a 45-degree angle across the whole room to flatten it, then ran 100-grit in the other direction. They then used a multi-disc up to 120-grit.
The homeowner wanted the color to match the existing floors in the home, so Hill applied a coat of Golden Oak stain by hand. They followed the stain with three coats of Amberseal to give the floor an amberized look and mimic the oil-finish look of the surrounding flooring, then completed the floor with two coats of water-based satin finish.
The installation took a week to complete, and the floor is now adorned with antique gas pumps from across the country. And although the gas pumps may not work anymore, Hill, 24, feels creatively fueled up for more challenges now.
“I was able to prove to myself what I’m capable of,” he says. “If you put that initial fear aside, I feel like you can do a lot of cool things.”
Suppliers:
Adhesive, Finish, Stain, Sanding machines: Bona US | Medallion: Oshkosh Designs | Nailer: Primatech | Saws: DeWalt, Festool