Manchester, Conn.-based Patrick Daigle Hardwood Flooring Owner Brian Daigle’s house is no exception, which added some pressure when it came time for his son, Alex, to refinish the unique floors on the first floor.
“It wasn't that challenging of a job, but it was just the intimidation of doing all those different designs,” says Daigle, a fourth-generation pro and co-owner of Patrick Daigle Hardwood. “When you do something like this in any high-end home, you want to really take your time and make sure everything comes out 110% perfect.”
Daigle’s father had installed the floors when the house was built 30 years ago, after Daigle had just been born. The floors include white oak with an ash border in the kitchen, red oak with cherry squares and border in the foyer, and maple with a Brazilian cherry feature strip in the sunroom. This is the first time the unique floors had been refinished since being installed.
“My parents, being wood people, took care of the floor the proper way,” Daigle says, though notes that they weren’t sticklers about keeping it pristine while he was growing up. “We still very much lived with the floor; that’s how my parents treated it and I treat my floor the same way: It’s meant to be walked on.”
Daigle and his crew began the project by sanding with a 50-grit on the big machine to take off the old finish, then sanded with an 80-grit before switching to an orbital sander with 80-grit and screening with 120.
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"It's more just being observant of how each wood is reacting with it,” Daigle says of sanding the different species.
The maple in the sunroom perhaps posed the biggest challenge. “It’s all windows along all the sides, and there are also windows in the ceiling going through the roof,” says Daigle, “so with the amount of sunlight in there, you've got to make sure it looks perfect.”
Once the sanding was completed, Daigle applied three coats of water-based finish in the kitchen and sunroom, and opted for three coats of semi-gloss oil-based finish in the foyer “just because it makes that design in the foyer pop a lot more,” Daigle says. “And we like that natural wood tone that's there.”
The refinishing took about four days, during which Daigle says he gained a new perspective on the stunning floors he’d grown up on.
“Because my father had the house built was when I was first born, I never saw it when it was brand-brand new, really; and at that age, I wouldn't have appreciated it,” he says. “But seeing it at an older age now, almost 30 years old, I can appreciate the craftsmanship that went into it, and the art form that it takes to sand something like that.”
And at the end of the day, Daigle wanted to make sure his father, who was on vacation during the refinishing, was pleased with the job.
"It's all about pleasing the old man,” he laughs, “and he seems very happy."
Suppliers:
Abrasives: Norton | Big Machine: Lägler North America | Buffer: Harvester | Buffer Pads: Loba-Wakol | Edger, Vacuum System: American Sanders | Finish: Loba-Wakol, Fabulon
