The pine floor was over 113 years old, and when Eric Cohen of Nanuet, N.Y.-based Showcase Hardwood Floors first arrived on site, it looked every bit its age.
The antique floor, located just outside of Woodstock, N.Y., suffered from crowning and gapping, and most if not all of its old-fashioned, railroad-style cleats were raised. If that wasn’t enough, multiple replacement boards were installed as patches after a recent fire, resulting in noticeable height differences compared with the original flooring.
“The most challenging part of this job, I’d have to say, was pretty much everything!” Cohen says.
Cohen punched down hundreds of the railroad cleats (“Thank God for the pneumatic nailer”) before using his Hummel with 24-grit abrasives and working up to 80-grit on the 1,500-square-foot floor. He then switched to a multi-disc to flatten the floor with 80-grit to 120-grit.
The client settled on a True Black DuraSeal stain that would also serve to blend the newer hardwood patches with the original floors, Cohen says. “Even with the color that was just lighter—Ebony—we were still able to notice a slight difference between the old and the new,” says Cohen. So they went as dark as they could go. Staining turned out to be the most tedious part of the project, and Cohen says he periodically had to stop to spray paint some exposed tongue and grooves, as well as some floor joists. They allowed extra days for the floor to dry due to the pigments in the dark stain.
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Because the floor is over 100 years old and likely holds contamination in its gaps, Cohen began the coating process with shellac mixed with denatured alcohol to block contaminants and avoid white line syndrome. He followed the shellac with two coats of water-based satin finish for “extreme wear resistance.”
Seeing all the tedious work pay off in the end was the most rewarding part for Cohen—and also a good reminder that good craftsmanship is worth the price.
“It’s always nice to hear your client call you things such as an ‘artist’ or ‘craftsman,’” Cohen says, “and that they decided on choosing Showcase Hardwood Floors even though my overall price was significantly higher than the others.”
Suppliers:
Abrasives: Norton Abrasives | Big machine: Lägler North America | Dust containment, Edger, Multi-disc: American Sanders | Finish: Loba-Wakol | Stain: DuraSeal
