Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Phoenician Wood Floors owners Joe and Staci Martinez had never used epoxy before tackling this reclaimed oak and elm log round floor with a maple border, but that didn’t stop them from going all-in, using almost 9 gallons of it to create the design.
“It was kind of like, ‘I know that we can do this,’” Staci chuckles of using the epoxy. “‘We’ve never done it before, but I know that we’re smart enough.’”
The husband-and-wife hardwood flooring team had been recommended for the 2,000-square-foot reclaimed maple project after installing another reclaimed floor for a friend of the homeowner, whose Madison, S.D., house overlooks Lake Herman.
The maple had been reclaimed from a local gymnasium, and as they were gathering it from the homeowner’s shed, Staci spotted oak and elm stumps off to the side and discovered they had been centerpieces at the homeowners’ wedding. She asked if they’d ever considered incorporating them into the flooring.
“It was kind of a sentimental thing,” she says. “I said if they wanted to do it, we could figure something out.”
With an enthusiastic green light from the homeowners to get creative with the centerpieces, Staci and Joe planned to use them in a 122-square-foot lookout tower on top of the house, overlooking the water. They sent the material to a local woodworker to be cut to into log rounds that would match the 3/4-inch-thick reclaimed maple they would use as a border.
With the unique design mapped out by Staci, they began by nailing the maple border over the plywood subfloor of the tower before turning their attention to gluing down the log rounds. Once they were glued, Staci and Joe filled the spaces between with the epoxy.
A major hurdle was access to the tower—a small trap door in the floor reached via a wooden ladder. “That trap door made for a hell of a time,” laughs Joe. Not only did the two of them have to haul all the material and machines up the ladder and through the tight entrance, but they also had to keep the epoxy from running through the cracks of the trap door and the six air vents in the tiny room. They managed to prevent epoxy leaks with “a lot of caulking” in the nooks and crannies, Staci says.
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They worked on the lookout tower’s floor intermittently as they completed the rest of the maple installation in the home. Once the epoxy in the tower floor had cured, they hit the “very lumpy” floor with a big machine and edger using 36-grit, 50-grit, 60-grit, 80-grit, and 100-grit. “We basically went through every series,” laughs Joe.
They had to take apart the big machine to get through the trap door, running the cord through a hole they added to the red oak trap door to connect to the outlet below. Then they screened with a buffer.
Once the lumps were tamed, they finished with two coats of hardwax oil.
Despite all the challenges of the project, the reaction of the homeowners made the month-long installation worthwhile. “They’re just really excited about it,” Staci says of the homeowners, who now use it as a yoga room.
As for Joe and Staci, they couldn’t help but appreciate the opportunity to flex their creativity.
“It’s cool to get customers that let you do stuff like that,” Staci says.
Suppliers:
Abrasive: Norton Abrasives | Adhesive: Bostik | Big Machine: Lägler North America | Buffer: Bona | Edger: American Sanders | Filler: EcoPoxy | Finish: Osmo
