That first sanding pass on a battered old floor is always a great moment, but when it’s a historical project with a personal connection, that’s even better. Such was the case for Zach Lunt, owner/craftsman at New Hampshire Wood Flooring LLC in Concord, N.H., when he did the floors at the Meredith Public Library in Meredith, N.H., where his great-grandmother worked starting in 1922. When he bid the job, the floors from the early 1900s were covered by carpeting and an underlayment. A small square cutout revealed a wood floor covered in black mastic. By the time he did the job, the layers were gone, and he used a Diamabrush to remove the mastic. His first pass with the big machine revealed “amazing” 2½-inch rift and quartered white oak. When Lunt mentioned to the librarian that his great-grandmother had worked there, she found his great-grandmother in a book about the history of the library. “It was just neat to think that I was working on the floor that she would have been walking on that’s been covered up for all these years,” Lunt says.—K.M.W.
SUPPLIERS: Abrasives: Norton | Buffer, Edger, Vacuum: American Sanders Epoch HD, Super 7, AVAC 26 | Finish: Loba Supra 2K | Sanders: Lägler Hummel, Trio
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