Wood Floor Rescue: Parquet Artwork Gets Overdue Refinish at This Art Museum

When Chuck Crispin designed and installed the beautiful parquet wood flooring in the Swope Art Museum in his hometown of Terre Haute, Ind., in 1998, he didn’t anticipate the flooring wouldn’t be recoated for more than 20 years, but that’s how it turned out, and when he returned to care for the floors, “a lot of dirt was walked into the grain,” he says. “It had been mopped, and basically the wax was worn off.” This time, the floor was sanded with the big machine and a multi-disc, and then a crew of five spent seven days hand-scraping all 2,500 square feet of the wood flooring. “When you scrape, you’re cutting the surface,” Crispin explains. “Even if you sand to 300-grit, the floor will be more susceptible to dirt getting walked into it than if you scrape the floor.” And while originally the maple pieces were stained with neutral stain piece-by-piece before the entire floor was stained with a custom rosewood/neutral mix, Crispin says his tastes now “have matured,” so this time the entire floor was stained with that same custom mix before being coated with hardwax oil, creating a more subtle backdrop for the artwork on the walls.

SUPPLIERS: Abrasives: 3M | Adhesive: Bostik’s Best | Dust Containment, Palm Sander, Router: Festool | Edger: American Sanders | Filler: Woodwise (original), Goodfilla (new) | Finish: Osmo (original), Saicos satin matte (new) | Nailer: Powernail | Sander (big machine): Lägler Hummel (original) | Multi-Disc Sander: Lägler Trio (original), Bona Pro Sand (new) | Stain: DuraSeal | Wood Flooring: Parquet by Dian, Indiana Hardwood