“Complicated but beautiful” is how Pat Goodman of Goodman Custom Flooring characterizes this project only two blocks from his own house in Fayetteville, W.Va. One flooring contractor had told the builder all the flooring in the house, more than 90 years old, had to go. When Goodman arrived, “I walked into the chaos of deconstruction and demo.” But he thought much of the wood, mostly a mixture of red oak, white oak and chestnut that likely had been locally milled, could be saved. First he used salvaged wood to tackle repairs, as there were holes throughout from many generations of HVAC systems. Around the fireplace, beautiful clay tiles had been broken during demo, so he replaced them with end grain he cut from a post removed from the house. In that room, he added a border with a brass inlay and maple plugs that cover the screws that help hold the border down. When sanding an antique floor like this, “I find the material itself is pretty brittle. You can’t just drop 36 on it,” Goodman explains. “We 60’d it at an angle and went straight to a planetary.” He was particularly cautious about taking too much material off. “You have a ¼-inch wear layer, but really you don’t, because you get down 1/16 of an inch and start hitting penny nails.” Although others had told the owner it wasn’t possible, “Floor by floor, room by room, he could see what we were doing was going to work,” Goodman says, and even when Goodman discovered unexpected expensive repairs—like when he felt his big machine drop an inch during sanding and realized the entire subfloor had to be fixed—the owner readily agreed. In the end, the owner was “very happy, very grateful,” Goodman says. “He even gave us a large cash tip, and I’ve never gotten anything like that, ever."
Watch a before-and-after walkthrough video:
SUPPLIERS: Abrasives: Bona Green, Norton Mesh | Adhesive: Wakol MS 262 | Buffer: Bona | Dust containment: Bona DCS, Karcher NT50, ProTeam Super Coach | Edger: Lägler Flip, Bona Edge | Filler: Berger-Seidle Pafuki/PakStop, West System Epoxy | Finish: Basic Coatings Street Shoe Matte (floor), Pallmann Magic Oil (stairs and trim) | Moisture barrier: Bona R540 | Moisture meter: Wagner Orion 950 | Nailer: Primatech 550 ALR, Makita | Router: Festool, Makita | Sanders: Bona Belt 10”, Power Drive | Sander (palm): Festool RO 125, Mirka Deros 6” | Saws: Makita | Stain: Basic Coatings Hypertone
