At the time this home was built on the high prairie of Montana in 1898 as a stagecoach stop for travelers seeking fortune in the Montana gold rush, 3¼-inch vertical grain Douglas fir was the norm. “We see a ton of it here,” says Chris Traver, owner at Helena, Mont.-based Traver Hardwood Floors. “That is what the old-timers had available locally.” In the “fancy” rooms, 5/16-inch-thick parquet covered the Doug fir. When Traver arrived on the site, the homeowners were beginning a renovation after the home sat vacant for 20 years, and their first priority was the floors. The parquet has seven species, and each parquet tile was backed with canvas mesh and top-nailed. “I set nails by hand for hours,” Traver says. “Then I used a Hummel belt sander to grind it flat and used my Trio to take out marks and make it even flatter.” After he edged and used the orbital sander on the perimeter, he sealed the parquet with waterborne sealer and the vertical grain Doug fir with oil-based sealer, and he coated the entire floor with a ceramic-reinforced waterborne finish for durability, helping ensure the floor will last for many more generations.
SUPPLIERS: Abrasives: 3M, Bona | Adhesive: Wakol MS 262 | Buffer: American Sanders | Distributor: Mountain West Hardwoods, Intermountain Wood Products | Dust collection: Oneida Cyclone | Edger: Lägler Flip, American Sanders Super 7 | Finish: Loba Supra AT | Sander (big machine): Lägler Hummel | Sander (orbital): Festool Rotex | Sander (multi-disc): Bona Power Drive, Lägler Trio | Sealer: Loba Easy Prime, Bona DriFast | Vacuum: ProTeam
