HistoricOmaha

Recently, the DMPA newsletter put out a call for before & after photos and stories. I am extending the same call. I would like to share stories and images of small scale renovations in the neighborhood. No project is too small.

To start things off, here is one from my own house.

Hardwood floors are one of the great features of older homes. It is hard to believe that past owners have neglected, covered, or removed these gorgeous floors. Hardwood floors can be easy to maintain and clean.

Since moving into our Craftsman Bungalow, we have wanted to refinish the floors. The carpet in the living room and dining room was fairly new, so we didn’t want to remove it right away. Kim removed the hideous carpet in two of the three bedrooms. After a couple of years, we repainted the living room and dining room. We decided also to remove the carpet.

Under the carpet, we found a the wonderful oak floor we were hoping for. There were a few large scratches and small gouges, but overall the floor was well preserved. Oh, there was some discoloration from when our cat Trixie was mad at us & peed in the corner. For a variety of reasons, we didn’t do anything to the floor to seal or protect it. This was a mistake, but not a disaster. Over a couple of years, the floor got more scratched, dirty, and stained from water.

We finally decided that I was never going to get around to renting a sander to refinish the floor myself. We called around for a couple of bids from local floor refinishers. One was not willing to bid – the oak boards in our floor are 3/8″ thick, which makes the top layer above the tongue & groove rather thin. This can cause the floor planks to split at the ends, leaving unsightly gouges between floor boards. Two guys were willing, and told us with proper maintenance there was another good 25 years in the floor. The cost was reasonable, about $2/sq ft. We vacated the house for 4 days to avoid the dust and fumes from the oil-base polyurethane.

We have never regretted refinishing the floor. The floor is so much cleaner and brighter. The warm honey color of the oak complements our deep rich oak woodwork. There are still some deep scratches which could not be sanded out. Any damage from the few years before we refinished the floor was cosmetic; the sanding removed it. We also removed some linoleum from the entry. The paper backing of the was hard to get off, but sanded off very easily.

Dundee’s own Old House Mechanic, Don Browers, has an article on Hardwood Floor Care.

To my tastes, nothing is more stunning that well restored old wood floors. Not only are they more distinctive than wall-to-wall carpet, but they even beat out new wood floors.
— Don Browers