“Have you ever ever been in a scenario the place you have been requested to cowl a good looking flooring moderately than restore it?”

John Alford – Alford’s Customized Hardwood Flooring

Within the early Nineties, my dad and I have been doing subcontractor work for a flooring firm in Cincinnati. We have been despatched to a well known plane engine producer to put in some glue-down sample plus flooring in an entry of one among their company workplace buildings. We have been to demo carpet, prep the concrete subfloor, and set up the brand new sample plus hardwood. As we began eradicating the carpet, we found it was put in excessive of terrazzo. As we continued to demo the carpet, we additionally found that there was a customized inlaid brand for the corporate in the course of the ground that was very intricate with metallic inlays and terrazzo. We confirmed it to the jobsite supervisor, who mentioned to shortly cowl it again up in order that no person would see it or we might be chopping it out of the ground and hanging it on the wall. It was a good looking medallion, and we hated to cowl it again up because it was a part of the unique firm that was based within the early 1900s, nevertheless it was what the job required.

Mike McDermott – McDermott Hardwood Flooring

I used to be known as to present a flooring estimate for a 100-year-old business constructing. The proprietor, who additionally owns a building firm, wished to have 2,500 sq. toes of laminate flooring put in over the present worn-out authentic hardwood flooring. As quickly as I walked in, I knew it was mine. I shortly satisfied him to let me have full management over the entire restoration of this once-beautiful maple flooring. It was a labor of affection and an awesome problem for me, however I couldn’t wait to begin. Half of the ground was badly stained and water broken. There have been burns within the flooring, entice doorways, subfloor and structural weaknesses, in addition to peaks and valleys. I had my work reduce out for me, however I knew I may change the way forward for
the constructing.

Seventy-five p.c of the unique maple was pulled up. All nails have been pulled by hand, boards scraped clear, and categorized by situation and size. We changed the remaining sleepers with plywood to make the reinstallation of the identical flooring simpler. The dangerous components of the boards have been reduce off as we glued and re-nailed this previous maple flooring again for one more spherical. A mixture of lengthy size, patina, dings, partial burns, gnarly grain and coloration, and a variety of hen’s eye. The ground was prepared for sanding, staining, and ending. The place additionally wanted trim, although. We snatched the “rubbish” 2×6 ceiling joists and created a country vibe by customizing our personal window packing containers, wall trim, and floorboards. Midway by way of the job, the proprietor stopped checking on us and advised us to do no matter we wished. At this time, the constructing homes a regulation agency that relocated from downtown Chicago to Beverly Hills on the south facet. I used to be advised the agency needed to have it. Restoring a historic flooring makes it price my time and enhances everybody’s experiences. This might by no means have occurred if a laminate flooring had gone down.

Jon Namba – Namba Companies Inc.

The straightforward reply is sure. Now, to look a bit deeper. Why would a client need to cowl hardwood flooring with carpet, laminate, or luxurious vinyl plank flooring (LVP)?

Let’s have a look at a couple of of the “over-marketed” phrases getting used to promote LVP and laminate flooring over current hardwood.

• Waterproof
• Scratch resistance
• Floating flooring are extra forgiving than a nail-down or glue-down flooring on the subject of flooring flatness

The advantages for refinishing? Infinite colours, the flexibility to have a brand new flooring with out full substitute, and, if correctly maintained, it should give further years of use to the preliminary funding.

Hardwood refinishing requires an installer with the data of sanding and ending hardwood flooring. Lots of the installers coming into the business, and those that have been putting in carpet, at the moment are putting in factory-finished hardwood flooring, laminate flooring, and luxurious vinyl planks, as they see that there’s the potential for increased revenue margins. There’s nothing mistaken with this, however many of those installers don’t have sand and end expertise to refinish a flooring, so the following most suitable choice? Cowl the present hardwood flooring with a floating wooden flooring. To these installers who’re capable of sand and end, I applaud you in your need to proceed a commerce that represents the sweetness and lasting high quality of wood flooring.

For extra info, try the NWFA’s technical publications at nwfa.org/technical-guidelines/.