Hi all! Just completed an article for this month's newsletter. If anyone wants to give this a factual proof-read for accuracy and corrections would be certainly welcome. Just trying to promote restoring one's vintage hardwoods and some of the obstacles they may encounter when approaching this monumental task.
If you give it a go, thanks in advance!
-matt



FROM THE WORKBENCH
Hardwood flooring

Upon the final stages of my home search in Chicagoland (which of course was the vetting of countless Berwyn Bungalows), I had pretty much narrowed it down to a simple combination of 3 criteria: stain glass windows, radiated heat and good condition hardwood flooring. And so my quest had narrowed down to one of 5 houses on the market at the time. Every one of these homes had either wall to wall carpet, linoleum, tiles, or exposed flooring with countless years of shellac, varnish or floor wax. My overall search around Chicago of more than 30 houses would turn over appalling evidence of a history of neglect, damage, pets locked in rooms beyond the duration of their functional limitations as well cigarette trails, walls relocated, and all out replacement of artificially engineered flooring. I had finally settled on one that although well-worn, shellacked and covered in a delicious 70’s sage carpet, the overall condition was ripe for a refinish makeover, and by no means beyond the point of no return! I made sure during the inspections by pulling back in spots to expose the Oak, as well as prying up a but of linoleum plus sub-flooring in the kitchen and back halls, that the potential was there.
Fast-forward 2 years, and well into my restoration projects. The logical order would be to finish any replastering, floating, painting and anything that would potentially damage newly finished flooring. Get the dirty stuff out of the way first and the gleaming new finish would be the crowning glory! And a good area rug would be the icing on the cake for any room. So the question to ask if you’re looking for or have a house with hardwood strip flooring is this: Are exposed floors for everyone? Of course not. But it is the opinion of this author and many like minds with these older homes that if finished and presented correctly they can last for years with minimal maintenance and care, while feeling warm on the feet and provide a cozy and rich environment in which to live your everyday lives. Many advancements have been made in the past decade to the restoration processes, some of which are debatable in both form and function. Engineered and pre-finished flooring may certainly have their place in certain rooms and climatic environments, however even with damaged floorboards, nothing beats the quality and feel of the wood strips of yesteryear, and with a plethora of information available on the web there’s no reason why these can’t be brought back to life in the spirit of the old school.
Almost all of the strip flooring installed in the first half of the 20th century were thick enough to be sanded over several times, and the odds are your vintage home wasn’t refinished more than a couple times. The carpeting craze in the post-war years helped ensure these floors were well-preserved, even through the rigors of carpet-tacking and staples. Most of these boards were 3/4” thick by 2 1/4” wide so generally sanding a bit of the thickness is not an issue. There are ways to eliminate squeaks and creaks through special screws and unsightly gaps and nail holes between the boards can be filled in with special putties and even stained along with the rest of the floor for a continuous appearance. Gloss, semi-gloss, water-based, oil, staining: these are all options you’ll have when meeting with a professional to tackle the project, and all have plusses and disadvantages, so there’s no better or worse option and much of it will come down to personal preference. Myself, I opted for Bona’s Special Walnut stain for the Oak, and a semi-gloss oil based polyurethane for the finish. A lot of sun comes through from the south and west windows after noon so I wanted to minimize the glare, and I thought the oil finish had a much richer and warmer feel to it. For the Maple in the kitchen I opted to leave it natural as this wood is rarely stained and having a closed grain there’s really not much for the stain to absorb into as in the case with Oak.
Almost every old kitchen would have Maple installed instead of Oak for the simple reason that Oak’s open grain surface would trap all kinds of liquid and food products. And while older finishes back in the day were designed to coat the wood, the slightest wear in the finish would open that grain up and make it almost impossible to clean! To the untrained eye, many people might not even notice the difference in the woods if they’ve been refinished in the same clear coats. Even some Chicago apartments I’ve seen from the late 1800’s were built in this manner. In the case of my kitchen (and plenty others I’ve seen in Berwyn) at some point in the late 50’s a plywood sub-floor was laid down with thinned roofing pitch tar (cutback) and entombed with a good thousand nail-screws, ensuring its surviving even the worse apocalypse, and then the brilliant newly developed linoleum adhered with yet another layer of cutback. Not many people in the atomic era could have imagined a new found resurgence and respect for the original flooring, and the contractors who installed these new layers would make sure their work was solid. So now the modern-day enthusiast may have a seemingly daunting task ahead of them to solve the sub-floor quagmire, but nothing is impossible, and with a little bit of hard work and creativity this can be pried up with leverage and a Collins axe and a good set of vice grips for nail removal. The sheer power of today’s floor sanders can handily erase most of the old adhesives, and the nail holes can be filled in and sanded with the floors when the time comes. I will admit by using leverage to pull up the plywood sub-floor I did damage a few boards but with a little bit of quick research on YouTube I managed to find a way to cut out the bad sections by quickly learning the art of chiseling and breaking part of the tongue-in-groove on the new replacement boards.
Now this brings us to the ultimate question: Should you do this yourself? I would not recommend it for most. Mishandling of the sanding machines can quickly put a divot in your wood that may be beyond repair, the mess and breathing hazards will have to be contained with wisdom and care, and the physical toll on the body, arms, fingers and back are incredible. Unless you have the aptitude for this sort of thing it will be a huge undertaking and you may not want to make your life’s greatest investment your first attempt. There may be lot’s of prep work you can do yourself though, saving you some labor costs in the long run. For the average house in Berwyn you could expect estimates to come in between $2500-$3000 depending on square footage and stain options. If you view your house as one that is built with a certain level of artisanship and quality, you understand that the entire design was drafted to tie in together with every appointment having a purpose. Many temptations exist to alter this design through newer methods and materials, exotic foreign tree varieties, Pergo, laminate, engineered, pre-finished etc. but by its very design, thickness and old-growth quality, there is very little that can’t be corrected and restored with the beautiful original strip-flooring that came installed with your historic Berwyn home!

Sounds like the kind of wood floor I like to work on. I think in the first paragraph "stain glass windows" should be "stained glass windows". I would also add more paragraph breaks to make it easier to read. People historically who belong to Historical Societies don't see as well as they did in younger years.

Overall it seems like a good article.

Thank you! I've sent this article to a librarian on the board and she proofed it to a more respectable grammatical standard, here's the final...
I might add that this is something dear to my heart and after having done 1/2 my house last year I can honestly say that must be one of the hardest things I've ever done. An incredible amount of work but well worth it and I admire & support you guys in your trade:

FROM THE WORKBENCH
Hardwood flooring

Upon the final stages of my home search in Chicagoland (which of course was the vetting of countless Berwyn Bungalows), I had pretty much narrowed it down to a simple combination of 3 criteria: stained glass windows, radiated heat and good condition hardwood flooring. And so my quest had narrowed down to one of 5 houses on the market at the time. Every one of these homes had either wall to wall carpet, linoleum, tiles, or exposed flooring with countless years of shellac, varnish or floor wax. My overall search around Chicago of more than 30 houses would turn over appalling evidence of a history of neglect, damage, pets locked in rooms beyond the duration of their functional limitations as well cigarette trails, walls relocated, and all out replacement of artificially engineered flooring. I had finally settled on one that although well-worn, shellacked and covered in a delicious 70's sage carpet, the overall condition was ripe for a refinish makeover, and by no means beyond the point of no return! I made sure during the inspections by pulling back in spots to expose the Oak, as well as prying up a but of linoleum plus sub-flooring in the kitchen and back halls, that the potential was there.
Fast-forward 2 years, and well into my restoration projects. The logical order would be to finish any replastering, floating, painting and anything that would potentially damage newly finished flooring. Get the dirty stuff out of the way first and the gleaming new finish would be the crowning glory! And a good area rug would be the icing on the cake for any room. So the question to ask if you're looking for or have a house with hardwood strip flooring is this: Are exposed floors for everyone? Of course not. But it is the opinion of this author and many like minds with these older homes that if finished and presented correctly they can last for years with minimal maintenance and care, while feeling warm on the feet and provide a cozy and rich environment in which to live your everyday lives. Many advancements have been made in the past decade to the restoration processes, some of which are debatable in both form and function. Engineered and pre-finished flooring may certainly have their place in certain rooms and climatic environments, however even with damaged floorboards, nothing beats the quality and feel of the wood strips of yesteryear, and with a plethora of information available on the web there's no reason why these can't be brought back to life in the spirit of the old school.
Almost all of the strip flooring installed in the first half of the 20th century were thick enough to be sanded over several times, and the odds are your vintage home wasn't refinished more than a couple times. The carpeting craze in the post-war years helped ensure these floors were well-preserved, even through the rigors of carpet-tacking and staples. Most of these boards were 3/4" thick by 2 1/4" wide so generally sanding a bit of the thickness is not an issue. There are ways to eliminate squeaks and creaks through special screws and unsightly gaps and nail holes between the boards can be filled in with special putties and even stained along with the rest of the floor for a continuous appearance. Gloss, semi-gloss, water-based, oil, staining: these are all options you'll have when meeting with a professional to tackle the project, and all have plusses and disadvantages, so there's no better or worse option and much of it will come down to personal preference. Myself, I opted for Bona's Special Walnut stain for the Oak, and a semi-gloss oil based polyurethane for the finish. A lot of sun comes through from the south and west windows after noon so I wanted to minimize the glare, and I thought the oil finish had a much richer and warmer feel to it. For the Maple in the kitchen I opted to leave it natural as this wood is rarely stained and having a closed grain there's really not much for the stain to absorb into as in the case with Oak.
Almost every old kitchen would have Maple installed instead of Oak for the simple reason that Oak's open grain surface would trap all kinds of liquid and food products. And while older finishes back in the day were designed to coat the wood, the slightest wear in the finish would open that grain up and make it almost impossible to clean! To the untrained eye, many people might not even notice the difference in the woods if they've been refinished in the same clear coats. Even some Chicago apartments I've seen from the late 1800's were built in this manner. In the case of my kitchen (and plenty others I've seen in Berwyn) at some point in the late 50's a plywood sub-floor was laid down with thinned roofing pitch tar (cutback) and entombed with a good thousand nail-screws, ensuring its surviving even the worse apocalypse, and then the brilliant newly developed linoleum adhered with yet another layer of cutback. Not many people in the atomic era could have imagined a new found resurgence and respect for the original flooring, and the contractors who installed these new layers would make sure their work was solid. So now the modern-day enthusiast may have a seemingly daunting task ahead of them to solve the sub-floor quagmire, but nothing is impossible, and with a little bit of hard work and creativity this can be pried up with leverage and a Collins axe and a good set of vice grips for nail removal. The sheer power of today's floor sanders can handily erase most of the old adhesives, and the nail holes can be filled in and sanded with the floors when the time comes. I will admit by using leverage to pull up the plywood sub-floor I did damage a few boards but with a little bit of quick research on YouTube I managed to find a way to cut out the bad sections by quickly learning the art of chiseling and breaking part of the tongue-in-groove on the new replacement boards.
Now this brings us to the ultimate question: Should you do this yourself? I would not recommend it for most. Mishandling of the sanding machines can quickly put a divot in your wood that may be beyond repair, the mess and breathing hazards will have to be contained with wisdom and care, and the physical toll on the body, arms, fingers and back are incredible. Unless you have the aptitude for this sort of thing it will be a huge undertaking and you may not want to make your life's greatest investment your first attempt. There may be lot's of prep work you can do yourself though, saving you some labor costs in the long run. For the average house in Berwyn you could expect estimates to come in between $2500-$3000 depending on square footage and stain options. If you view your house as one that is built with a certain level of artisanship and quality, you understand that the entire design was drafted to tie in together with every appointment having a purpose. Many temptations exist to alter this design through newer methods and materials, exotic foreign tree varieties, Pergo, laminate, engineered, pre-finished etc. but by its very design, thickness and old-growth quality, there is very little that can't be corrected and restored with the beautiful original strip-flooring that came installed with your historic Berwyn home!

That is a great question. DIY or hire a pro? My answer is both. I teach people onsite now. I usually do all the drum sanding with my 220 drum sander and the homeowner does all the edging, filling and cleanup. I modify each job to fit the homeowners ability. I help them with install and repair too.

The homeowner learns new skills, gets appreciation for the wood, the satisfaction of the final result and they save money to boot. I also noticed they tend to pay faster. I can't say I miss having to do the edging.

I learned this little trick from Tom Sawyer: Sure it's fun, pay me and I will let you help.

Shoot that by Ken Fisher, he is great at proofing articles. He sent mine back three or four times.
Are you using a Microsoft Word program?

I also have had clients want to help, I say great, start racking.