More floor

A newly refinished wood floor gleams in the morning light.

The flooring company that installed the vinyl tiles in the kitchen needed to know how the transition would be made to the existing wood floor (yet to be repaired and refinished).  When I suggested that they could provide a wooden strip of the right height and taper, they gave me a horrified look and declared “we don’t do wood”.

The no-man’s-land between the kitchen vinyl floor and the maple floor to be restored. Somehow, they will have to come together.

We decided that the vinyl tile would be laid beyond its natural boundaries so that it could be trimmed back if necessary when the wood flooring was restored.

The next week the wood flooring team arrived. I had spent quite some time finding a company that could do what I wanted.  My desires didn’t seem that outrageous to me.  The living room floor had been previously refinished.  It was glossy and beautiful, one of the features that attracted me to This Odd House.  But the floor under the radiators were painted white, a consequence I suspect, of the refinisher’s floor sanding machine not being able to get under them.

It could be that the previous owner who did the work rented the machine and it was the only tool available.  But I also found that even professional wood floor refinishing companies often did not have anything better, and would charge extra for having to deal with radiators.

I discovered that there was a tool for just exactly this purpose, the “long nose sander”, a kind of a duck-billed machine, and companies that wanted business in restoring old houses had this item in their floor sanding arsenal.

After interviewing several companies and confirming that they had such tools, I selected “Earl’s Floor Sanding”.  I was impressed with the knowledge and experience of the owner (Todd, there is no Earl), and the fact that he had a supply of maple floor boards that had been salvaged from houses of the same vintage.   He got my business.

Some of the equipment used for restoring wood floors.

The rooms had been cleared, and all the furnishings shifted into the kitchen.  The first day was filled with the sounds of machines that extracted old boards, drilled, mitered and beveled them, cut new ones, then inlayed and resurfaced them.  Some of the equipment required 220V 50A power.  Lines were run to the basement to provide it.  The noise was tremendous, and the dust darkened the daylight.

Day two was more surface prep and the crafting of transition pieces.  A wood sealer was applied.  The interface between the vinyl tile floor and the wood floor would involve a 1/8” gap to be filled with some transitional material.  I proposed the grout that had been used between the tiles, but the wood flooring guy gave me a horrified look and said he knows nothing about grout and wouldn’t know how to apply it.  It became quite clear to me that there was absolutely no market overlap between these two flooring technologies.  He went off to the hardware store to procure some matching caulk, a material he knew and could apply with confidence.

Day three saw the first coat of varnish (polyurethane), an oil-based satin finish.  Satin finish is popular because it does not detract from the natural appearance of the wood, and it also hides scratches.  The existing finish in the living room was a striking high gloss.  It was popular at one time, and I liked it, but it is difficult for it to not record every abrasion and put it on full display.   I opted instead for an intermediate finish, semi-gloss.  It will still show reflections of the lighting, but with a nice diffuse glow.

It may never occur again that the floors will be as open and clear (until I move out or die I suppose), and since we may not move the furniture back in for another week, this is the time for a little dancing.  The panorama below shows the room in the morning light (a bit illusive, it is not nearly as big as the photo makes it look).

A 360 panorama of the newly refinished floor. The ballroom is now open (complete with disco ball!)