White Oak Oil-based Refinish - Carlisle, MA

This home had water-based finish in the kitchen and oil-based finish everywhere else in the house. 

In this case the best solution is to (dustless) sand the entire floor and then finish it all using the same polyurethane. And in this case, it turned out great.







In one area in the living room, there was a significant line in the finish caused by the sunlight and an area rug. You can clearly see this line in the image below.

The line caused by the sunlight in front of this slider door (top of picture) was removed during the sanding process.
















Since all of the wood is finished with Bona Woodline Oil Polyurethane, all of the transitions are now seamless. The character in the white oak really pops now too!

Resources

• Bona Woodline Polyurethane
• Bona Dust Containment Systems

Wide-Plank Pine Stain & Refinish- Windham, NH

This project is so much more than a refinish because the original floor was an orange-colored pine with a lot of wear-and-tear. 

Rather than refinish their floors the same color, the homeowner wanted to stain their wide-plank pine boards to match the color of their baseboards.

So we sanded the pine boards using our dust containment system and applied Minwax Provincial stain to this floor in this customer's dining room. 

We finished the floors using Bona Woodline oil-modified polyurethane. This high-quality finish brings out the knots and grains with a rich brown color. 

Pine doesn't have to be the traditional natural orange color you typically imagine when you think of pine. Instead of natural polyurethane, this homeowner had a great vision of blending their floors with their baseboards and door trim, and it really came out great!

Resources:

• Bona Dust Containment System
• Bona Woodline
• Minwax stain

Install & Refinish White Oak with Custom Stain - Chelmsford, MA

This project had a lot going on... there were a lot of areas where the floor had been scratched or where the previous finish was damaged, and we also installed brand new flooring in the kitchen, which was being remodeled.

This project shows a really awesome transformation and we are excited to share a little bit about it.

Some areas of the floor had visible scratches in the hardwood from an overzealous carpet guy and his knife. As you can see from this example, these scratches span over multiple boards. Luckily, in this case, the scratches weren't too deep so we were able to salvage the flooring by sanding it down with our Bona Dust Containment System.

And the spots you see in the following images isn't water spilled on the floor. This is actually drips of polyurethane that dried in pools over multiple rows.

The polyurethane was peeling at all edges and beginning to flake off in sections. This was happening in multiple rooms throughout the home.

It's a little difficult to see, but the edges of the hallway had deep scratches along the baseboards, but after sanding and applying stain, the scratches are no longer there.

The homeowner decided to go with a custom mix of Jacobean/Ebony/Red Oak Minwax stain to completely transform their flooring. Below you can see the progression from the previous natural finish, to where the stain was applied, and finally to where the final coat of Bona Woodline polyurethane was applied.

Previous floor finish

Sanded and custom stain applied

After the final coat of polyurethane applied

The stain was applied throughout home using a buffer and conditioning pads for a consistent, even color throughout the floor. 

Notice the care taken around the cabinets in the kitchen with covering and blue tape to ensure that stain does not get on the cabinets or wall surfaces.

Looking at the end result, you can see the floor has an even color and still shows the wood grain. This is a really unique look and we are proud to have been involved!

Resources:

Minwax Wood Stain
Bona Dust Containment System
Bona Woodline Polyurethane

Ripout, Install, and Refinish Wood Floors- Nashua, NH

This job had it all: ripout, install and refinish. So I'm really excited to share some details of this project!








The customer's foyer and hallway had a tile they wanted gone. They wanted to update the areas and blend it into the existing kitchen,  which had prefinished wood flooring installed; this they wanted to keep.

Here you can see the tile material in the foyer and into the hallway.

Ripout Phase

We removed the tile and prepared the area to install a new prefinished wood flooring. This part if very important. Not only do we need to be very careful not to damage anything besides what is being removed, this also gives us a chance to look for any trouble area in the subfloor. This is where having an expert installer comes in especially handy.

Install Phase

After the tile was removed from the foyer and hallway, we were ready to install the new prefinished wood flooring.

The customer chose a Bruce 2-1/4"prefinished red oak wood flooring material.

Refinish Phase

Now that that prefinished wood flooring was installed, it was time to tackle the existing kitchen floor. The kitchen floor was actually a prefinished floor as well. Some may not know this, but a prefinished floor can typically be sanded and refinished to extend its life.

TIP: Prefinished floors can be typically be refinished to extend the life of the floors!

As you can from the pictures taken before the floor was refinished, there were clear signs of wear-and-tear. You can see areas of discoloration and build-up from years of foot traffic.

But these oak floors came back to life! Notice how dark the area in the corner appears in the "before" photos above compares to how clean that refinished floors came out.


We sanded the floors using our Bona Dust Containment System and then applied Bona Woodline oil-modified polyurethane finish with a semi-gloss sheen.

This creates a nice warn, amber-toned finish that blends well with the newly installed prefinished flooring in the hallway and foyer.

Resources:

• Bruce flooring
• Bona Woodline polyurethane
• Bona Dust Containment Systems

Yellow Birch Wood Floor Refinish at Stonyfield Farm Facility- Londonderry, NH

We recently had the privilege to refinish the wood floors as part of an upgrade to the cafeteria and lounge area at the Stonyfield Farm facility in Londonderry, NH.

This area is a very popular space that sees a lot of foot traffic on a daily basis. As you will see in the photos below, we were able to not only salvage this solid yellow birch wood floor, but really breathe a fresh breath of life back into them.

Take a look at the transformation of this gorgeous 2-1/4" Yellow Birch wood. It had been quite worn from foot traffic, but we were able to bring it back to life!

Before / After

Here is another area of the space where a lot of foot traffic passes through, and now it looks better than new!

Before / After

Our dust containment system was key in this project, as cleanliness is very important in a facility like this.

For the polyurethane finish, we applied Bona Traffic (see more at Bona's website), a commercial-grade waterborne finish. This product provides the high-quality and durability required to maintain these wood floors in a high-traffic area such as this.

We're excited with the outcome of this project and happy to provide the good folks at Stonyfield with a place they can relax for a few minutes between yogurt sessions!

Solid Ash Flooring Repair & Refinish- Hudson, NH

This project features the results of our repair and dustless refinishing services. The home owner had a random-width, white ash hardwood installed, which we refinished with Bona Woodline oil-modified polyurethane. The home owner already had ash flooring throughout the entire home, and water damage required the kitchen floor to be replaced in large sections. 

We were able to repair the flooring and remove the cupped boards, successfully weaving in new flooring. In the image below, you can see the newly patched area after it was installed and before it was finished. On the right, you can see the area blends in perfectly after the entire floor has been finished. 

 

Here we are preparing our dustless sanding
equipment to sand the entire floor using
our Atomic Dust Containment System

As I mentioned, this flooring project included a random-width pattern. For a unique look, a random-width (or mixed-width) installation uses a mixture of board widths throughout the space. In this case, the floors included 3", 4", 5", and 6" white ash hardwood and had to be matched perfectly.  

In case you aren't familiar with many wood species beyond say, oak, add Ash to your list because here are some interesting characteristics about the product. White ash is a domestic product and is currently available in plentiful supply. This makes ash hardwood an affordable wood flooring product option. Don't worry about durability with ash either because it falls right between red and white oak on a Janka Hardness Chart (more on this in a later post!). 

Another benefit to white ash is that it responds well to finishes (and stains too). As you can see, the wood offers a lot of character in its grains.  

In these photos, the floor looks shiny because the final coat of finish had just been applied. It appears that we applied a finish without stain, but actually used a natural Minwax stain. 

It was an excellent choice in this case, letting the wood's natural colors and character shine through while still having a slight stain to make the grains more noticeable.  

 

Here are some really good resources for more information on Ash and other wood species: http://woodfloors.org/ash-white-species.aspx, http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/white-ash/

You can learn more about Bona products here: http://www.bona.com/en-US/

You can learn more about Minwax products here: http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/