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

Engineered Floor Repair and Refinish- New Ipswich, NH

The floor in this home is a Kahrs engineered product and, as you can see, it has a really unique look to it.












Unfortunately, some areas of the floor had been damaged by water, so we were able to repair the damaged areas and then refinish the entire floor together.

We removed the damaged boards and patched those areas with new boards. Here, you can see that the newer boards installed near the tile are a bit lighter. After the entire floor is finished, all of the boards will look the same.

Bona Traffic polyurethane with a semi-gloss sheen was used to finish the floors. Here, we are in the process of applying the third and final coat of polyurethane. Bona Traffic is a commercial-grade finish, so these floors will withstand years of activity.

Below you can see a shot of the kitchen area before and then after it was refinished.

Resources referenced in this post:
Kahrs- http://www.kahrs.com/en-us/Consumer/floors/
Bona- https://www.bona.com/en-US/United-States1/BonaSystem/Coatings/Finishes/BonaTraffic/

Prefinished Bamboo Installation- Hudson, NH

This was a very unique project because a previous contractor had improperly installed flooring, so we had to undo the damage and then re-install the flooring to meet other existing floor surfaces, ensuring smooth transitions throughout the first and second floors. 

So the first phase of this project was removing the flooring that had been improperly installed. The previous contractor had actually installed the materials backwards!!




When the previous contractor installed the flooring backwards they had a very difficult time finishing the last few pieces against the wall. Pry-bars and screw drivers were used to get the last row together and, as you can imagine, this left the baseboards very damaged.

Using shims to prepare the transitions where the bamboo flooring will meet the existing tile is a way to ensure the two surfaces are level and flush.

The green underlayment is a padding used between the subfloor and the bamboo. This helps soften the floor and quiets noise levels caused by foot traffic.

The transition between bamboo and tile will be smooth due to proper preparation

Here is another smooth transition between newly installed bamboo and existing tile

We took off approximately 1/8" of the baseboards to remove the damage using flush-cut saws and Hepa vacuums to maintain air quality. 

This was all done without having to remove the baseboard from the walls, which was glued and screwed with trim screws. 

We then leveled the subfloor, repaired the damaged baseboards, and installed the prefinished bamboo in the first floor entry way and second floor hallway.