Ripout and Install Prefinished Wood Floors- Londonderry, NH

This prefinished wood floor was installed as an upgrade and to add continuity between multiple rooms.

But first, we had to remove the existing flooring!







We were called to inspect this 3 1/4" prefinished Bruce Armstrong Gunstock floor that was purchased and installed by a local "big box" home improvement store about 10 years ago. These big box stores generally subcontract services such as flooring installations.

It was easy to notice many gaps between the rows of flooring, so it was obvious something went wrong with the installation.

EverWood Flooring to the rescue!

The homeowner elected to remove this dining room floor and install a new floor to extend into the family room.

Warning: we're about to get a little technical!

Once we began to remove the floor we quickly realized it was nailed backwards into the grooves instead of the tongue of the hardwood.

The installer had used an excessive amount of nails to trying to force the tongues into the grooves. It's obvious the installer was having trouble with the staples blocking the the tongues from setting completely into the grooves.

Now, the fun part!

The customer chose a 3 1/4" Bruce Armstrong Dundee hardwood product, which carries a generous 50-year warranty. This is one of Armstrong's most prestigious lines of oak flooring.

TIP:  When planning your installation, consider ordering extra flooring so you have an exact match if you need a small repair in the future! 

We had about a half a bundle of wood left for the customer. These individual prefinished boards can be used to repair the floor one board at a time or a small section. 

Things happen in life, such as water that overflowing from a plant or a new puppy peeing on a wood floor- things like this can cause permanent damage. We can use these leftover boards and replace damaged areas with no need to sand and refinish! 

Repairing the floor without the need to sand/finish the entire room is one of the greatest benefits to prefinished flooring!

Resources:

• Bruce Armstrong Dundee wood flooring products

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.

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!

Water Damage Repair with Bamboo Floating Floor- Andover, MA

We installed this prefinished bamboo product in the lower-level of this home to replace a water-damaged bonus room. 

The lower level of this home had pretty extensive water damage. When we pulled up the damaged floor we also found water-damaged cork beneath.

The cork was glued down to the concrete with a troweled wood glue. We removed the cork and then scraped the glue off of the concrete to prep the water-damaged areas of cork for replacement. 

Unfortunately, as every job has unexpected things arise, cork was not readily available for purchase that day at any of the local distributors. In the interest of keeping the job on track and finishing on time, we substituted with rubber underlayment in place of cork. The cork and rubber underlayment were the same thickness and are very similar products. 

Most flooring installers would stop there but we decided to also add layer of QuietWalk underlayment padding on top of the cork and rubber. This really took this installation to another level of quality. 

There are so many underlayment pads out there, and tend to be very expensive, although EverWood Flooring only uses QuietWalk Underlayment pad. 

You can read all about this product on their website (see the Resources section at the bottom of this profile), but here are a few:
- Sound absorption
- Moisture protection
- Smoothes out minor sub-floor imperfections
- Made from recycled materials

Then we installed Teragren Strand Bamboo floating flooring, glued at the seams. Teragren Bamboo is regarded as one of the highest end, best Bamboo products out there. 

This product can be installed a number of ways over a number of different subfloors. In this case, the customer mainly chose this product based on color to match the existing Exotic Wenge flooring in other areas of their home. 

It is most often installed being nailed down or glued to a subfloor, but Teragren has such a good milling system that the boards can be floated and glued at the seams. This is how we installed this bamboo over QuietWalk underlayment. 

This type of installation can be very difficult for a homeowner where the product is not nailed and has no locking mechanism. Relying on glue to keep each row bonded to the next, we used blue tape on top of the boards to keep everything from separating during installation. For a homeowner, I would recommend either nailing or hiring a professional to glue the product to the floor or at the seams. 

A few words about Teragren Strand Bamboo...
This product is certified by USDA BioPreferred as 94% biobased, meaning that most of it is "...derived from plants and other renewable agricultural, marine, and forestry materials..." Even still, the product has a Janka ball rating of 3271, which makes it harder than oak. 

Quick product facts:

• 160% harder than oak (3271 Janka ball rating)
• Sustainable product
• Durable 9-step UV Cured Polyurethane coating system with aluminum oxide wear layer for abrasion resistance

Resources

For more information on Bio Preferred program see: 

http://www.biopreferred.gov/BioPreferred/faces/pages/AboutBioPreferred.xhtml

For more information on Teragren products see:

http://www.teragren.com/p_portfolio_tg.html

For more information on QuietWalk products see:

http://www.mpglobalproducts.com/products/fiber-products/quietwalk/

Prefinished Oak Install with Custom Border- Hollis, NH

This customer recently purchased a home in Hollis, NH that had carpet in their open-concept family room. There was existing prefinished Bruce hardwood throughout the home already, and the home owner wanted to continue the wood flooring into the family room, but still have the room stand out as its own entity.

We decided that adding a 3-board border around the perimeter of the family room would fully define the space and make the statement they were looking for.

To create the perimeter, a natural oak was used for the outside and inside rows of the border. Using a red oak stained in a cherry color for the "inlay," or middle row of the border, really made the border around the room pop. The middle of the floor was filled in with this darker cherry color as well.

When installing a prefinished product, every cut around the border and boards must be routered, considering there will be no need to sand once installed. This makes sure every board stays together by tongue-and-groove, which limits any chance for separation over time. 

This job was completed in a prefinished wood, although border work such as this can also be done with unfinished wood and sanded/finished on-site. For example, we could use a different species for an inlay, such as mahogany between a natural oak, to make the middle row stand out without using stain colors.  

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Rivier University Yellow Birch Refinish- Nashua, NH

For this project we are grateful to have been selected by Rivier University to refinish the floors in one of the campus offices. We were on-site working on the floors as part of a Chapel renovation and were asked to complete this project as well (more on the Chapel reno in a later profile!). 

Floor Prior to Refinish

This 2 1/4" yellow birch floor had not been sanded and finished for many years, so it was very worn in certain areas. We used Bona Traffic HD (high durability) commercial-grade, water-based polyurethane as the floor finish. 

Our Dustless Floor Sanding System in Action

This polyurethane uses a two-part, catalyzed finished with an acrylic resin hardening component that is mixed and then applied to the floor. This may seem extreme, but there will be a lot of foot traffic (pardon the pun) in and out of the office, and the folks at Rivier University wanted to use a finish that would last the longest.

Bona has performed countless research and testing on their products. Their findings in the Taber Abrasion Test state that it takes about twice as many steps to wear through this Bona Traffic HD product than it does to wear through a water-based finish without a cross link acrylic hardener. Bona Traffic HD also offer low VOC and extremely low odor, which is another great benefit of this product. 

Read more about Bona Traffic HD here: http://www.bona.com/Professional/BonaSystem/Coatings/Finishes/Traffic-HD/