Vernon, CT Hardwood Floor Refinishing — Updating a Bolton Lake Home With Bona NaturalSeal
Some hardwood floor refinishing projects are really about changing the entire feeling of a home. This project in the Linwood neighborhood of Vernon, CT 06066, near Bolton Lake, was a perfect example.
The homeowners were a great couple to work with, and their home has a beautiful setting right on the water. The hardwood floors, however, were showing their age. The old finish had a darker, golden appearance, there was visible wear in the living areas, and the homeowners wanted to get away from that dated color.
Rather than adding another dark or amber tone, we went in the opposite direction. After sanding the floors back to clean wood, we used Bona NaturalSeal followed by three coats of Bona Mega water-based finish. The difference was dramatic.
A Beautiful Setting With Floors Ready for an Update
The before-refinishing hardwood floor shows what the floor looked like before we began. With the large windows overlooking Bolton Lake, this house gets plenty of natural light, but the older finish was working against it.
The floor itself still had plenty of life left in it. What needed to change was the surface and color.
That's one of the advantages of hardwood floor refinishing. A solid hardwood floor doesn't necessarily need to be replaced simply because its color looks dated or its finish is worn. Sanding removes the old finish and gives us an opportunity to take the same wood in a completely different direction.
And that was exactly what these homeowners wanted.
Protecting the Fieldstone Fireplace Before Sanding
One detail that required some additional preparation was the large fieldstone fireplace.
We didn't want sanding dust getting into all the irregular surfaces and joints in the stone, so we carefully covered and protected the fireplace before beginning the sanding process.
The worn hardwood flooring around the protected fieldstone fireplace also gives a closer look at the condition of the existing floor. There were areas where years of traffic had noticeably changed the color and appearance of the finish.
Using our professional dust-containment sanding equipment and process, we removed that old surface and brought the hardwood back to clean wood.
Once the old finish was gone, the room already began to look different.
Bona NaturalSeal Changed the Color Without Hiding the Wood
For this project, the homeowners selected Bona NaturalSeal followed by three coats of Bona Mega.
NaturalSeal was a good direction for what they were trying to accomplish. Instead of recreating the deeper amber appearance of the previous floor, it gave the freshly sanded hardwood a lighter, more natural tone.
The water-based system also offers lower odor and lower VOCs than traditional oil-based polyurethane, while allowing us to build the finish with multiple coats.
What I like about the refinished hardwood floors with Bona NaturalSeal is that you can still clearly see the grain and natural variations in the hardwood. We weren't trying to make an old wood floor look artificial or overly coated. We wanted to clean it up, protect it and let the wood become part of the room again.
Even the Small Details Looked Better
One of the features we really liked in this house was the custom wood floor grate.
It's a small detail, but after the surrounding hardwood was sanded and refinished, it blended beautifully into the floor instead of being surrounded by the older golden finish.
You can also see how much brighter the adjoining kitchen and living areas became. We didn't change the hardwood. We changed what years of old finish and color were doing to it.
The result was a much cleaner, lighter appearance that worked extremely well with the lakefront setting.
A Complete Color Transformation in Vernon
This was a satisfying project because the before-and-after difference wasn't created by installing an entirely new floor.
It came from bringing the existing hardwood back.
We removed the worn older finish, sanded the floors with professional dust-containment equipment, protected the fieldstone fireplace, applied Bona NaturalSeal, and built the new surface with three coats of Bona Mega.
The old golden appearance was gone. The natural grain became more noticeable, the rooms felt brighter, and the entire first floor looked more current.
Most importantly, the homeowners got the change they were looking for without losing the character of the original hardwood.
For homeowners in Vernon, CT 06066, including the Bolton Lake, Linwood and nearby Rockville areas, this project is a good example of how hardwood floor refinishing or wood floor refinishing can completely change the appearance of an existing home without replacing a good hardwood floor.