Hardwood Floor Repair, Custom Stain Matching & Refinishing in Windsor, CT
Windsor, Connecticut 06095 | Loomis Chaffee School Area
This Windsor project was more complicated than a typical hardwood floor refinishing job because we were trying to solve several problems at the same time. The homeowners wanted to keep a color similar to the existing floor, there were pet-stained areas that needed attention, and some of the damaged flooring was beyond what sanding alone could correct. That meant this project required hardwood floor repairs, board replacement, weaving and toothing, custom stain matching, sanding and refinishing before we could achieve the finished appearance the homeowners wanted.
The home was in the area of The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, CT 06095. Loomis Chaffee itself is located on Batchelder Road in the 06095 ZIP code. Loomis Chaffee School
One of the first challenges was determining the color. The homeowners liked the general brown character of their existing hardwood floor and didn't want to completely change the appearance of the house.
I brought several of our stain samples and laid them directly on the existing floor. This is something photographs and color charts simply can't duplicate. Seeing actual stained wood against the floor gives us a much better starting point.
But in this case, the standard samples still weren't quite right.
So instead of telling the homeowners that they had to pick the closest available color, we custom mixed a stain specifically for their floor.
Pet Damage Required More Than Sanding
This photograph shows why hardwood floor repair sometimes has to come before hardwood floor refinishing.
Pet stains can penetrate below the surface of the wood. Sometimes we're able to sand them substantially lighter, and occasionally the results are better than expected. Other times the discoloration has penetrated too deeply.
We don't like promising a homeowner that a pet stain will disappear simply because we're sanding the floor. We really don't know how much of a deep stain will come out until we begin sanding.
On this Windsor floor, some areas required a different solution. We removed the damaged boards and replaced them with new flooring.
Rather than cutting out a large square section and creating an obvious patch, the replacement flooring was woven, or toothed, into the existing hardwood. By staggering the replacement boards into the original floor, the repair becomes much less noticeable once everything is sanded, stained and finished together.
Creating the Custom Brown Stain
Our original samples got us close, but close wasn't good enough for this particular project.
The homeowners wanted a brown tone that related to the color they already had without simply duplicating the old appearance. We therefore began experimenting with a custom stain mixture.
This is one of the reasons we prefer doing stain samples on the actual floor whenever possible.
Every hardwood floor is a little different. The species, age of the wood, previous finish, sanding and natural variation from board to board can all influence how a stain looks.
We prepared several custom possibilities and allowed the homeowners to see the colors in their own house and lighting.
Eventually, we found it.
The homeowners selected a warmer brown custom stain that maintained the character they liked about the original floor while giving the newly repaired and refinished hardwood a much cleaner, more consistent appearance.
Bringing the Old and New Flooring Together
Once the damaged boards had been replaced, the next challenge was making the repair and the original hardwood look like one floor.
That's where the complete refinishing process becomes so important.
After the repair work was completed, we sanded the hardwood using our professional dust-containment sanding process. Sanding the repaired and existing flooring together prepares the wood for stain and helps eliminate the visual difference between the old boards and replacement boards.
Then the custom stain selected by the homeowners could be applied across the floor.
This finished photograph shows why taking the additional time with the color selection was worthwhile.
The brown tone works beautifully with the oak. You can still see the grain and natural variation throughout the individual boards instead of covering the character of the wood with an excessively dark stain.
Most importantly, the color was chosen with the homeowners, rather than simply being selected for them.
Why We Don't Rush a Hardwood Floor Color Decision
Color is one of the biggest decisions in a wood floor refinishing project because homeowners will be looking at that floor for years.
Sometimes a standard stain color is exactly right. Sometimes two colors need to be mixed. And occasionally, as with this Windsor project, it takes several attempts before we find the color that works with the house and meets the homeowner's expectations.
That's part of the process.
We would rather spend additional time creating samples than put stain across an entire house and have the customer say, “That's not what I thought it was going to look like.”
This project is also a good example of why hardwood floor refinishing isn't always simply sand, stain and polyurethane. We first had to evaluate the pet damage, determine which flooring could be saved, remove flooring that couldn't be saved, weave replacement boards into the existing floor, work through the color-selection process and then refinish everything as one continuous hardwood floor.
The end result was a warm brown floor that kept the character of the original hardwood while addressing the damaged areas that brought us into the project in the first place.
For us, that's what a successful hardwood floor repair and refinishing project should accomplish.
Hardwood Floor Refinishing & Repairs in Windsor, CT 06095
Patrick Daigle Hardwood Flooring provides hardwood floor refinishing, wood floor refinishing, hardwood floor repairs, pet-stain repairs, board replacement, weaving and toothing, custom stain matching, dust-containment sanding and hardwood flooring installation throughout Windsor, Connecticut 06095 and surrounding communities.
This project was completed in the Loomis Chaffee area of Windsor, giving us another good example of how an older hardwood floor can often be preserved rather than simply covered or completely replaced. The school's Windsor campus is on Batchelder Road, also in ZIP code 06095. Loomis Chaffee School