Hardwood Floor Refinishing in East Hartford, CT: An Unexpected Parquet Floor Gets a Second Life
Sometimes you buy a house and know exactly what you're getting.
And sometimes you pull up the carpet and discover a hardwood floor you didn't even know you owned.
That's exactly what happened on a recent hardwood floor refinishing project in East Hartford, Connecticut.
Our customer had just purchased the home. When the carpeting was removed from the dining room, underneath was a great surprise:
An old parquet hardwood floor.
It had that traditional, old-world pattern and character you simply don't see in most new flooring today.
There was only one problem.
Actually, there were a few.
What Was Hiding Under That Giant Threshold?
At the transition from the dining room into the kitchen was an unusually large, bulky threshold.
It immediately caught our attention.
Why would somebody put such a large threshold there?
Once we removed it, we found the answer.
The parquet flooring didn't extend far enough to create a clean transition into the adjoining area. At some point, rather than properly addressing the missing flooring, someone had installed an oversized threshold to cover the problem.
Now we had a decision to make.
We could put another oversized threshold back and hide it again.
Or we could fix it.
We decided to fix it.
Sometimes Hardwood Floor Refinishing Requires a Little Problem Solving
This is one of the reasons hardwood flooring restoration isn't always just about running a sanding machine across a floor.
Older houses can surprise you.
You pull up carpet and find parquet.
You remove a threshold and discover missing flooring.
You start removing an old finish and find beautiful wood underneath.
Experience tells you how to adapt when the project doesn't look the way you expected.
For this East Hartford floor, we carefully removed portions of the existing parquet around the problem area and incorporated a wide hardwood board to create a much cleaner and more intentional transition.
Instead of trying to hide the problem again, we made the repair part of the finished floor.
That's the difference between covering up a problem and actually solving it.
Getting Rid of the Old Orange Varnish Look
Once the repair work was completed, it was time to see what this parquet could really look like.
The existing floor had an older varnished appearance with the familiar orange and amber coloration that can make an older hardwood floor look much darker and more dated than the actual wood underneath.
So we began sanding.
Little by little, the old coating disappeared.
And underneath it was the parquet floor the new homeowners had never expected to find.
Clean wood. Individual pieces. Beautiful pattern. Old-world character.
That's one of our favorite parts of refinishing older hardwood.
The color homeowners associate with an old floor isn't necessarily the color of the wood.
Sometimes they're looking at decades of finish.
Remove that old finish properly, and an entirely different floor can emerge.
Parquet Flooring Deserves to Be Saved
Parquet is different from a conventional strip hardwood floor.
Instead of long boards all running in the same direction, smaller pieces of hardwood are arranged into repeating geometric patterns.
That means sanding and repairing parquet requires attention to the changing direction of the wood grain and to the condition of the individual pieces.
It's also what gives parquet its character.
There is a craftsmanship and an old-world appearance to these floors that can be difficult to duplicate with today's mass-produced flooring.
That's why we were excited when we saw what was underneath this East Hartford carpet.
This wasn't something we wanted to cover back up.
It was something worth restoring.
From Raw Parquet to a Rich Finished Floor
After removing the old finish and properly preparing the parquet, we applied a commercial-grade sealer followed by an oil-based finishing system.
And that's when the floor really came alive.
The sealer and finish brought depth back into the individual pieces of wood and highlighted the geometric parquet pattern without returning the floor to that tired old orange-varnish appearance it had before.
That's an important distinction.
Oil-based finishes naturally bring warmth and amber character to hardwood, but the entire finishing system—and how it's applied—affects the finished appearance.
Our objective was to give this floor warmth and protection while allowing the parquet itself to be the star of the room.
A Hardwood Floor Should Still Look Like Wood
This is something we've talked about on several of our recent projects.
More finish isn't automatically better.
A professional finish system needs sufficient film build to protect the wood, but we don't want to bury a beautiful old hardwood floor under so much material that it begins looking artificial.
You should still see the grain.
You should see the individual pieces of parquet.
You should see subtle variations in the wood.
A hardwood floor should look like hardwood—not plastic.
Proper sanding, sealing, intercoat preparation and finish application all contribute to that final appearance.
NWFA Standards and Generations of Experience
As members of the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA), we believe professional hardwood floor restoration means following proper industry practices while also understanding the characteristics of the floor in front of you.
The NWFA provides professional guidance covering hardwood floor sanding, finishing, repairs and proper job-site procedures.
But there's another part of hardwood flooring that comes from experience.
It's knowing what to do when you remove a threshold and discover the floor doesn't reach the doorway.
It's understanding how to approach parquet where the grain changes direction.
It's knowing when an old floor can be saved instead of replaced.
And it's being able to look at an unexpected problem and say:
We can figure this out.
The Final Result Was Spectacular
This East Hartford project was fun because it kept revealing surprises.
First came the parquet underneath the carpet.
Then came the flooring problem underneath the oversized threshold.
Then came the beautiful natural wood underneath the old orange varnish.
By the time the repair, sanding, sealing and finishing were complete, this dining room looked entirely different.
The final result was spectacular.
What began as an unexpected old floor hidden underneath carpeting became one of the home's most distinctive features.
That's what makes restoring older hardwood so satisfying.
Sometimes the best floor for your house is already there.
You just haven't uncovered it yet.
Four Generations of Hardwood Flooring Craftsmanship
At Patrick Daigle Hardwood Flooring, Inc., our family's hardwood flooring tradition dates back to 1927.
Today, we continue that tradition throughout East Hartford, Manchester, Hartford County and communities across Connecticut.
We're proud members of the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA).
We're also proud to be ranked #1 in Hartford County by BusinessRate, along with our recognition as #1 in Connecticut.
But projects like this East Hartford parquet restoration demonstrate what generations of experience really mean.
Not every job goes exactly according to plan.
Sometimes you don't know what you're dealing with until the carpet comes up or the old threshold comes off.
That's when experience becomes important.
Did You Discover Hardwood Under Your Carpet in East Hartford?
If you've recently purchased an older home in East Hartford, Connecticut, and discovered hardwood or parquet underneath carpeting, don't assume it needs to be covered again or torn out.
Let someone who understands hardwood evaluate it first.
Old varnish can be removed.
Orange and amber coloration can be dramatically changed.
Missing or damaged areas may be repairable.
And even an awkward transition that somebody hid underneath an oversized threshold may have a better solution.
This East Hartford homeowner thought they were pulling up carpet.
What they actually uncovered was a beautiful piece of their home's history.
And we're proud we had the opportunity to bring it back.
Patrick Daigle Hardwood Flooring, Inc.
Fourth-Generation Hardwood Flooring Craftsmanship Since 1927
NWFA Member
Ranked #1 in Hartford County by BusinessRate
Proudly Recognized as #1 in Connecticut
Serving East Hartford, Manchester, Hartford County and communities throughout Connecticut