Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Vernon, CT – Restoring Worn Hardwood Before a Home Sale
Vernon, Connecticut 06066 | Hartford Turnpike & Tunnel Road Neighborhood
A recent hardwood floor refinishing project in Vernon, CT 06066, near the Hartford Turnpike and Tunnel Road neighborhood, gave us an opportunity to show just how much life can sometimes be brought back to an older hardwood floor.
The homeowner is an investor who purchases houses, renovates them and prepares them for resale. By the time we arrived, this Vernon home had undergone an extensive remodel, but the existing hardwood floors were still in very rough condition.
The house was scheduled to go on the market the following weekend, so the goal was clear: determine whether these old floors could be saved and get them looking right for the finished home.
The Existing Hardwood Floors Were in Rough Shape
The first thing that stands out in the before photographs is just how worn these floors had become. The surface was dull, scratched and dirty, and the remodeling work had created another challenge.
The painter had sprayed primer while working inside the house, leaving overspray and residue across portions of the hardwood. That made this considerably more difficult than an ordinary wood floor refinishing job.
The condition might have caused someone to assume that replacement was the only answer. But before recommending that an existing hardwood floor be torn out, we prefer to determine whether there is enough good wood remaining to restore it.
In this case, there was.
Sanding Through Years of Wear and Remodeling Residue
We began by professionally sanding the floors using our dust-containment sanding equipment. Because of the paint and primer overspray, extra attention was necessary to get through the contaminated surface without unnecessarily removing more wood than needed.
As the old finish, wear and remodeling residue came off, the appearance of the original hardwood began to change dramatically.
This is one of the reasons we like documenting our projects with real before-and-after photographs. The finished floor can look almost like a different floor, but it's actually the original hardwood underneath all that wear.
Keeping the Hardwood Light and Natural
For this project, we didn't want to cover the restored wood with a dark stain. The remodeled house had a clean, bright appearance, and keeping the hardwood relatively light worked much better with the rest of the renovation.
We used a commercial clear sealer followed by two coats of oil-based polyurethane.
An oil-based finish will naturally add more warmth to hardwood than many water-based systems, but the clear sealer helped us maintain a relatively light, natural appearance while still bringing out the grain and variation in the original wood.
Giving the Remodel a Finished Appearance
One of the important parts of hardwood floor refinishing during a home renovation is making sure the floors complement everything else that has been updated.
The lighter hardwood worked well with the newly painted walls, white trim and natural sunlight coming into the rooms. Instead of the floor looking like the unfinished part of the renovation, it now became part of the finished home.
This view also shows how much character remained in the original flooring. There are natural variations from board to board rather than the uniform appearance you might see with a newly manufactured floor.
That's part of what can make saving an existing hardwood floor worthwhile.
Ready for the Vernon Real Estate Market
Timing was important on this project because the owner planned to put the house on the market the following weekend.
By restoring the existing hardwood instead of replacing it, we were able to preserve the original flooring and give the newly remodeled interior the finished appearance it needed.
And there was a nice ending to this particular project.
The house went on the market and sold the next day.
The flooring was only one part of an extensive renovation, of course, but this project demonstrates how restoring worn hardwood can help complete the overall presentation of an older home being prepared for sale.
Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Vernon, Connecticut 06066
At Patrick Daigle Hardwood Flooring, we've worked on hardwood floors in just about every condition imaginable. Some need straightforward sanding and refinishing. Others involve repairs, stains, pet damage, water damage, construction residue or floors that initially look like they may need to be replaced.
This Vernon hardwood floor refinishing project near Hartford Turnpike and Tunnel Road is a good example of why we evaluate the existing flooring before deciding that removal is necessary.
Underneath a very rough-looking surface was still a hardwood floor worth saving.
Patrick Daigle Hardwood Flooring provides hardwood floor refinishing, wood floor refinishing, hardwood floor repairs and professional sanding throughout Vernon 06066, Rockville 06066, and surrounding Connecticut communities including Tolland 06084, Ellington 06029, Manchester 06040 and 06042, Bolton 06043, South Windsor 06074 and Coventry 06238.
For four generations, our family has worked with hardwood floors, combining traditional floor craftsmanship with today's professional sanding, dust-containment and finishing systems.