Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Windsor, CT: Taking an Orange Parquet Floor From Dated to Beautiful
Sometimes it's not the hardwood floor that makes a house look dated.
It's the old finish sitting on top of it.
This recent hardwood floor refinishing project in Windsor, Connecticut 06095 is a perfect example.
The home had an older parquet hardwood floor that had developed that familiar orange, amber and honey-colored appearance we see on many older floors.
It was also worn and tired.
Between the heavy amber color and years of use, the parquet made the entire room feel considerably older than it needed to.
But there was nothing wrong with the idea of parquet itself.
Underneath that old finish was still an interesting hardwood floor.
We professionally sanded away the worn finish and brought the parquet back to raw wood. Then we changed the entire finishing direction, applying Bona NaturalSeal followed by Bona Mega waterborne finish.
The transformation was dramatic.
The orange and honey coloration disappeared.
The parquet became light and natural again.
And suddenly, a floor that had been making the house look dated became one of the features that helped bring the room up to date.
Same parquet floor. Completely different generation of finish.
Parquet Doesn't Have to Look Dated
Parquet flooring sometimes gets blamed for making a house look old.
We don't necessarily agree.
A lot depends on what's sitting on top of it.
Older oil-based finishes naturally develop amber and golden coloration over time. On parquet, where smaller pieces of hardwood create a repeating pattern, all that orange and honey color can visually overwhelm the design.
Once we began sanding this Windsor floor, that changed.
Removing the old finish allowed us to see the hardwood again rather than the decades of amber coloration sitting over it.
That's an important distinction.
The parquet wasn't necessarily outdated. The old finish was.
Sanding Parquet Requires a Different Approach
Parquet also requires attention during sanding because the individual pieces of wood don't all run in one continuous direction.
With a conventional strip floor, most boards typically follow the same direction.
Parquet creates a pattern with the grain changing direction throughout the floor.
That means the sanding process needs to account for those changes while still producing a clean, even surface.
Our goal was to remove the worn finish without taking away the character of the parquet underneath it.
As the old orange finish disappeared, the pattern became much cleaner and easier to appreciate.
Bona NaturalSeal and Mega Changed the Entire Room
Once the floor was properly sanded and prepared, we applied Bona NaturalSeal followed by Bona Mega waterborne finish.
That was a major part of this transformation.
Instead of putting the strong amber coloration right back onto the freshly sanded hardwood, the waterborne system allowed us to keep the floor much lighter, cleaner and more natural-looking.
The parquet pattern remained.
The wood grain remained.
What disappeared was that heavy orange and honey appearance.
And because the floor became lighter, the entire room felt brighter and more current.
This is something we see repeatedly in Connecticut homes.
Homeowners sometimes believe they need to replace their hardwood flooring to modernize a room.
Then we sand the old finish off and they realize:
The hardwood they wanted was already in the house.
Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Windsor, Connecticut 06095
Windsor is a town we know particularly well.
We've worked in many, many homes throughout Windsor over the years, refinishing, repairing and restoring all different types of hardwood flooring.
There's also a personal connection for me.
I went to prep high school here in Windsor, so this is an area I've known for a long time.
And you can't talk about Windsor without talking about Loomis Chaffee.
The Loomis Institute was chartered in 1874 and opened in 1914. Today, Loomis Chaffee's approximately 300-acre campus—known as “the Island”—sits near the confluence of the Farmington and Connecticut rivers and within walking distance of Windsor Center.
Windsor's connection to the Loomis and Chaffee families can still be seen around town, including the historic Dr. Hezekiah Chaffee House on Palisado Avenue.
One of Connecticut's Most Historic Communities
Windsor traces its English settlement to 1633 and has long claimed its place as Connecticut's oldest town. Its location where the Farmington River meets the Connecticut River helped shape the community's early agriculture, trade and industry.
That history is still easy to see around Windsor.
Along Palisado Avenue you'll find historic architecture and landmarks such as the Dr. Hezekiah Chaffee House and the Oliver Ellsworth Homestead. Ellsworth was a framer of the United States Constitution, Connecticut's first U.S. senator and the third Chief Justice of the United States.
Northwest Park - Nature Center is another familiar Windsor destination, combining trails and open space with the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum and reminders of the tobacco farming that played such an important role in Windsor's history.
The town also includes Windsor Center, Poquonock, historic Palisado, the Broad Street area and established residential neighborhoods extending toward Bloomfield, East Granby, Windsor Locks and Hartford.
Windsor and the Surrounding Communities
The primary Windsor ZIP code is 06095, with Poquonock 06064 representing another postal area within Windsor.
Our work in this part of Connecticut also regularly takes us into neighboring Windsor Locks 06096, Bloomfield 06002, East Granby 06026, Suffield 06078, East Windsor 06088 and Hartford.
It's an area where we've worked for decades.
And Windsor's variety of homes means we've encountered everything from older hardwood floors and historic properties to newer installations and specialty floors like this parquet project.
Four Generations of Hardwood Flooring Experience
At Patrick Daigle Hardwood Flooring, Inc., hardwood flooring is our specialty.
Our family's hardwood flooring tradition dates to 1927, and our Connecticut business began around 1972. Today, we're the fourth generation carrying on that craftsmanship.
We're proud members of the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) and proud to be ranked #1 in Hartford County and #1 in Connecticut by BusinessRate.
This Windsor project is a great example of why we don't automatically recommend replacing an older floor simply because its appearance feels dated.
We started with worn parquet covered by an orange, amber, honey-colored old finish.
We sanded that away.
Then we applied Bona NaturalSeal and Bona Mega waterborne finish.
The finished floor became light, clean and natural.
The parquet pattern was still there—but now it looked like it belonged in the updated house.
We didn't remove the character of the old floor.
We removed the old finish that was hiding it.
Patrick Daigle Hardwood Flooring, Inc.
Fourth-Generation Hardwood Flooring Craftsmanship Since 1927
NWFA Member
Ranked #1 in Hartford County and #1 in Connecticut by BusinessRate
Serving Windsor 06095, Poquonock 06064, Windsor Locks, Bloomfield, East Granby, Suffield, East Windsor, Hartford and surrounding Connecticut communities.