First thing's first, the company we used, Galebach's Floor Finishing, pulled up all of the carpet in the entire home. For the most part the softwood yellow pine floors were in pristine condition. They'd been covered by carpet and padding for over 30 years. If the previous owners to the previous owners had carpet that would mean they had been covered for over 50 years! In any case, they were near perfect. The original stain showed a good amount of red which gave the overall color a deep-orange feel - not our cup of tea, but they looked great for all the time they'd been covered up. The white specs on the floor in the following photo is just paint.
We discovered this ugly, green vinyl tile that was under the carpet in the bedroom. Luckily, it came up without any damage. Just a lot of mess! Also, we discovered this room had apparently been painted with sprayers at one point as there was an outline of over-spray around the room.
After the sanding was done the floors were immaculate. We were blown away by the quality. It looked as if the boards were just laid down. Below is a picture of the floors on the first level. Historically, when houses were built in the early 1900's the best wood was the thinnest and used on the first floor. After that, on each floor that ascended to the attic the wood quality degraded and the planks got wider. Ironically, today it's the opposite for board width - wider planks are more expensive.
This is what the wood looked like on the second level and attic. A lot more grain showing with wider planks.
This is the attic with even wider planks yet.
Choosing a stain made us very nervous. The yellow pine throws a red tint to whatever you put down. With that in mind we stayed away from colors like Red Mahogany, didn't want a red-fest going on in there. We really wanted to go dark, but knew that scratches would show up a whole lot more. So we ended up going for a Dark Walnut stain, but cut in half. Just right.
We had to stand in the doorways to take these photos because the floors were still wet. Not the best quality, but there will be lots more pictures to come so check back!
7 comments:
Desiree!! I only now came upon your blog, (via facebook). How great! I love the new floors, great stain color~~~and I've only begun to read your cooking/baking posts! YUM!!
Just wanted to say hello from Strasburg!! Truly hope you're doing well and enjoying life!
Janelle
Hey Janelle- thanks!! I love your blog, very cute. Such an adorable family you have. will talk to you again!
I can really see the big difference between your hardwood floors before and now. Your home has improved so much since you changed the color of your floor and indeed that it really depends on your personality whether you want your floors to be lighter or darker. As for me, I chose to have tiles on the floor instead of hardwood because I'm a modernized person. And I've purchased my tiles at a shop that has tile(s) (St Pete area). Tile stores there in our area have a variety of tiles and wood floors depending on the personality and mood of their customers.
I am a huge fan of your floor color and would like to know what "cut it in half" means. Does this mean that you allowed the stain to sit half the time or did you cut the color with a lighter color?
What do you mean that you used the dark walnut stain 'cut in half' what brand of stain did you use?
The planks on the second level and on the attic would’ve looked great even without the stain. You could have just varnished and polished the planks, and they would’ve been beautiful. I think the floor looks best with the stain though.
what did you mean by cutting the stain in half?? i'm curious as we want to do something similar to our floors.
Post a Comment