Historic Renovation of Hardwood Floors in Tampa
“The main restoration of our 1936 family home took 18 months. As we completed project after project, I became adept at discerning contractors from craftsmen. Craftsmen are harder to find, but worth the search. ”
“Through the Woods is a team of craftsmen. They listened to our requests, embraced our home's heritage, and revealed its true personality. That, is what craftsmen do.”
-- Karen W., St. Petersburg
Tampa Bay is rich in history and we are proud to be restoring its built heritage, one wood floor at a time! We are experienced preservationists and strive to preserve historic materials whenever possible. The patina of old growth wood contributes a warm glow that is impossible to reproduce. Using a gentle touch, we give new life to old wood floors, often saving floors that other companies have suggested demolishing.
The majority of historic wood floors in Tampa are made of Oak and Heart Pine Frequently, Oak was used in the public areas, while Heart Pine, a locally produced product, was used in the living areas.
The first step in renovating a floor is assessing the amount of damage there is to individual boards. Here in Tampa, hardwood floors experience the munching of termites throughout the entire year and after 80-100 years, extensive damage can result. We keep supplies of recycled wood for patching and also have many sources for Antique woods, both reclaimed from old buildings and from the bottoms of deep rivers should extensive patching be required.
After carefully removing damaged boards, we generally “lace in” the old wood creating a patch that will not be visible after the floor is sanded. In a very old house, especially a farm house, with many obvious patches, we might just cut out boards and replace them, leaving another easy to see patch, such as might have been made by an early owner, wanting to please his wife, but eager to return to his field.
We then sand your floor with our state-of-the-art equipment. Sanding is a process in which we cut your floors with different abrasives to remove old finish, level the floor and smooth out the wood to accept the new finish. The heavier grits make deeper cuts into your floors and the successive lighter grits smooth the floor to make the hardwood floor ready to be finished with your choice of coatings.
After we make the first cut, we reassess for damage to individual boards. Pests usually eat from the bottom up, so often damage cannot be seen until some of the wood is removed from the top. Often, we must replace more boards at this time.
When the floor is sanded, we sometimes apply a stain, which changes the color of wood. After that, we coat the floor with a protective finish, such as polyurethane. We suggest using a medium gloss sheen to mimic that of the original wax finish, rather than a more shiny gloss.
Your old floor is new again!
