I’ve reached the point in my life, and perhaps this is because of middle-age, where I now find tales of property restoration inspiring. Here’s a story about a restoration project in San Jose California, once a splendorous mansion built in 1920, then a dilapidated pile in serious danger of demolition, and now returned to its former glory.
The house, known as Whitney Wright’s House after the owner who purchased it in 1949, was endangered because of its state of disrepair and because of the land it’s sitting on; four acres of prime real estate in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose. Luckily, local planners and neighbors in the area fought for its salvation. Those who bought the house pledged to restore it, and that’s what they’ve done.
I guess it’s because I love history so much, and properties and homes are so tied to the memories of people who lived in them, and seem to tie us to the past, to worlds which have since disappeared. I think this stuff is pretty important. I think there is a common experience in revisiting a place where you once lived, only to find that everything’s been changed. It’s no longer your city, your town, your street, your house. And to me, part of what investing in a home means is creating history as well as material value.
The story here describes that part of the renovation of the home has included bringing in some modern surfaces - hardwood flooring, and granite countertops being highlights. And yet, what remains for those once lived there is the sense that the memories are still there, even if there are new surfaces to admire. I guess for them, it’s like seeing an old friend wearing new clothes.
Cheers,
Rob
‘Whitney Wright House’ image courtesy of Avi Morgan. It should be noted that there was a local fight to also preserve the trees on the property, a fight which seemed to be less successful than the one which saved the house. Avi has added some details of the situation on his photostream. The tension between history and progress continues…
Accidents will happen, as Elvis Costello once said, and this goes for your hardwood floor too. As robust and long-lasting as a solid hardwood floor is, it can be prone to moisture damage if spills or the (shall we say) indiscretions of your four legged family members are not attended to right away. This sometimes means stains. How can you remove them, you may ask. Well, here’s a link to an article about removing stains from a hardwood floor which goes over this common problem, step by step. I hope it’s useful.
Traditional wood flooring. It’s not only a kind of floor covering, it’s also like an institution, a gold standard. Yet, there are negative connotations to this too. One of them is that wood flooring may be long-lasting, and it may add structural strength and value to a property. But, cutting edge? In the minds of many consumers, not so much.
Yet, this is a misconception. There are plenty of wood flooring choices that diverge from the norm, and actually add visual spark to a project too. So, when installers and interior designers speak the words ‘wood flooring’, the word ‘traditional’ isn’t always necessary.
Take a look at Eva’s Designs. There’s a post on her blog there about how a type of wood flooring - zebra hardwood flooring - has made an impression on Eva, who is an interior designer by day, and an oil painter by night. She’s clearly interested in visual effects in general. And where many turn to wood flooring for all kinds of practical reasons, Eva is clearly interested in the aesthetic ones, ones that bring out modern style sensibilities, and communicate something about a modern lifestyle and a sense of artistry.
To me, this underscores the point of how versatile wood flooring is. Visually, it can be rustic, and sophisticated in equal measure. It all depends on what your taste is, yet wood flooring seems to fit in nearly any vision for interior design, while the practical stuff like the strength and longevity for which wood flooring is famous does it’s magic as a bonus - and what a bonus. Wood flooring doesn’t have to be the staid, austere choice that many people think it is. Just because something is practical, it doesn’t mean it can’t also be cool…
I’m heading to Yoho National Park, B.C Canada, tomorow for a week of outdoor (mis)adventures. This is uncharted territory for my wife and I…anyone have any favorite spots they’d like to recommend?
Youtube is a bit of an addiction of mine. I spend a lot of time there on my off-hours, mostly looking for footage of musicians playing live so that I can blather about it on my music geek blog. But, sometimes I peruse the vast richness of youtube because I’m also interested in the process of installing hardwood flooring, the methods of which tend to differ internationally.
Here’s a video of a hardwood wood flooring installation carried out in New Zealand by local firm Just Hardwood Flooring:
One thing that struck me was that they were installing a hardwood floor on a concrete slab, which I’ve always assumed couldn’t be done. But when they say this, they just assume that a parquet subfloor installed over a vapor barrier layer (which in this case is an applied resin to the concrete…) is included in the process. From here, they fasten the hardwood flooring boards to the wood subfloor, which is in turn fastened to the concrete slab.
What they also mention in the comments section of this video they’ve posted is that most houses in Australia and New Zealand are built on concrete slabs. So, this method is pretty common practice there. It reminds me that geography plays a huge part when it comes to choosing a type of flooring, and in installing hardwood flooring in a given space.
What do you think, good people? How does your geographical location affect your own projects?
The Washington Post is the legendary newspaper which broke the Watergate scandal during Nixon’s administration in the mid-1970s. But, they’ve come a long way since then. Here’s a story they’ve run about how to stop your squeaky hardwood floors from squeaking. From political corruption to increased peace and quiet in your home; is there nothing these guys won’t take on?
The advice given here comes under the category of simple is best. Basically, a squeaky hardwood floor is often due to nails rubbing the wood. Renailing works and so does seeing to flooring joists if you can, but what the article suggests is talcum powder spread on the floor to act as a sort of flooring emollient. Pretty simple - just remember to clean up afterwards to avoid slipping on leftover powder on the surface of the hardwood.
The number of stories about reclaimed wood and the trend toward it in mainstream construction appear to be growing by the week. Here’s another story about reclaimed wood products I found which talks a bit about the dual advantage of reclaimed wood; meeting the demands of green(er) buiding practices, and meeting the demands for those who wish to capture authentically aged materials in new projects. Oh, I guess there’s also the advantage of making a profit from rising demand for these types of materials in a market which is otherwise, shall we say, less than robust.
In some ways, this boom in such a specialized area is kind of a strange turn of events. Typically, it costs more to buy reclaimed lumber, than it would to treat new lumber in the factory and make it look old. I suppose this is something of a testament to the eye of discerning consumers who know a knock-off when they see it. People want authenticity. I think they want to be connected with a larger history that extends beyond their project. One way to do this is to incorporate a surface that has pre-dated their project, and perhaps the entire property too, into living spaces or work spaces. Actually, maybe this upswing in the reclaimed wood industry not so strange after all.
I suppose the attitude is that if you’re going to spend the money on a project during a lean period, it might as well be on an element of your project which has a proven track record to last, and look good while it’s doing it. It’s hard to argue with that kind of logic. And the fact that you’re incorporating a texture like reclaimed wood into a space which has some history of its own means that it’s not just another project, or just another space. It’s a connection to something greater, starting with preserving the natural environment by getting full use of what’s already out there, and perhaps ending with a sense of continuity - that reclaimed materials exude a certain mystique of a time when things were made to endure.
Here’s a great article about gas emissions in building products as published in the Globe & Mail by local hero Mike Holmes (of Holmes on Homes fame to you Canadian readers…). Holmes knows a thing or two about building materials and building codes too. The article is great resource in terms of how to go about actually buying materials that are free of off-gassing compounds. This is an important component when you’re looking to undertake a green building project.
Air quality is an important issue of course. And the article here argues that buying materials that have the most natural elements - like solid hardwood flooring for instance - tend to be great choices for residential and commercial surfaces. This type of thing is a pretty hot topic right now, and bears a lot of discussion. After all, as the flooring industry progresses the minimization of off-gassing in pre-finished solid hardwood, laminate flooring, bamboo flooring, and even in tile, a lot of other industries are not held to the same standards. Much like the issue of green building materials, there are competing standards out there which tend to fragment the market in terms of which one should be held as the standard of standards.
I think there is also a tendency these days to push the panic button on a lot of this kind of stuff too before really doing the research. Often, very little attention paid to a greater perspective when it comes to thinking about a healthy and safe environment. Where I think it’s a good idea to be smart about the things we buy, and to think about our health a little more, it’s also important to remember just how powerful fear can be when used by the media. Just a little food for thought there. What do you think, good people?
One thing the article does talk about which is a particularly good idea is to keep the lines of communication open between contractor and client. This is just good practice in general. But if air quality is a concern, it’s a great idea to get the question of outgassing on your list of questions. When it comes time to choosing products, the contractor is a great resource to make sure you’ve got a basis for making the best choice you can for flooring and other building materials.
Hey all you baby-boomers and generation-Xers; remember the glory that was ‘harvest gold’ wall-to-wall carpeting? I certainly do. In the 1960s and 1970s, bare wood flooring kind of went out of style for a bit. The floor covering of choice at that time was wall-to-wall carpeting - enter our ‘harvest gold’ and the even more tasteful orange pile shag carpet too. One of my earliest memories when we lived in an apartment in Port Credit Ontario in the early 70s was crawling across our living room floor, with a rectangle of sunshine beaming across its golden surface. Ah, the hazy memories of childhood and dated interior design.
A lot of carpeting like this was installed over vintage hardwood flooring in order to update the look of interiors in line with the tastes of the time. Take a read of this article from Easy Remodel Tips that talks about how the discovery of hardwood flooring underneath old carpeting, and refurbishing those hardwood floors, can boost the look and value of a property. The article gives some helpful tips as to how to take up the old carpet, and sometimes the even older linoleum underneath that.
Given that fashions change and then tend to circle back, let’s keep hoping we’ll never see the return of shag carpet and harvest gold. Some things belong in the past! But sometimes a little bit of interior design archeology when it comes to your floors is worth the effort.
Renovations can be messy. So, here’s a link to an article about keeping your home clean and free of dust during those times when you’re in the process of transforming a space. The article concentrates on drywall, but I think the advice can also apply to hardwood flooring.
This type of advice can come in handy, especially when you’re re-finishing hardwood floors. It’s noisy, messy, but worth doing correctly. And this is not just about making sure that your new unfinished hardwood floors, or the old ones which you’re refinishing, are sanded so that they’ll properly absorb the finish you’ll be applying. It’s also about trying to minimize the presence of dust in general for air quality and general cleanliness as you work.
A couple of important points the article covers which can be applied to re-finishing hardwood floors is:
Whenever possible, completely seal off the room in which you’ll be sanding
Rent the right equipment, including a sander which includes a vacuum attachment to minimize dust while the sanding process is underway
Keep your equipment in a specific area when not in use
Wear coveralls that you can remove after you’ve finished working, and keep it with your other equipment
Keep the air moving - use fans in your space, and open the windows. It might help to turn off your central air, to avoid any dust particles circulating in other areas of your property too
Just a few pointers when re-finishing hardwood floors, folks - I hope they, and the attached article, are helpful.
Cheers,
Rob.
Sanding hardwood flooring image courtesy of Meja Design
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I guess it’s because I love history so much, and properties and homes are so tied to the memories of people who lived in them, and seem to tie us to the past, to worlds which have since disappeared. I think this stuff is pretty important. I think there is a common experience in revisiting a place where you once lived, only to find that everything’s been changed. It’s no longer your city, your town, your street, your house. And to me, part of what investing in a home means is creating history as well as material value.
Take a look at 
In some ways, this boom in such a specialized area is kind of a strange turn of events. Typically, it costs more to buy reclaimed lumber, than it would to treat new lumber in the factory and make it look old. I suppose this is something of a testament to the eye of discerning consumers who know a knock-off when they see it. People want authenticity. I think they want to be connected with a larger history that extends beyond their project. One way to do this is to incorporate a surface that has pre-dated their project, and perhaps the entire property too, into living spaces or work spaces. Actually, maybe this upswing in the reclaimed wood industry not so strange after all.
