Monday, August 31, 2009

Reclaimed Hardwood floors finally installed!

When we bought our house we had 3 projects that we wanted to complete: remodel the Bear Creek house and find a renter (done), make a darkroom for Ashley (done) and replace the carpeting in the bedrooms with the silo wood we purchased from Lost Lodge Timber for our planned new house (now completed).

Unfortunately the new house is not completed, because it was never started. I will leave it at that because it is not a subject I want to relive. IF you are planning on building a house and happen to think about using Fanas Architects in Boulder please contact me for my opinion. Our house is still on their website on 'on the boards' section..

Ok back to the project at hand. Well we purchased the flooring several years ago from Lost Lodge (now Vintage Reclaimed Flooring) in Oregon. We looked all over for reclaimed floors and after comparing prices and quality we thought we had found a quality company in Lost Lodge Timber, wrong. After our home building dream
s turned into a nightmare we found our current house fairly quickly and scaled our order from Lost Lodge down. Well it took several months of threatening emails and phone calls, I was getting ready to fly out there and personally confront them, to finally get the flooring shipped. Part of the pricing was to include waterlox for the finish but we never recieved it but we had the flooring.

Well it was placed in the spare bedroom to adjust to the Colorado climate, we are a bit drier than Oregon. Well I wanted to be sure that the adjustment was complete so I left it alone for about a year and a half. Needless to say the darkroom was also an extended project.


When we purchased the house the carpeting was already in poor shape and having 5 cats and two black labs quickly turned the cream-colored carpet into an unattractive mess. The house is only about 5 years old so you would think the carpet could not be all that bad well think again. The spare bedroom hardly saw any traffic and the dirt trapped under it was amazing. No wonder why carpeting is so detrimental to people with allergies.

My first step was to remove the carpet and tack strips. Generally you would also remove the baseboard but I left them in place so the flooring installer would know how the baseboard was installed. The installation went quickly and was completed in a day, along with the first coat of finish. Chad (the installer) had to return two more times for light sanding and application of finish. We opted for the more expensive traffic finish with the hope of preventing scratches from the animals. The spray paint in this picture is a warning to whoever removed the carpeting that there is radiant floor heat in this room. This is our first house with radiant floor heat and we love it!

We are very happy with the end product and are now searching for a bed. Now on to my other projects, fixing the Tiger, losing weight, climbing and riding my bicycles.

No comments: