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Hardwood, Not Hard Work
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He said, "There are some historic floors we don't put a sander on; we literally hand-scrape." Universal has refurbished official rooms and private quarters at the White House for every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.
"There are some so old, from the 1700s, that they have boards that are higher and lower, and a sanding machine will grind anything flat -- it'll grind concrete. But it will take life and character out of the floor."
Ah, character. Beware the weekend project and the rental sander.
Caroline Millet was one of the gentrification pioneers in Logan Circle, buying, restoring and selling nearly 100 "ancient wrecks" in the 1970s and 1980s.
"In 1973, I foolishly sanded down my floors in my 1870 house, stained them dark and polyurethaned them," she said. "They looked fine, but they did not look old; they lost their character."
Millett teaches design and lives in Philadelphia, where the softly lustrous pine floors of her 4,000-square-foot, circa 1855 home have benefited from her years of experimentation, though she cautions that her low-maintenance technique is for dark wood only.
After a very light cleaning, she rubs on stain, "any old stain," she said. "You can do it yourself with a rag -- I like old towels myself."
That's it. Maintenance consists of mopping with Murphy's Oil Soap, using Old English Scratch Cover for the occasional heavy gouge and reapplying stain when high-traffic areas show wear.
Like an antique piece of furniture, her floors have "holes, nicks, scratches, all manner of imperfections," she said. "That's often good. There's a patina and richness and character that you cannot get in new. I don't want virgin baby floors. I love the character."
The bottom line, she said: "People frequently say, what beautiful floors."
Think your floors are hardly historic, just junky old pine? They may be more valuable than you think. "In the late 1800s, southern heart pine was the least expensive floor you could buy. It was inexpensive and plentiful," Lynn said. "Now, antique heart pine is the most expensive -- it takes 60 years to get to the size of a broom handle."
Floors that have a reddish cast are among the oldest. "It doesn't turn red until 250 years -- some woods can be 800 years old," Lynn said.
