Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Green Ridge, Scranton
Green Ridge has the oldest housing we work in, and it is not close. Walk any street here and almost every house on it went up before 1940, back when hardwood was simply what you floored a house with.
What that means practically: the floors under the carpet in a Green Ridge house are old-growth red oak or white oak, occasionally American chestnut, milled from trees that grew slowly for a century or more before they were cut. That wood is denser and harder than anything a lumber yard sells today, and it cannot be bought new at any price.
What We See in Green Ridge Houses
Large rooms and high ceilings, which is why dark walnut and jacobean finishes suit these houses better than they suit newer builds. Original narrow-plank oak, usually 2 1/4 inch, often still under mid-century wall-to-wall carpet. Staircases with turned balusters and newel posts that were never carpeted and only need a refinish.
And the recurring problem of the neighborhood: rubble stone and unreinforced block foundations pushing moisture up through the subfloor, producing cupping along exterior walls and above unheated basements. We check moisture before we sand, because sanding a cupped floor without finding the source means it comes back.
Worth Refinishing, Not Replacing
In a house this old the floor is usually the best material in the building. A sand and refinish costs a fraction of replacement and returns wood you could not otherwise obtain. Where the finish is dull but the wood is sound, a screen and recoat costs less again and removes no thickness at all, which matters on floors that may already have been sanded two or three times since 1925.