Hardwood Floor Refinishing on Scranton's South Side
The South Side is dense pre-war housing: rows of homes built for families working the mines and the mills, close together, most of them put up before 1940 and most of them still lived in by people who intend to stay.
The floors match the houses. Narrow-plank red oak, plainly laid, no borders and no parquet, installed as working floors rather than showpieces. A century later that plain oak is the same old-growth material the grand houses on the hill have, and it refinishes just as well.
Under the Carpet and the Linoleum
More than anywhere else in Scranton, South Side floors are covered. Wall-to-wall carpet went down over them in the 1960s and 1970s, and kitchens and bathrooms often picked up linoleum or vinyl tile laid straight onto the boards. Pull back a corner in a closet, or look at the edge of a floor register, and you will usually find oak.
Carpet actually protects what is underneath. Shielded from sunlight and foot traffic for fifty years, the wood is frequently in better condition than the exposed areas around it. Tack strip holes around the perimeter and staple holes fill and disappear under a refinish. Uncovering and restoring a hidden floor is one of the most common jobs we do here.
Staying in the House While It Is Done
South Side houses are compact, which makes moving out for three days a genuine imposition rather than an inconvenience. It is also housing built well before 1978, so old finish and paint layers can carry lead. Both of those point the same way: dustless refinishing, which captures the dust at the sander rather than letting it through the house.
Moisture From Below
Older foundations and unfinished basements put moisture into the subfloor, and the result is cupped boards, usually along an outside wall. We meter the wood and the subfloor before sanding and find the source first, because a cupped floor sanded flat while it is still wet will cup again.