Haddon Heights NJ pine attic floor sanding & refinishing

Here's another old pine floor in an attic we enjoyed restoring. This hardwood floor was in Haddon Heights, NJ. If you have an attic floor used for storage but you'd like to transform it into a usable living space, this will be a great example of how they can look. This one was already in use as a living space, but the floors badly needed restoration.

Like most 80 to 100-year-old attic floors, this one was in pretty rough condition. The wood flooring installed in attics wasn't high-grade spec in the first place. On top of that, pine floors, whatever grade, are soft and prone to damage.

Project details...

As shown in the photo below, these pine floors were in rough condition. These had all sorts of dents, dings, scratches, cupping, flaking and splintered pieces, and split boards. In addition, the floors were covered in very old oil-based polyurethane that had worn off in many areas. As a result, we had to repair quite a few areas where the flooring was too damaged to leave in place.

Below you can see some better photos of the damage. Unfortunately, the section on the left image had to be replaced with new boards.

Here we're in the middle of the repairs. We used recycled pine from another local home to ensure the wood matched. There's nothing worse than seeing a repair done with mismatching wood. The goal is to make it look invisible like it was the original floor all along. We ripped out all the damaged boards, cleaned the subfloor up, and installed the new recycled boards in their place.

Once the repairs were completed, we started sanding. This floor took a little longer to sand than some of our average oak sanding and refinishing jobs due to all the dings, dents, and cupping. But in the end, the floor came out beautiful, clean, and flat. We then water-popped it and began the staining process.

The stain the customer chose was Duraseal Jacobean. It looks great on the freshly sanded pine floor.

After the stain dried, the refinishing and coating process began. The finish chosen was Basic Coatings Emulsion in a beautiful matte sheen. This finish is part of our Bronze Finish System which you can read more about here. It's an excellent affordable finish that is durable and easy to look after but won't break the bank. Perfect for attic floors that don't see as much wear as a kitchen, hallway, entrance, or living room floor.

We love restoring these older pine floors. The before and after results are pretty stunning, especially when stained. The homeowners also loved how their pine floors turned out, which always makes us happy.