Haddonfield NJ stained oak hardwood floor

This oak hardwood floor in Haddonfield NJ went through a huge transformation. After decades of wear and tear, the original oil-based finish had well and truly worn out in the major traffic areas. The before photos show the extensive damage.

Because there was no protective coating left, the floor was impossible to clean. So the raw wood captures all the dust and dirt and it gets ground into it, turning it black over time. No matter how much vacuuming or mopping you do, these floors will always look dirty. The only way to restore them is to do a full sand and refinish.

Project details...

This hardwood floor project involved sanding and refinishing the 600 square feet of hardwood floors in the living room, dining room, and entry. It’s face-nailed 5/16 Red Oak with Walnut borders. The original finish on this floor was oil-based polyurethane. Unfortunately, as old oil-based finishes do, it had ambered and yellowed with age. Below you can see the worn, yellowed, scratched-up floors…

Below are the worst areas, the living room and entrance. You can see where the areas rugs and entrance matt were placed…

And here we are, starting the sanding process. You can immediately see the difference. Very quickly, all the damage gets removed by sanding…

After multiple sanding passes, we vacuumed and then water-popped the floor, ready for staining. The homeowner chose Duraseal Nutmeg for the stain color. Below you can see the floors freshly stained…

The customers wanted to ensure the floors would never get to this state again. So, once the stain dried, we applied a high-end commercial-grade finish as part of our Silver Finish System. The top coat is the same finish we use in restaurants and on dance floors. It will last them many years if looked after well.

Here is the floor after one coat of finish…

Below is the second coat, all dried, ready to be buffed, and the final coat to be applied…

And this is the finished floor below. The final coat of StreetShoe is a satin sheen. It is perfect for a sleek modern look and hides scratches much better than higher-gloss finishes.

The customer was delighted with the outcome. It looked like a brand-new floor—quite a big difference between the before and after photos.