It’s a fact that we feel more relaxed and comfortable when we’re surrounded by natural elements. And there’s nothing more natural than hardwood flooring in your century home. Flooring plays an important role in the overall mood and appeal of your surroundings. With the proper information you can choose a floor that will blend seamlessly into your lifestyle, is easy to maintain and will last a lifetime.
Quite often the original hardwood flooring in century homes would be narrow or very wide boards in a single width or in random widths. Whether the width was wide or narrow the lengths were long making our flooring the perfect fit for your century home. The species of wood was something harvested in the local area usually oak, maple, or ash.
We have many choices that work well in these homes from our live sawn white oak, wide plank engineered series in any 1850 stain, or a more traditional red oak or maple strip flooring. Everything old is new again and recreations of these century old floors are setting the trends. All these floors will capture the historic, vintage vibe of your century home giving it that authentic feel.
We tell customers before installation can occur the subfloor must be level within a ¼” over 10’. Century homes will never fit in this category so don’t be concerned with the 1 or 2” gradual dip over the length or width of a 16’ room. Leveling the low spots between the joists with a plywood will help in avoiding a bouncy, squeaky floor. If you try levelling the subfloor your vintage baseboards may end up going from 10” in one area down to 8” in another. Removing old wooden baseboards is not recommended as they were put on to stay and can’t be easily replaced. Leveling can also create height differences in adjoining rooms. Installing hardwood flooring over an up and down subfloor can add stress to the wood and possibly result in squeaks throughout the seasons. For these areas Wide Plank Nail & Bead Installation is recommended. This will lessen the chance of squeaks, but if there are some squeaks - that is what we call character!
Basements in century homes are typically crawlspaces, or an environment similar to a crawlspace. They are dark, damp, musty smelling, and can have ground water seeping in between the footings and walls. Air rises and this excess moisture can migrate into the subfloor, this could cause your hardwood floor to cup. 40 to 70% of the air you breathe comes from your basement. You should take measures to stop this moisture and prevent it from entering your home. We suggest viewing our video Crawlspace and Hardwood Flooring.
Not all century homes are built the same and not all hardwood flooring will work in them all. We have many different options available, and years of expertise in the industry, to provide the best flooring for your home. Take a few minutes of your time to tell us about your home’s atmosphere, then let us supply you with our expert knowledge and information needed to keep you from making costly mistakes. Even the highest quality flooring will fail if put in the wrong environment. Our goal is to gather information that will prevent this from happening to you.
Gaylord’s is a small family owned and operated business and, unlike large corporations, we care about you, your family and the environment. Our flooring products are an environmentally-friendly flooring choice. We are the manufacturers, the sales people and the complaints department. We take responsibility for our products and our actions, and don’t pass it on to others. Greg and I are always available to answer any questions you might have about hardwood flooring. Our customers can rest assured knowing that the product they have purchased not only looks great and performs well, but is a “green choice”. Our prices are not going to be the cheapest, but that’s a small compromise for a high-quality product that will last in excess of 40 years. A product you will enjoy through the times and if you re-sell your home the floor will still look like new.