H A R D W O O D F L O O R U P D A T E
One Year Later
Living Room Oak Flooring BEFORE Refinishing
One year ago we had our hardwood oak floor in the living room refinished. Our house is thirty years old, and the oak floor has been refinished once before. Yes, it was time to refinish the floor again last year, and this year I am sharing an update on the refinished oak floor.
The original oak floor was finished with a white-wash stain that kept the floor light, but allowed the wood grain to show through. The finish complemented the exposed natural pine beams and rafters in our post-and-beam house.
One of the main reasons the floor needed refinishing was my beautiful black-background wool needlepoint rug had discolored the floor over time... even though there was a rug pad under the rug to protect the floor.
I loved this rug from the first day I found it at a local furniture store. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was THE rug for my living room hardwood floor.
When I discovered the rug was discoloring my wood floor, I tried everything I could to remove the black discoloration on my oak floor, but nothing worked. The rug pad had not protected the floor. The only thing left to do was to refinish the floor by sanding down the floor to remove the discoloration, apply new stain, and reseal the floor. We hired a professional wood floor refinisher.
Living Room Oak Flooring DURING Refinishing
Have you ever lived in a house when hardwood floors were being refinished?
All the furniture, drapes, and accessories have to be moved out of the room. Huge plastic sheets are hung to block the room off from the rest of the house. Because our living room is vaulted with two open lofts overlooking the living room, huge plastic sheets had to hang to the sloped ceilings above the lofts.
Next there is the deafening noise during the sanding process. Then there is dust everywhere. The whole process takes days for the floor to be wiped down, for the stain to dry, for each of the coats of sealer to dry, and for a curing process before moving furniture back onto the floor.
Even though everything was removed and plastic sheeting hung, every surface had to be cleaned before the furniture could be returned to the room. The ULTIMATE spring cleaning...
All of the black discoloration disappeared when the floor was sanded. What a relief to see the restored wood. Once again, we applied a white-wash oak stain to keep the floor light. Three coats of sealer were applied to protect the floor. The color goes well with the native Austin white limestones in the fireplace, the white-washed wood carved mantel, and the pine post-and-beam structure of the house.
Living Room Oak Flooring AFTER Refinishing
As much as I love the old needlepoint floral rug, it was time for a new rug that went with the blue-checked sofa. The new rug had a new rug pad underneath it to protect the newly-finished oak floor.
Shortly after laying the new rug and rug pad, I discovered the new rug pad was leaving marks in the newly-finished oak floor. When I moved the rug and pad to clean one day, I could see a checkered pattern in the finish of the oak floor that matched the open checkered design of the new rug pad. Not only was the new pad not protecting the wood floor, it was damaging the floor.
Wood floors are beautiful, but need upkeep and protection for them to remain beautiful. After investing time, energy, and money in having wood floors installed or refinished, it is only smart to maintain them regularly and to install rug pads for area rugs.
I immediately removed the new rug, threw away the new damaging rug pad, and stored the new rug.
This is a company mission I can support.
The living room floor went without a rug until recently when I discovered Rug Pad USA that specially designs pads to protect hardwood floors from damage. The company's mission is to offer high-quality, eco-friendly, sustainable, made-in-the-USA (Connecticut) alternatives to imported PVC and plastic rug pads. This is a company mission I can support.
Rug Pad USA offers custom-fit rug pads for area rugs over any surface -- tile, carpet, and wood. Plus there are multiple options for each kind of surface.
For my hardwood floor, I chose the Contour Lock pad made with felt and natural rubber engineered not to damage hardwood floors. I sent the company the exact measurements of my rug, and the company custom cut a pad to fit (1" border) underneath my rug. From the time I ordered to the time I received my custom rug pad was about a week to ten days.
I am pleased with my new rug pad. The pad adds a cushion layer under the rug and provides non-slip protection to the oak floor. The rug does not move at all which eliminates worry of accidents from a sliding rug.
Do you need a quality rug pad for an area rug?
Check out all the options offered at RugPadUSA.com. With so many options, you may find just the rug pad to protect your floors. Currently, there is a great sale, site-wide, for 15%-20% off through Friday, April 6, 2018 at Midnight.
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Rug pads are not an exciting beautiful topic by themselves, but quality rug pads keep our wood floors, tiles, and carpets beautiful. All part of sustaining a French-inspired home.
