We had a long time plan to eventually repair and refinish the original hardwood floor in the main room of our 1950 house. When we bought the house in 1975, we were aware that there was hardwood under the carpet of that room as the adjacent 3 bedrooms had hard wood, specifically a budget red oak. Only one small room was so badly damaged and stained, perhaps from pets, that we used Einar Berlin in 1976 to refinish the one room. It was all we could work on that year. Mr Berlin had founded to company in the 50s and a reliable Boulder classic.
Fast forward to 1979 when we added a small addition upstairs and we updated that main room carpet as well as carpet the addition since it was nether level enough nor inexpensive enough to consider hardwood for that floor.
Our horror at that time was finding out that under the existing main room carpet was a terribly damaged wood floor. So many years after purchase that disclosure dispute was not worth pursuing. So we carpeted yet again as with arrival of children, and no play room nor family room nor basement, the carpet would be a nice comfortable safe option. It even included carpeting the hall to the new stairs which required moving doorways for access.
Fast forward again to the mid 90s and we needed to patch and refinish that area so we called Berlin again and with Einar retired, his son Steve was running the company. His team again did a fantastic job and did warn us that the first room done in '76 only had one more sanding in it for the future. There are only so many times it can handle and still look good.
So fast forward again to this winter when we decided that rather than carpet one more time that we would finally do our dream job and patch and refinish that damaged floor. Steve Berlin still owns the company but has an additional layer of management to help out the process and he has several specialty teams to do the work. Each one was stellar and the repairs required 24 whole new boards, patching hundreds of holes for one team, adding oak trim baseboards where the original had been stripped in 1967 for that first carpet, a team that did the sanding and treating with classic finish to blend with the contiguous side rooms . We were warned that the perfect color match could not be achieved unless the entire set of rooms were done together. But again for cost and time , we elected to let them match as well as possible .
We are onward with as close as it does, the newly finished main room being a hair less yellow, a hair more pink but with Colorado's intense sun it will slowly age and blend.
The over all cost was fair, the workers professional and as gold as could be done. A tiny imperfection in a few spots in a house full of major imperfections and just enough to give the authentic feel of its age. I don't think any but us could even see it in any light. Remember, it's natural wood and not machine made.
The workers took care at every step and though we did end up going to a hotel to sleep the second two nights after the finish coat application, we should have listened to their recommendation and go the night if the laying of the first coat. Take my suggestion that you will regret staying any night there is wet finish. read more