Spring 22 ORC Week Four: Hardwood Floor Progress
This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item through an affiliate link, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.
It’s week four of the One Room Challenge, the official half way point! I can’t believe how quickly it’s flying by. Last week I rolled up the old carpet and finally got to see what was going on with the hardwood floor underneath. Overall it’s in amazing condition and I’m so happy to have unstained, unsealed hardwood to bring out the beauty of! One area I didn’t share last week did have some previous damage, though.
I’m not entirely sure what happened, but my best guess is something spilled and adhered to floor. The prior homeowner had used a saw to cut through the floor around the area, cutting through some of the subfloor as well, and then probably decided covering it with carpet was easier. I realized having something stuck to the hardwood plus the thick cuts from the saw blade made it pretty impossible to salvage this area. I decided the best solution would be to cut the floor in a more natural looking pattern using an oscillating multi-tool with a much thinner blade and replace the boards with matching hardwood from Home Depot.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the area before I cut it out and disposed of it. Because I couldn’t be sure what the material contained, I was extremely cautious, taping off the door to the hallway and spraying down the area to limit any dust from getting in the air. I also wore my respirator mask, goggles and gloves just in case.
I’m still in the process of working on the floor, but here’s my mockup of how the new floorboards will (hopefully!) blend pretty seamlessly:
The picture isn’t perfectly straight so some boards look a little off, but the new boards will line up with the existing ones. I also tried to utilize the cut edges I already have, so a few boards will match up along those edges. To keep things as easy as possible, I kept the six boards on the right the same length and the ten boards on the left the same slightly longer length to cover the bigger hole. Fingers crossed it works out!
Even though I didn’t make as much progress in the room as I’d hoped to this week, I figured out the solution to a problem I didn’t even know I had until now. Taking this extra time to fix the floor the right way will be so worth it in the long run, and I can’t wait to show you how it looks next week!
