The work

Floors in real houses, right around here.

Nineteen finished jobs across Burlington, Hamilton, Waterdown, Dundas, Stoney Creek, Ancaster and out to Oakville and St. Catharines. Baseboard back on, vents set flush into the plank, furniture returned, floor clean.

Keeping one looking like this is mostly what you clean it with: the tips page has what never to use on a wood floor and how often a floor actually needs refinishing, quoted from the national guidelines.

These are real houses in the Golden Horseshoe, not the manufacturer showroom shots most flooring sites use.

A living room with a coffered ceiling and bay windows, floored wall to wall in warm oak — Living room, coffered ceiling

An open plan living and kitchen area in a dark floor, running unbroken past a brick fireplace — Open plan, brick fireplace

A living room floored wall to wall beside a brick fireplace, baseboard reinstalled and painted to match the trim — Living room

A kitchen floored in one continuous run under the island and appliances, with no transition strip at the doorways — Kitchen and island

An open plan main floor running the same board through the living, dining and kitchen areas without a break — Open plan main floor

An upstairs landing with a wood railing, turned newel post and iron spindles, matched to the floor it opens onto — Stairs and railings

A curved staircase with wood treads and iron spindles, the stair work most flooring crews subcontract out — Curved staircase

A living room with exposed ceiling beams, the floor carrying through an open sightline to the kitchen beyond — Living room, beamed ceiling

A dining room with wainscoting and a navy accent wall, the floor reading mid-brown in the room own daylight — Dining room

A white kitchen with an island and pendant lighting, opening onto a dining area on one continuous floor — Kitchen and dining

A front entry hall with double doors and panelled trim, floored through to the rooms beyond — Front entry

A dark staircase with iron spindles against white wainscoting, matched to the hall floor at its foot — Staircase and hall

A hallway with arched openings and wainscoting, the floor running through each opening without a threshold strip — Hallway, arched openings

A living room with a vaulted ceiling and a staircase to one side, floored in a wide plank — Vaulted living room

An open lower level with support columns, floored in a warm oak tone from wall to wall — Lower level

A living room with a fireplace and tall windows, floored in a dark tone with the baseboard refitted — Living room, fireplace

A room with full wainscoting and arched windows, the floor finished up to the trim on every wall — Wainscoting and arched windows

An upstairs landing with a white painted railing, floored continuously with the rooms it serves — Upstairs landing

A room with arched french doors onto a garden, floored in a light tone that carries the daylight — Garden doors

What to look at

The finishing is where you can tell.

Anyone can lay a board down the middle of a room. The tells are at the edges: whether the baseboard went back on and got painted, whether the vents sit level with the plank or perched on top of it, and whether the run carries through a doorway without a transition strip covering a mistake.

Those are the parts we do rather than leave for somebody else, which is why they are the parts worth photographing.

A curved staircase with wood treads and iron spindles, the stair and railing work most flooring crews subcontract out

Where these jobs are

Every one of them is a house near you.

Burlington, Hamilton, Waterdown, Dundas, Ancaster, Stoney Creek, Binbrook, Grimsby, Oakville, Mississauga and St. Catharines. The van carries the samples to all of them, so you pick the floor in the room it is going into rather than under warehouse lighting.

What sits under the old floor changes a good deal across that area, and it moves the price more than the plank you choose does. Roughly, it breaks down like this.

Older houses

A great deal of the housing in Hamilton, Dundas and the older parts of Burlington predates plywood. Lift the carpet and there is often plank subfloor laid on a diagonal, and it moves. That is a levelling job before it is a flooring job, and skipping it is the usual reason a new floor starts squeaking inside a year.
Newer subdivisions

The newer streets in Waterdown, Binbrook, Ancaster and upper Stoney Creek are plywood over engineered joists. Flatter to begin with, but the joist spans are longer, so a high spot at a doorway turns up underfoot sooner.
Basements and lower levels

Anything going down on concrete gets a moisture test first, in every town on that list. Concrete reading wet will push a floor apart from underneath and no underlay fixes it. Better to know that before the boards are paid for than after.
Stairs and railings

Stairs are the part most flooring crews hand off to somebody else, which is why they turn up so often in these photographs. Doing them on the same visit is what keeps the tread and the floor the same colour.

How these were done

The work behind the photographs.

Next step

Want yours to look like that?

The samples come to your house so you can see the colour in your own light rather than under warehouse lighting. Free, and nothing owed either way.

Book a free estimate Call 289-689-4242

Phone: 289-689-4242
Email: referralflooring@gmail.com
Warranty: 1 year on floor repair and installation.
Coverage: WSIB clearance and liability insurance, on request.

Floors in real houses, right around here.

The finishing is where you can tell.

Every one of them is a house near you.

Older houses

Newer subdivisions

Basements and lower levels

Stairs and railings

The work behind the photographs.

Want yours to look like that?