This is a project we are currently working on in the community of Douglasdale on the Bow River in Calgary, AB. The general contractor has almost completely gutted this 20 year old house to help bring it up to modern styles and trends. This Calgary hardwood flooring reno started in the kitchen, nook, dining room and great room which all had existing 2 1/4″ select grade red oak. The home owners wanted to save as much of the original hardwood flooring as possible, which is the route we generally like to take as ripping out perfectly good flooring is very wasteful. This did cause a little extra labour on our part as the kitchen island, kitchen cabinets and a wall were moved (aprox 35 lineal feet of feather patching).

The milling of the new hardwood flooring was almost perfect. The original flooring has been sanded a couple times, but there is still a lot of life left in it. Colour variation between the existing and new looks very close (this can often be a problem as different forests tend to have different hues and tones). Also, installers have to be careful when doing larger patches to ensure the floor doesn’t “walk” on them (lose the line with the existing hardwood flooring). This milling was such a great match on this floor that the line never really became a concern.

The original 3×10″ red oak floor mounts were the low air flow variety and poorly installed. We upgraded to high air flow, and installed them in the correct places.

The original vent in this photo was installed half way over the heating boot causing very poor air flow. New vent was installed in the correct spot, but caused a small feather patch. The home owners should have some heat in their nook now!

The designer and home owners added hardwood to the master bedroom and walk in closet, plus the guest bedroom and closet. Originally these areas were both carpet. By adding hardwood this will help with the flow of the house. Having floor covering continuity helps create the illusion of space and really “opens up” the areas.

The icing on this install cake is the solid red oak tread staircase.

Next phase of this project will be the sanding, staining, and finishing of this 2 1/4″ select red oak flooring and staircase. Stay tuned…..