Hardwood Floors August/September 2018

Wood Stock

All photos courtesy of Julia Valenti.

Hardwood at the Hempstead House

By Megan Lhamon

room features 105-year-old quarter- sawn white oak parquet oors. “ e aim was to restore the oor to its original grandeur,” shares Julia. “You rarely see wood with character like this anymore!” FLOOR FOCUS A er 105 years of wear and tear from weddings, large-scale events, and even movie lming, these oors were in need of a makeover. “ e oors had been sanded so many times, there wasn’t much le on them,” adds Julia. “Several of the boards were damaged and needed to be replaced,” says Julia. “We tried to save as much of the original ooring as possible because it was so amazing. e boards we used to repair

the oor had to be planed down on the underside and then our team did a glue- down installation.” FINISHING TOUCHES “A er the oors were sanded, our team applied two coats of DuraSeal Special Walnut stain to the in eld and two coats of DuraSeal Colonial Maple stain to the border,” shares Julia. “We decided that contrasting colors on the triangles at the entryway would be very striking.” “ e oor was nished with ve coats of Bona Tra c HD, the nal coat being a semi-gloss to give the oor the shine our customer wanted,” adds Julia. “We recommended a commercial application of Bona Tra c HD polyurethane to help protect these gorgeous oors!” g

Julia and Phil Valenti, owners of Valenti Flooring in Ronkonkoma, New York, have been in the ooring business for a combined 28 years. In 2016, Phil and Julia joined the NWFA and Phil earned his NWFA Installation and Sand & Finish certi cations. Valenti Flooring was

recently hired to restore the oors in the Breakfast Room of the

famous Hempstead House Mansion at Sands Point Reserve, built in 1912. e

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