Hardwood at the Hempstead House

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

Valenti Flooring was recently hired to restore the floors in the Breakfast Room of the famous Hempstead House Mansion at Sands Point Reserve, built in 1912. The room features 105-year-old quarter-sawn white oak parquet floors.

“The aim was to restore the floor to its original grandeur,” shares Julia. “You rarely see wood with character like this anymore!”

FLOOR FOCUS
After 105 years of wear and tear from weddings, large-scale events, and even movie filming, these floors were in need of a makeover. “The floors had been sanded so many times, there wasn’t much left 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 flooring as possible because it was so amazing. The boards we used to repair the floor had to be planed down on the underside and then our team did a glue-down installation.”

FINISHING TOUCHES
“After the floors were sanded, our team applied two coats of DuraSeal Special Walnut stain to the infield 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.”

“The floor was finished with five coats of Bona Traffic HD, the final coat being a semi-gloss to give the floor the shine our customer wanted,” adds Julia. “We recommended a commercial application of Bona Traffic HD polyurethane to help protect these gorgeous floors!”

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