Historic Restoration: A Lasting Legacy

One of wood’s strongest selling points is durability. According to Hardwood Floors magazine’s 2026 Industry Outlook survey, it is a top feature customers look for when shopping for flooring.

Around the world, you’ll find wood has been a stage for life’s events – big and small – within homes, churches, castles, and businesses dating back all the way to the 17^th century. There is no greater testament to wood being the superior surface than finding original wood floors in a building that is hundreds of years old.

While restoring these artifacts may seem overwhelming, some wood flooring professionals see it as both a mission to preserve the wood and a good business opportunity. They are taking a floor or wood near the end of its original service life and giving it a fresh start. In this article, experts share why they believe in preserving antique wood, special considerations for taking on historic restoration projects, and some of their most awe-inspiring work.

The Importance of Preservation

Universal Floors is no stranger to high-profile historic projects. From the United States Supreme Court and the Blair House to preparing the Washington National Cathedral’s altar for the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, Sprigg Lynn is a go-to resource for returning a remarkable floor to its original splendor in the Washington, D.C. area. Lynn says preservation is a physical connection to the past, and historic floors must be saved today to be admired tomorrow.

“Sometimes a client will ask how we are going to do it. We look at them and say, ‘I don’t know, but when we get done, it’s going to look absolutely beautiful.’ You don’t know until you open it,” he explains. “It’s a fun process because there’s no manual, and there are not many people you can call and talk to. You have knowledge that was passed on to you or knowledge learned on the job. You see something different every time – how they constructed the floors and how they installed them.”

The rise of wood flooring is said to have begun more than 400 years ago in Europe. René Caran and Michaela Reichlová are based in the Czech Republic and founded Workcamp Parquet to not only restore and preserve unique parquet floors but also to pass on knowledge and experience to the next generation of craftspeople. Each year, they organize an international project which brings in wood flooring professionals from different countries.

“Participants have the opportunity to work on authentic projects in real historical buildings, learn from experienced masters, and engage in museum-standard restoration processes,” says Caran. “Through this, they not only acquire practical craft skills but also a deep understanding of the cultural, aesthetic, and historical value of the floors they restore.”

Doing so is crucial to Workcamp Parquet because of the need to preserve methodology and tradition. “We can upload our knowledge to the cloud a thousand times, but a future craftsman will stand before our restored parquet and want to ‘read’ from it. These very pieces hold information inscribed in a language that is centuries old—the language of art and craftsmanship, independent of geography or modern technology,” explains Caran. “Every restored parquet functions as a textbook for future generations of craftsmen: it preserves the working techniques, the types of adhesives used, the methods of woodworking, and the composition of decorative patterns.”

All wood floors have a story, and sometimes it took place before the wood became a floor. Tommy Sancic, co-founder of Olde Wood Limited in Magnolia, Ohio, has spent his career on another type of historic preservation – recovering wood from old structures.

“When you go into these 200- to 300-year-old buildings and get to salvage the wood, it puts you back in time a little bit, seeing how they used to operate or how they used to live. You build a passion for it,” explains Sancic. “Then by taking that piece of wood and repurposing it for flooring, you are bringing it back to life again; you are recycling it.”

Pieces of History

Based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Steve Nutter of Steve Nutter Cabinetry and Specialty Flooring is in a prime location to encounter some of colonial America’s historic buildings. This includes two houses from the 1600s that he has worked on, both of which still had the original floors.

“One of them had 18-inch boards, which were unusual because the King of England would usually take those logs for sail masts for the ships, so they weren’t available. It was uncommon to have that wide of a board,” shares Nutter.

His most memorable project was a replacement in the historic Highfield Hall and Gardens estate in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Nutter says the floors had been sanded down to the point they couldn’t be saved. Custom-milled 2½ inch white oak was created, and it had to be put back exactly the way it came out per Department of Interior rules.

“Highfield Hall was built in the 1800s and then abandoned for many years until a group of people brought it back. It still had the original floors, but it was too far gone,” he shares. “There was lots of detail to that project; border work everywhere.”

Lynn has seen many buildings from the early to mid-1700s, usually featuring wide-plank pine floors. One job at Cliveden (the Chew House) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had a connection to his own family’s history.

“The Battle of Germantown took place there in 1777, where George Washington participated in the battle, and the British were inside the Chew House Manor. My fifth great-grandfather, Captain David Lynn of the 7th Maryland Continental Line, was there fighting the British who were inside the house. Generations later, I’m inside restoring the house,” says Lynn.

Dating back to the 1760s, the William Paca House in Annapolis, Maryland, was built for one of the state’s signers of the Declaration of Independence and is a National Historic Landmark. In restoring the building’s short leaf pine floors, Universal Floors was not allowed to use any modern tools.

“Back in the 1700s, the floors most likely didn’t have a finish on them. They would take fine sifted river sand, put it in a wool sock, and they would scrub the floors almost like they do on decks on ships. It would get rid of spots and stains in the floor,” explains Lynn. “They would hand-scrub the floors, so we emulated that method, and it was pretty fun. We did everything short of riding a horse to work, and the historic people really loved it.”

Across the pond, the term “historic” can involve flooring fit for royalty. Workcamp Parquet projects have included a maintenance restoration on parquet floors from 1690 at Groot-Bijgaarden Castle in Belgium, as well as work on the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria.

“Schönbrunn Palace is a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site. We recently dismantled geometric panel parquets made of solid European walnut from the Hall of Ceremonies. Their return to the palace is scheduled for 2027. This project demands the highest level of care, so-called ‘museum-level restoration,’ as the parquets are the property of the Republic of Austria,” says Caran.

Special Considerations

There are several unique considerations to keep in mind when working with aged wood, and they start with the bidding process. Lynn says the only control you have over a set price is the refinishing portion or waxing portion because there aren’t many variables involved.

“With everything else, a set price could cause you to lose all the profit for that particular job,” advises Lynn. “Spell out what you are going to do with your time and material. Put an hourly rate on your time, and everything material-wise is marked up reasonably. You can take historic restoration as far as the client wants to take it. Some want perfection, some want it just functional, and some want to get through a few more years. Know your client’s expectations.”

Caran suggests abiding by the following principles: “Preserving the floor’s integrity and functionality, its educational, cultural, and historical value for future generations, always working with respect for the original materials and techniques, and maintaining their authenticity while ensuring the reversibility of any materials used.”

He adds that if you want to repair parquet as they did back then, you must think as they did back then. So, think of hand scraping or hand planing as the purest form of craftsmanship. “In our work, we strive not only for its technical preservation but also for respect towards its original aesthetics, materials, and technology,” explains Caran.

“You have to be gentle. If you throw a big machine on it, you’re going to take way too much of it. Especially with pine floors,” says Nutter. “Sometimes you’re just better off taking the time and doing it by hand, which can be time-consuming.”

When the work is complete, it should not be noticeable that a repair or restoration took place. Lynn notes that some old floors have been waxed so many times they cannot hold a modern finish, and you may have to go back to wax. “You have to observe the existing floor, the length, the texture, the color, the sheen, everything about it. If you miss one of those, like the sheen or the texture, it’s going to look odd, but when you hit every one of them, it’s first class.”

What lies beneath the wood is another potential issue. “You don’t dare put a nail, a fastener, or drill a hole through the floorboard without knowing what’s underneath there,” advises Lynn. “You have to carefully remove a few boards to inspect it, and anticipate that there’s a gas line, a power line, a water line, or electrical wires. I’ve seen it all. You pull it up, and it’s the wild west underneath there, so you have to be really careful.”

Safety precautions should also be taken when working with reclaimed wood from old barns, textile factories, boxcars, railroad ties, and more. Sancic has procedures to get it ready to go into a house.

“We are always looking for contaminants that could be on the wood, such as fertilizer, old motor oil, or stuff that would be harmful if you put it back into new home construction, if you remanufactured it. We can identify chemicals or things that shouldn’t be on the wood that would affect it before we run it through our process,” says Sancic. “We heat treat everything to 160 degrees and equalize the moisture content in it.”

Obtaining the Material

What do you do when you need to replace a piece of wood from the 1600s? Nutter says you need to know as much as possible about the floor’s history.

“You can’t just go to the lumber yard and buy some fir flooring and put it in and expect it to match. I think the hardest part is matching up the year of the flooring and being able to find stuff from that era,” he explains. “I’ve been doing this for 54 years now, and I have a lot of contacts, so if I can’t find it, it can’t be found.”

Universal Floors has a “Choose to Reuse” program that salvages wood from the mid-1700s through the 1950s. If a house is slated for demolition, their team carefully removes the floors, de-nails the material, and stores it by category.

“For example, the United States Supreme Court was finished in 1935, so if they are knocking down a house from 1935 and it has rift and quartered oak that is the same wood from old growth trees, we will take that floor up. We manufacture the wood floor strips into herringbone, borders, or whatever is needed,” Lynn explains. “‘Choose to Reuse’ is about as green as you can get. Normally, something is going to the dump, but instead, you are going to breathe another 100 years of life into it.”

In recent years, the term “reclaimed wood” has been used somewhat loosely in the consumer space. Over at Olde Wood Limited, they define what it really means. “In our case, antique reclaimed comes from old vintage buildings, 100 to 200 years old. It has to be at least 100 years old before we would even be interested in it. The reason for that is not just the way that it looks, but the weathering, texture, and patina inside the wood that you can only get from boards that are 100 to 200 years old. Not something somebody used 10 years ago and repurposed it and is using it and can technically classify it as reclaimed,” says Sancic.

Of the many places from which the Olde Wood Limited team has obtained wood, one of the most special to Sancic was the F.E. Schumacher Lumber Company’s facility in Hartville, Ohio. His wife, Mandy’s grandparents had even worked there at one point. After the complex had been shut down for many years, Sancic had the chance to buy it.

“The back portion of that building was built out of 20-inch by 20-inch white oak timbers from the 1800s, and they didn’t have any contaminants on them. Those timbers are very rare, very special,” Sancic shares. “The owner of F.E. Schumacher was a connoisseur back then; he went into the woods and looked for a specific tree that they would cut for his manufacturing facility that he was building. They would mark these trees in the woods that he wanted, and they were of a prime grade. They cut those trees and made their first factory in 1889 out of them.”

Now, the wood from that structure has been restored as hardwood flooring.

How to Get Involved in These Projects

If you would like to test the waters of working with historic wood floors, Lynn says a great place to start is with maintaining them. That could include cleaning, waxing, or resecuring boards that are moving, as well as filling and fauxing. Joining your local historical society is another first step he recommends.

“It’s very inexpensive to join. I’ve served on a lot of boards of historical societies, and they’ll go to you as the expert,” shares Lynn. “Sometimes you’ve got to do a little pro bono work to get your name out there, but once your name is out there, you’re good to go.”

Caran says to gain the necessary knowledge, study historic floors and ask masters of the trade about their experiences. He notes that some of the oldest surviving world-famous parquets originate from as early as 1684 at the Château de Versailles in France, and parquets from the Renaissance period of the 15th century can be found in the Italian city of Siena’s cathedral or in the Piccolomini Library.

“Even back then, masters of their craft traveled, gathered experience, learned new skills, and absorbed influences, which they then transformed into their own unique works. The exchange of knowledge and crossing borders have always been among the first steps on the path to genuine mastery,” says Caran. “Hands-on learning with authentic materials, historic tools, and real-world projects is the most direct path to mastering the craft as it was done by the masters centuries ago.”

Conclusion

With the ability to last for generations, other flooring surfaces cannot compete with the longevity of wood. And refinishing the flooring instead of replacing it adds another layer to the sustainability story.

“If you ask me, it’ll last forever,” shares Nutter. “All of the places that I’ve done from the 1600s had the original floors. You didn’t have electric machines until around the early 1900s, so most of the sanding was done by hand. They haven’t lost a lot of wear layer.”

Lynn notes that historic restoration is not a speed contest; you have to take your time. Making one wrong cut can cause a big headache, so he recommends measuring not twice, but three or four times and cutting once.

“These buildings mean a lot to a lot of people, and you have to treat them with respect,” he adds. “If you’re into production, don’t get into this portion of the business. It’s also to learn – the more you learn. the more you earn. By expanding out and doing this, it opens a lot of opportunities for you in the wood flooring business.”

Libby Johnston is the publisher of Hardwood Floors magazine. She can be reached at libby.johnston@nwfa.org.