Tech Talk: Discovering Historic Artifacts

“During a renovation in a historic home, have your ever discovered a historic artifact?”

Bob Goldstein – Vermont Natural Coatings

I had one job where we were repairing a floor installed in the late 1800s at a house that is a historical site in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It had been left in disrepair when a local businessman bought it and began renovating it, aiming to preserve as much of the original materials as possible. The entire house had 21/4” x 3/4” white oak flooring. Due to roof leaks, the great room had rotted wood in the middle of the floor. When we removed the wood, I noticed that each plank was stamped E. L. Bruce on the back. The entire floor was hand-nailed with cut nails, as was the custom when it was built. The general contractor was elated when I told him we could do the repairs using the same company, now called Bruce Hardwood.

Once the work was complete and the sanding and finishing was done, you couldn’t tell what was installed in 1895 and what was installed in 1996. The house is still occupied to this day on Las Olas Blvd. As to the difficulty of doing the weave-in, the hard part was repairing the existing subflooring. If you do a lot of weave-in, it becomes routine; the more you do, the easier it becomes.

Mike Osborn – Start to Finish Hardwood Floors

I have left a business card with a “date and a note” under all my installations or repairs during my career. A few years ago, while doing a plank installation for a customer’s kitchen
remodel, the customer produced a business card that they had found under the 21/4” floor they had removed. It was mine from 35 years ago when I had installed a kitchen floor for a previous owner. I showed him my card that was identical. He looked at me kind of astonished and we had a good laugh. While not “historic,” it was something interesting from the past!

 

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