Historic restoration work often requires a different mindset than new installation. The objective is not perfection in the modern sense, but preservation. At the Lee County Courthouse in Giddings, Texas, that responsibility centered around a 120-year-old heart pine floor that already had survived fire, reconstruction, and more than a century of continuous use. For Patrick Bailey of Artisan Hardwood Floors in Austin, Texas, the goal was simple in theory and difficult in practice: save as much of the original floor as possible without losing what made it historic in the first place.
Artisan Hardwood Floors was brought onto the project through a general contractor the company regularly works with on courthouse restorations across Texas. Bailey says
the architect overseeing the project maintained strict historic standards from the beginning, particularly when it came to replacement material and finish selection.
“The whole objective was to salvage as much of the flooring as we possibly could,” says Bailey. “Then we supplement that with reclaimed material.”
The work stretched across multiple courtrooms throughout the courthouse. In the first-floor north courtroom, the existing flooring was removed carefully, cataloged, and salvaged before new sleepers and structural leveling work were completed. The original flooring then was reinstalled with select replacement boards added where needed, followed by sanding and finishing. The first-floor south courtroom required sanding and finishing only. On the second floor, the process was repeated with removal, salvage, re-sleepering, leveling, reinstallation, and refinishing. On the third floor, crews stabilized loose boards without sanding or refinishing.
Unlike some restoration projects Bailey encounters, the courthouse itself was still functioning and structurally sound. “This was not in horrendous condition,” he says. “It was old finish, old dirt, but not dilapidated completely.”
What made the project unusual was the extent of removal. In many restorations, portions of the floor remain in place. Here, large sections were removed completely so the subfloor system beneath them could be rebuilt. That process also revealed another challenge: matching the replacement wood properly. Bailey emphasized that with antique heart pine, the age that matters most is not just about the age of the wood that was removed from the building, but more important is the age of the tree itself when it was harvested.
“A lot of people think age in terms of how old the building is,” he adds. “We care about the age of the tree.”
The courthouse, rebuilt in 1899 after an earlier fire destroyed the original structure, contained high-quality vertical grain antique heart pine, likely sourced from East Texas or Louisiana. Bailey explains that the harvested age of the antique heart pine refers to trees that had reached at least half their natural lifespan before harvest, allowing the wood to develop the density and resin content that give the material its color, hardness, and durability.
“That resin is everything,” notes Bailey. “It creates the color, the density, the rot resistance.”
To match the existing flooring, Artisan sourced reclaimed material from an old home in nearby Round Top, Texas. Bailey already had much of the wood in inventory through relationships with architectural salvage suppliers. In the end, roughly 85 percent of the installed floor remained original material.
The rebuilt subfloor system added another layer of complexity. The timeline stretched over several years, and the courthouse remained occupied during portions of construction. Originally Bailey’s crew removed and denailed the flooring years earlier before returning to reinstall it after structural work was complete.
“When they put the subfloor back in, it wasn’t perfect,” he says. “So we had to go back in and tighten it up before reinstalling the flooring to make sure we hit the right elevations at the doorways.”
The sanding process required restraint more than aggression. Bailey says one of the biggest mistakes inexperienced contractors make during restoration work is trying to flatten historic floors too aggressively.
Rather than sanding everything down to the thinnest board, the crew worked to place boards of similar thickness together carefully to preserve as much wear layer as possible. The process began with a drum sander to remove the old finish before transitioning to a Bona Power Drive to contour sand the surface more carefully.
“We’re not remilling this material,” explains Bailey. “It goes back in the way it came out.”
The architect selected an oil-modified polyurethane finish over a neutral sanding sealer to better recreate the appearance of traditional varnish while still providing modern durability.
Working with antique heart pine also requires understanding the material itself. Bailey describes it as dense and beautiful, but also brittle because of its age and resin content. The vertical grain structure can lead to splintering and lifting along board edges during sanding if handled improperly.
“You cannot get too aggressive with it,” advises Bailey. “If you do, you will ruin it.”
Despite the challenges, Bailey says the work carries a responsibility that extends beyond the flooring itself. “There’s only one of these floors ever,” he adds. “We have a responsibility not to lose that.”
For Bailey, historic restoration ultimately is about preserving the original vision behind the building while making sure it can continue serving future generations.
“The guy who designed that courthouse built it to last a hundred years, and it did,” says Bailey. “Now we’re putting it back, so it needs to last another hundred.”
