Project Overview
The areas involved in this preservation work on the wood floors were the public rooms on the first-floor level and included: The Dining Room, Morning Room, Library, Study, Drawing Room, Cloister and Gallery. The total area was 7415 square feet. The work was done in two phases with the first starting on October 16, 2023 and ended on October 25, 2023. This phase focused on The Study, Library and Drawing Room. The second phase started on February 26, 2024 and ended on March 9, 2024. The focus of this phase was The Dining Room, Morning Room, Cloister and Gallery.
The Floors
The wood floors installed in all the rooms except the Cloister and Gallery were relatively new at the they were installed which would have likely been around 1928. According to records found, the wood was supplied by The Indiana Flooring Company. Their 1930 catalog referenced Mr. E.L. Ford of Grosse Pointe among their “notable installations.” It is worth pointing out that the same company also listed Mr. Henry Ford of Dearborn as another “notable installations.”
The wood used in the Morning Room and Dining Room was quarter sawed white oak installed in a herringbone pattern. In their catalog, Indiana Flooring points out that this material was milled at their Coal Grove millworks in eastern Ohio near West Virginia and was referred to as Appalachian oak. The milling of the flooring material was exceptional, and they recommended installation by carpenters skilled in cabinetry. When the floors were installed, because of the quality of the milling, they did not require aggressive sanding and most likely only experienced a mild, light sanding surface prep. Suffice it to say that Indiana Floor was the gold standard of their day.
The wood used in the Drawing Room was Java Teak harvested in Indonesia and likely milled and kiln dried at either Coal Grove, OH or their other millworks in Reed City, MI. Teak was a highly prized material due to its rich color, high oil content which helped protect the material and its ease of care due to a lower threat level from damage due to casual contact with liquids. Teak was a very desirable material in European homes and was more readily available there due to being shipped in from the tropical regions. Indiana Flooring offered teak in their catalog and was proud that the Java Teak “contained all the admirable flooring requirements” by this exotic species.
The most unique floors Indiana Flooring supplied was the material used in the Cloister and Gallery. The floors are random width quarter sawed white oak of a handsome character grade. The character grade means that along with the fine graining patterns of the milling process, handsome growth figures were allowed to remain that gave the floors an older look. All the floors in these two rooms are a veneer product with a top 1/4-in. wear layer that was glued to a 5/8”-in. substrate where the wood alternated its direction (much like plywood) to provide a stronger and more stable surface. As Indiana Flooring pointed out in their catalog, the laminated construction was used “to prevent shrinking, cupping, warping, etc.” and this enabled them to ”guarantee the construction to remain flat”. Like the other products, the millwork was exceptional, and the floors did not need aggressive machine sanding to level the surface. Minor imperfections were removed with chisels and hand planes. I was able to find two very small locations in the large Gallery where the substrate was exposed and you could see wood underneath the wear layer that was at 90° to the direction of the wood on the surface. The first location was adjacent to a heat duct along the exterior wall in the Gallery Bay. There was slight damage and the veneer had been chipped off the floor.
The other location was close to the French doors opening onto the Apple Court. This location was where one of the growth figures mentioned earlier had likely lost some damaged material exposing the layer underneath. Like the other location, the layer underneath the veneer was at 90° to the direction of the top layer.
The final two rooms, The Study and Library, had the most historic wood floors in the house. These boards are solid, tongue and groove and likely had a previous life in a home or structure in England. It is known that some of the wood features in the house were from homes in England and based on my observations and experience, I would say the flooring material in these two rooms made the trip too. There would have been noticeable height variations in the old wood but these were mitigated by the adept use of chisels and planing tools by the highly skilled wood workers.
Due to the accumulation of tinted waxes on the floors and their aging, it was difficult to see the graining detail of the wood. Upon removal of the surface accumulations and surface detail, it was obvious the wood had been part of another surface at another time. There were marks and stains that pre-dated the Ford years and could only have occurred at another time and another location. Stains and abrasion that would have extended over on to adjacent pieces abruptly stopped were the most obvious clues. The other was very handsome but unusual grain patterns that indicated a much slower rate of growth which I’ve only seen in European oak. The wood responded very nicely to Passive Refinishing® and we were able to apply color that created a more uniform look of the entire field of wood and complimented the aged look of the room.
The Restoration Process
The restoration work would not allow for any aggressive sanding methods as this would have resulted in the excessive loss of original materials and the removal of the worn patina the floors had acquired over the decades of use. To meet these requirements, Rosebud Co. employed Passive Refinishing® to remove all surface accumulations only and left the wood totally intact and did not disturb the surface patina. The chemicals used were non-toxic and did not result in any hazardous worksite conditions or materials being created. Once the materials were removed, the floors went through a cleansing process to remove any lingering residue. Once the floors had been thoroughly prepped, a hardening oil wax was applied to all the rooms to create a look that would have been consistent with the original look. The hardening oil wax used was Magic Oil by Pallmann.
Michael Purser & Jenna Novic
The Rosebud Co. | Atlanta, GA
David Purser
Purser Wood Floors | Charlotte, NC