Refinishing Top Nail White Oak Floor in El Sobrante Richmond, CA Area

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Even though I’ve been sanding and installing wood floors for a living for more than 23 years, I am still surprised at the look on people’s faces when I tell them we can save their floor and make it look like new again. The beauty of hardwood floors is that they are serviceable. They can be sanded over and over again and as we all see in the Bay Area, lots of them last more than a hundred years. 

This time our client wanted to know if their oak floors can be saved. After a quick site visit I assured here that with proper sanding, and some repairs we could bring that floor back to life. After we finished the project she actually told me she expected me to say she had to replace the entire floor. That’s what she had heard from others. 

Surely enough, after discussing price and schedule we started the work. Within a week we completed the sanding and some repairs. The client was out of town and I made sure to text her progress pictures and/or any questions I had. She knew exactly what we were doing every day and what the floor looked like at every stage. 

At first we stripped the finish off the floor to expose the wood itself. Walking around the home I took pictures of the dark stained areas that didn’t come out in the sanding. I sent the pics with cost for each area of repair. Upon approval we started replacing the white oak floor boards that were damaged. A lot of contractors make the mistake of putting in red oak in white oak floors, but not here. Everything is done properly and according to our industry guidelines of the National Wood Flooring Association.

The next step was to apply wood filler to all the nail holes and gaps. A few more passes with our dustless sanders and the floor was just about ready for the finish coats.

We use Bona HD Traffic for most of our floor sanding. It is durable and has a fast curing time. I do recommend that if you have small children and/or dogs to apply an extra coat. 

I did that in my home and it is a great investment. 

After completion of the sanding and finishing of three coats, we allowed the floor to cure for several days before our client could move back in. She later called us to do more work for her, and she couldn’t be happier.

Germs and Cleanliness of Floor Covering; a Confession of a Hardwood Floor Contractor

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Carpet vs. Hardwood Floors

It’s always the same debate. Should I install a new carpet or wood floors? Which one is better or cheaper? Which one will hold for a long time? Which one is better for the health of my family? Which is better for the environment?

We had been replacing carpets with new hardwood floors in the bay area for two decades. Yes, it is pretty obvious that an old and dirty carpet should be replaced. But what about newer carpets? The answer is they are all the same. We removed brand new carpets from multi million dollar homes to only find dirt and dust under them.

Here is my list of reasons why hardwood floors are a better choice for everyone Read more

Coronavirus: How Avi’s Hardwood Floors Makes Your Life Safer

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Top Three Reasons for Hiring Us Post COVID 19 Outbreak

At Avi’s Hardwood Floors we take your health and ours very seriously. While over the years we invested in top of the line machinery to keep your house free from dust, now we take extreme measure to leave your house as sanitized as possible. Read more

Top Three Mistakes Consumers Make When Hiring a Floor Contractor

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white oak refinish Berkeley bona ambersealWhen hiring someone to refinish your wood floors, or to install new hardwood floors there are many things you should do and don’t. From asking the right questions to checking the experience and quality of the company, this process of interviewing and hiring can be long and agonizing.

Here are my top three mistakes most of us do in the process of hiring a floor contractor. It could be for a refinish and repairs, or installation of new wood floors. The mistakes cover both avenues, and are mainly things I see here in the Bay Area, CA.

  1. Calculating a price by the square foot:
    A lot of consumers get stuck on this. Understand that this price per square foot didn’t come from contractors, it was created by someone along the way to put a price tag on something that isn’t a product – it’s a service. Professionals give you a quote for the work you ask them to do. They calculate in their quote things from payroll expenses to how much filler they need to use on your floor. A professional cannot simply take a number like $4 and multiply it by any size job to get them to a reasonable gross sale. When a professional gives you a quote, don’t automatically compare it to others just by dividing the number by the square feet you have. A lot more goes into your floors than you know, and even more than the professional has time to explain to you. I always refer to the dentist example. Understand that a tooth specialist could possibly charge thousands of dollars for 30 minutes of work. Compare that to when you get a crew of experienced craftsmen to work on your floors for a week, and it costs you only around 8K or 9K, it does seem cheap in comparison. To me, what society has determined is unquestionable as far as prices go, is beyond logical. It is unfair and makes no sense who gets to “get away” with their prices, and needs to negotiate, accommodate and follow.
  2. Asking google if whatever the contractor told you is actually true.
    Anything from what finish is to be used, or floor product. Understand that the information online is usually wrong, and doesn’t apply to your scenario. Trust in your reputable professional to provide you with the right answers, and recommend the right product. On the same token, don’t go to online forums seeking others opinions on your situation. They didn’t take the time to drive to your home, and give you their time. Finally, they don’t even know what the full scope of work is, and most likely they would like to look like they know better when in fact they usually don’t.
  3. Relying only on review websites
    It’s become a norm to check and judge companies based on their presence on review sites like Yelp or Angie’s List. Understand that as much as it is a good resource to read about other people’s experiences, those sites could also have bad information. These days it is easy for a new company to create a profile that looks like they had been around for decades, served hundreds of customers – when in fact – they have been in business for a few months. Writing fake reviews, and posting stolen pictures from social media is common among those companies. Unless you are in the trade of floors, you couldn’t tell just by looking at their profile. Beware, as to how you should take those sites with a grain of salt.

Hardwood Floor Installation Disaster

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We got a call from a reputable contractor to fix a newly installed white oak floor in Berkeley, CA. When I showed up to look at the floor, it was already cupping and separating from the sub floor. There were multiple humps a couple of inches high, and this oak floor needed to be replaced. The hardwood floor was in place for less than a month, and was part of a kitchen remodel.

I checked the moisture content in the floor and the sub floor, visually inspected the crawl space and tested the floor for proper nailing schedule. All of my tests came at a big fail for each category. The moisture level was too high in both the floor and the sub floor, the heat was off in the house, the fasteners were the wrong gauge and the floor was the wrong type. Evidently, the owner and the contractor knew of the moisture issues and flooded crawl space, and didn’t think it would have any effect on the new floor, since there are wood floors throughout the home already.

Everyone wants to save money, and it is just fine and perfectly understood. Saving money on installation of new wood floors isn’t smart. Wood moves at all times. Every time the relative humidity changes – wood moves. It is only in the hands of a true floor professional to decide which floor is best suited for your home. Read more

No Dust Wood Floor Refinishing

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White Oak Refinish El Cerrito Dark Oak OilYou want to refinish your wood floors, but without the dust and the dangerous fumes. Most hardwood floor contractors don’t have the equipment and experience to achieve the floor of your needs. Over the years we managed to perfect the art of sanding, while keeping dust and debris to an absolute minimum.

Our hardwood floor sanding equipment is top notch with dust collection in mind. While achieving a flat floor, the machines contain all the dust within a closed bag, or immediately send it into a HEPA filtered vacuums. That way, all the dust stays in the machines and doesn’t go air borne.

If you or your loved ones have allergies, asthma or respiratory concerns – our company is the way to go when refinishing your floors. We’ve had clients with severe conditions who hired us to sand their floors, and they were absolutely happy with the results. Nobody wants wood dust to end up in every part of their home. Read more

A Floor Replacement Done Right

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Our clients trust us to recommend the best solution for their floor issues. In this case, the home owner called us for advice on how to fix his squeaky floor. He already spent endless hours under the house, using squeak repair kits from the box store. Days in and out, the squeaks kept coming back and he didn’t know what to do. The hardwood floors were 5/16” x 2” red oak floors – a common top nail floor in the Bay Area. I don’t know how many other contractors he had met with before I walked through his front door, but they were many. We discussed the floor issues in length. I suggested a complete replacement, including proper sub floor fix and a full glue and nail of the new floor.

Evidently I was the first and only hardwood contractor to recommend this option. He hired us to do the work. Sure enough, as we started pulling the floor boards up we realized how thin the floor was. In some areas the wood floors was so thin, you could bend it for wood lamination. The hardwood floor in most areas were 1/8” thick which is absolutely outrageous for a top nail oak floor. Read more

Piedmont Remodel – Adding New Floors and Refinishing Existing

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We work a lot in the Piedmont area refinishing 100 year old oak floors and repairing them. This time the clients wanted us to add white oak floors to their addition, and refinish their old floors so that in the end everything matched.

After a quick visit to the site, inspecting the construction of the new sub floors and moisture conditions I advised my clients to use an unfinished engineered white oak. That was of course of great quality with a thick layer of veneer on top that can be sanded several times.

The conditions inside the addition didn’t permit installing solid floors without them buckling. There was too much concrete poured around and under the sub floors, and the addition was cut into the hill so we treated it as below grade install.

After acclimating the new white oak floors, we installed the floors throughout the addition. The design was a classy look for this old Piedmont home; big spaces with plenty details in the finish carpentry.

Read more

Oak Refinish in Richmond, CA

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Many homes in Richmond, CA have hardwood floors that were covered with carpets, laminate floor or painted over. As the Bay Area gets more crowded and the demand for land rises, home owners now shop for properties in areas less desirable in the past; areas like Oakland and Richmond. Many homes were neglected over the years and aside large expenses to remodel or add to their home, consumers understand the value in restoring their wood floors. The impact of refinishing your wood floors is immediate, beautiful and not as expensive as other remodel costs. Refinishing your wood floors should be done before you move into your new home.

At Avi’s Hardwood Floors we use our experience, education and the latest technology in dust contained floor sanders to assure a job well done. In this featured project we were called to refinish an odd floor. The floor was sanded before but had obvious sanding marks and gauges in it. It also had several dark stains from water damage and pets urine.

We collected woods from different sources to match the existing for repairs, sanded the floor flat and applied three coats of commercial water base urethane.

The home owner was very happy with the price, the quality and the time it took us to complete the work.

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Step 1 - Oak Refinish Richmond Before

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Step 2 - Oak Refinish Richmond Before

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Step 3 - Oak Refinish Richmond Before

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Step 4 - Oak Refinish Richmond After

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Step 5 - Oak Refinish Richmond After

Can You Put Hardwood Floors in The Bathroom?

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We all love wood floors. Wood is warmer and better than other flooring options. We can find wood floors in almost every home, from entryways to living rooms to every bedroom and closet. We often get questions like: “can we put hardwood floors in the bathroom”? Yes of course, but it is not that black and white. We don’t recommend solid wood floors in bathrooms with full showers or bathtubs, just because wood and water don’t mix. Wood will react to extreme changes in relative humidity and that is exactly what a steamy shower does. Despite my last statement, we did install solid wood floors in the past in full bathrooms with showers.

A successful wood floor install depends on how well balanced you keep the temperature and humidity conditions inside the bathroom. If the ventilation is poor and there is standing water over the floor every day, eventually the wood floor will discolor or cup.

If you have small children like I do, you know better than to let them have a bath with wood floors just inches away. Families with small children should probably consider something other than wood for a bathroom floors, well at least until the kids grow a little older.

If you keep the bathroom well ventilated and place a mat over the floor, the wood will last longer.

Using white or red oak floors, preferably vertical grain for stability reasons is the way to go.

Design your bathroom with wood floors in mind and enjoy the warmth and beauty of it for years to come.