Portland, Maine Wood Floor Installation

Whether you are in your forever home, or just want to go with the highest quality option (resale value, etc.), wood floors are longer lasting, more durable, and absolutely beautiful. One point to consider is that hardwood floors do need to be maintained properly, but with the proper care, they will last a lifetime. There are several species of wood to choose from, along with stain color, sealant type, and finish, to customize your space. Wood floors increase the beauty, integrity, and value of your home, and are one of the most worthwhile investments we could suggest.

This hardwood floor installation in Portland, Maine was for a newly married couple who are putting down roots in Maine. They just recently purchased a brownstone in downtown Portland and though they loved the space, they needed to make some changes to make it their own. Now, this is when I would write "so they reached out to McNulty Wood Floors and the rest is history", but it's more meet-cute than that. I met them on their wedding day assisting my very talented photographer wife. While I was photographing the guys getting ready, the groom and I naturally started discussing our lives and I discovered he was in need of a flooring contractor for their new home in Portland. Soon after their wedding they reached out and we got started. We worked with Atlantic Hardwoods in Portland, Maine to pick out their flooring. They ended up choosing unfinished, 5" wide, select and better, ash flooring. If you are reading this and unsure what that last sentence was, let's break it down:
"Unfinished" means the flooring they chose is raw wood floor planks with no finish on it, unlike prefinished or an engineered flooring would come already coated with finish on it.
5", is the width of the board.
"Select and better" is the grade/quality of the wood, select and better being one of the higher quality options, with the flooring planks having some small knots, mineral streaks, and color shifts, offering a balance between clean and character.
Ash is the species of the wood. Ash has some pros and some cons. The biggest con being it isn't the greatest with moisture, and since we are in New England that can be a concern, especially if you live on or near water, as the ash flooring will have a greater chance of failing especially with a bad installation. Luckily they have chosen one of Maine's finest installers, are a distance from the water, and have a climate controlled home to manage heating, cooling, and air quality which supports and protects their investment/floors.

Once the flooring was delivered the project was in full swing. Demo was a beast of a job. Not sure if I mentioned that this was on the third floor of their home! Access and egress was challenging. Half the of the existing floor was prefinished and it popped right up, and the other half of the floor was tile. Now, tile can go either way; sometimes it pops right up and you cruise along, or sometimes it clings on for dear life. In our case we got the latter of the two. For whatever reason the tile guy tiled over tile, and the guy before him did the same. We combatted three layers of tile! Holy moly! I spent three days demoing that one side to get it where it needed to be. There is a lot more to it but I will spare you the details. This was supposed to be a short blurb about the job and here we are. The demo was rougher than anticipated, but we persevered and got the subfloor dialed in to put down the new flooring. The install went smoothly with no hiccups and as soon as that was done, we sanded the floors and coated. The end result was beautiful and everyone loved the finish product!