Delicious Recycling
The sunporch in the carriage house needs a level floor, as the original floor is sloped. This was necessary when the room was an open porch, but it is a problem as an enclosed room. For, there will be a washer/dryer along the wall at top. Justin put in new mini-joists to level the floor, but The Other Justin was not able to source flooring to match the adjacent kitchen. “It’s all out-of-stock.” The mantra of the day.
However…I had matching flooring stuck in the garage. It is from the circa-1921 front porch, which I removed in 2014. Then I stored its flooring away.
The Other Justin though hates working with old flooring, as the tongues and grooves are normally all junked up. So, we made a deal. If I cleaned up the tongues and grooves, he would install the flooring, and then sand and varnish it.
In the image above, I have just laid down the newly cleaned boards (they are not installed yet).
The old-growth wood should soon be revealed as gorgeous (the current blotchy look is just old varnish). And I love the idea that wood from the circa-1921 conversion can be recycled in the same structure. Ross excited.
3 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel Reply
Your email address will NEVER be made public or shared, and you may use a screen name if you wish.
If you have enough to do the entire room, so totally worth it.
I have wide plank old growth pine on my floors. It looks kinda orange. Almost the color of mahogany, but not quite. I can tell where some later patches were put and stained to try to match the older floor. Not a success. No place I could go to get matching wood. The entire house is the same except for the master bedroom that was added on in 1949. Obviously they had the same problem. The bedroom is narrow oak flooring. I’m guessing it probably couldn’t be matched now either but thankfully not necessary.
I’m guessing that if any house in the neighborhood were torn down or remodeled, that this old growth flooring would be put in a dumpster and hauled to the landfill rather than salvaged. Same with a lot of other detailing like cabinets, doors, windows and even bathroom fixtures. No one appreciates vintage stuff. At least not here. I am so glad I opted to refinish my floors rather than lay some floating fake wood over them, or to gut my kitchen and install granite countertops. My Dad wants me to take out yet another cabinet so I can get a larger refrigerator.I would rather take out the tile floor and lay linoleum to gain another inch so a refrigerator can fit under the cabinet. I already lost one to put in a dishwasher.
Yeah to recycle and repurpose! 🙂
Well done, Ross, Justin and the Other Justin.