Hardwood Floor Cleaning in Dalworthington Gardens, TX
The original houses here were built by the federal government in 1934 to be worked, and the floors in them were specified accordingly.
Dalworthington Gardens started as a New Deal subsistence homestead colony. The idea was that a family would live on an acre, grow most of its own food, and work in town for cash. Around eighty houses went up on that plan, and a fair number are still standing along Garden Lane and Roosevelt Drive with additions on them.
Depression-era federal housing was built to a budget and a specification, and the flooring was oak strip in a narrow width, laid tight, and finished with what was available at the time. Nobody was buying eight-inch European white oak in 1934.
If you own one of those houses, or one of the 1950s and 1960s infill houses in Shady Valley and Woodland West, the floor under you has a specific set of characteristics worth knowing.
Narrow Strip, and Why That Is Good News
Two and a quarter inch strip in three quarter inch solid oak is the most forgiving floor material ever manufactured for this part of the country. It moves less across its width than a wide board, it is thick enough to have survived several rounds of work already, and the tight seams give soil less room to collect. Most of these floors are structurally fine and simply carrying decades of coating.
The Finish Is Probably Not the Original One
Ninety years is several finishes deep. Almost every one of these houses has been recoated, waxed, stripped, and recoated again by different owners with different products, and the layers do not always agree with each other. That is the actual cause of the patchy, mottled look people describe on old Gardens floors. It reads as damage and it is usually stratigraphy.
The Acre Behind the House
The other half of the original design still applies. These are big lots and people garden them, which means real soil comes through the back door on a schedule set by the weather. Blackland clay is fine-particled and it packs into a finish. It is the reason the back half of a Gardens house floor is nearly always in worse condition than the front.
Not sure whether your floor needs cleaning or refinishing? There are three tests you can run yourself in about a minute, and they will tell you which one you are dealing with before anyone quotes you.
Hardwood problems we handle in Dalworthington Gardens
A ninety-year-old oak floor generally has more left in it than its owner assumes.
Ring 682-226-6519 for the Dalworthington Gardens schedule or book from the site, and take $50 off the first visit.
Areas we cover around Dalworthington Gardens
Neighborhoods: Woodland West Estates, Woodland Park Estates, Shady Valley Estates, Shady Valley Acres, Shady Valley North, the original Gardens homestead colony, Garden Lane, Roosevelt Drive
Zip codes: 76016, 76013, 76015
Hardwood questions from Dalworthington Gardens homeowners
Is a floor this old too fragile to clean?
No. Old solid oak is tougher than anything sold today. The caution is about moisture, not age, and metering the solution and recovering it in the same pass is exactly how that is handled.
There are gaps between boards on the original section. Will you fill them?
No. Gap filling belongs to a sanding and refinishing job and we do not sand, re-stain, or apply polyurethane. Cleaning removes what has accumulated in a gap, which occasionally makes it look a shade wider for a while.
Half the house is original and half is a 1990s addition. Will they match afterward?
They will both look their best and they will not match, because they are different wood of different ages. Nothing short of sanding both together evens that out, and even then the color history is different. Worth setting the expectation now.
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Schedule your Dalworthington Gardens hardwood floor cleaning
Prefer to talk it through first? Call 682-226-6519. Otherwise, pick a time below.
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