Restoration & Repair
Does your wood flooring look dull, faded, dirty or discoloured? Does it have too many scratches and marks? You might even be considering replacing it. Before you do, call us to see if what it actually needs is restoring and/or refinishing.
Our expert craftsmen breathe new life into wooden floors at affordable prices. View individual projects below (all with ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos), or READ MORE to learn about our restoration and repair services.
There are normally three stages in the restoration of a wood floor: preparation; sanding (and sometimes filling gaps); and finishing or re-sealing the surface.
Preparation
This would involve making sure that there are no loose planks (or blocks for a parquet floor). So we either have to nail or glue parts of the floor down to its sub-floor, or to the joists in some cases.
Sometimes certain planks or blocks will need replacing altogether. We keep a selection of off-cuts and other pieces of wood in our showroom for just this eventuality. And, because all our own floors are made to order (we have no stock), custom replacements usually present no problems whatsoever.
Sanding
Do we need to sand?
Sometimes we don’t, if we are restoring an oiled floor. The planks or blocks can be buffed to ‘open the grain’ (by which we mean we just return them to the surface properties of a fresh piece of wood) and we can then apply one coat (or more) of hard wax oil. This is sometimes possible even after a considerable number of years have passed since the last maintenance was carried out.
Varnished / Lacquered Floors
Unfortunately buffing alone is not possible for a floor finished with lacquer / varnish. The floor needs to be sanded down completely to remove all traces of the lacquer (which is usually hiding the real colour of the wood), and then we can use hard wax oil to seal the floor.
Our Sanding Equipment
We use top of the range Bona sanding machines (a selection of of belt sanders for large areas, then edgers and hand-held tools for awkward areas, and buffers). None of these produce dust: we guarantee no cleaning for the customer, and no inconvenience.
Finishing
We use either rollers or cloths to apply the hard wax oil we use. All finishes are applied by hand. Many different looks are possible and you can read about them here.
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Borehamwood RestorationBorehamwood RestorationExisting French solid oak sanded This wood flooring was previously lacquered and therefore showing a lot of the wear and tear, which happened over the years. We sanded the entire area and applied two coats of clear hard wax oil. -
Whitewash RestorationWhitewash RestorationExisting worn parquet herringbone blocks sanded and finished in whitewash This parquet herringbone was quite worn and damaged, with new parts needed to be installed at the client’s request. We manufactured new solid blocks on site to fit with existing blocks. We installed new blocks, sanded the entire area, refined the areas and applied a white pigmented oil to leave a whitewash finish. -
Wenge LondonWenge LondonWenge is a beautiful African species of wood, with very hardwearing properties to compliment the stunning natural colour. This project was a mix of two aspects, restoration and installing of new wenge to join seamlessly to the existing wenge. Our client previously had two levels of floor as you can see in the below pictures, we sourced the wenge to suit the exact thickness width and grade of the existing wenge. We removed the existing wenge, took out the existing suspended floor and created our own suspended floor to match the level exactly to the existing one for a flat seamless finish. We achieved an amazing finish once sanded and oiled with a special thin oil specifically produced for the wenge species as the wood is very dense 1. Removal of existing wenge 2. Installation of new level suspended floor 3. Creating an insertion for the new wenge to fit perfectly into the existing wenge 4. Installing of new wenge in line with existing wenge 5. Sanding of entire area including filling and fine buffing 6. application of Osmo extra thin oil for the best possible finish. -
Basmati RestaurantBasmati RestaurantRestoration of a restaurant wood floor, which would see a large amount of traffic over the years. Woodcraft Flooring provided a professional restoration service for this restaurant in need of a new looking wood floor. We sanded the wood back to bare oak and applied a very hardwearing Bona Traffic HD lacquer which is specifically produced for high traffic areas. -
Mill Hill Mosaic RestorationMill Hill Mosaic RestorationA beautiful Mosaic wood flooring hidden under the years of wear and tear. We find we have a lot of mosaic restoration projects which always come out amazing. The beauty of wood is that it can be sanded after several years for a fresh layer to enjoy once again. With this project we had to take up around 2000 pieces, clean and re-install as they were loose. -
Oak Strip RestorationOak Strip RestorationExisting solid oak strip restoration finished in a clear hard wax oil. As we always express, a good quality solid or engineered wood flooring will last a lifetime and can be sanded multiple times, depending on the top layer to change the colour or refresh the wood flooring. -
Solid Oak Parquet RestorationSolid Oak Parquet RestorationExisting solid oak parquet restored to original beauty. An existing oak parquet herringbone wood flooring restored to original beauty by the Woodcraft Flooring team. We find joy in restoring existing wood flooring as we can see the beautiful transformation step by step. -
Existing Floorboard RestorationExisting Floorboard RestorationExisting floorboards with heavy sanding needed to create a perfect flat finish. These floorboards were in extremely bad shape, with endless nails on the boards which we either had to pull out or hammer in deep for our machines to work safely. We offered the full package on this project including, 1. Heavy sanding 2. Hammering and pulling out all nails 3. Inserting pine strips in gaps 4. Filling entire area with flexible filler 5. Fine sanding 6. application of Traffic HD Bona Lacquer -
Mosaic, Restoration HatchendMosaic, Restoration HatchendMosaic is one of the oldest styles of wood flooring still used to this day. We find we have a lot of mosaic restoration projects which always come out amazing. The beauty of wood is that it can be sanded after several years for a fresh layer to enjoy once again. -
Parquet Herringbone, Restoration Mill HillParquet Herringbone, Restoration Mill HillBespoke resotration services -
Solid Oak, Gerrards CrossSolid Oak, Gerrards CrossWide board solid oak with badly applied hard wax oil, giving a dull look to the oak. We often come across projects where the finishing coat is not applied to it’s full potential. This intern made the oak look very dull with the variation of the oak hidden away. Stair top railings were also sanded and oiled in the process to match with the solid oak. -
Sapele Parquet Herringbone Restoration in NorthwoodSapele Parquet Herringbone Restoration in NorthwoodThe African Sapele has been down for 59 years, The wood was in really bad worn condition mainly on the surface. The varnish had darkened overtime hiding the true beauty of the wood, construction work around the house including painting left the wood looking terrible. -
Solid Walnut, StanmoreSolid Walnut, StanmoreThis beautiful Walnut floor had been damaged almost beyond repair by sanding done with the wrong equipment in the wrong hands. The customer thought she’d need a new floor, but we were able to restore it to its former glory. -
Pine Boards, BorehamwoodPine Boards, BorehamwoodThis fifty-year old floor’s surface condition had seriously deteriorated. Uneven and dirty-looking, it was also drafty due to gaps between the planks. We made it safe, soundproof, draft-free and gave it a totally fresh look. -
Parquet Oak, BeaconsfieldParquet Oak, BeaconsfieldThese ten year old Oak Herringbone parquet blocks were an unattractive bright orange colour, with unwanted colour variations across the floor to boot. We removed the old finish to reveal the natural beauty of Oak. -
Parquet Mahogany, HertfordshireParquet Mahogany, HertfordshireThese solid parquet Mahogany blocks had last been finished some twenty to twenty-five years ago with a very thick and dark lacquer. Some blocks were dented, and the aged lacquer was hiding the natural colour variations in this now rare species of hardwood. -
Solid Red Oak, BuckinghamshireSolid Red Oak, BuckinghamshireThe floors in this stately home consisted of solid Red Oak boards, re-finished most recently with lacquer some thirty to forty years before. Over the years the lacquer had slowly turned a reddish brown into a rather dirty muddy dark grey colour. -
Solid Cherry, BeaconsfieldSolid Cherry, BeaconsfieldThese solid parquet blocks had taken a bit of a beating in places and had last been finished with lacquer. As well as significant scratches, the twenty-year old lacquer surface had taken on a ‘bleached’ look in places where dust had collected. -
Parquet Cherry, WatfordParquet Cherry, WatfordThese thirty year old solid planks had been finished with lacquer, which was showing definite signs of age and had faded away to a dirty grey in places. The result: an uneven and unattractive surface finish, hiding the natural beauty of Cherry. -
Canadian Oak, BuckinghamshireCanadian Oak, BuckinghamshireThe floors in this hallway and room had been laid some thirty to forty years previously, with varnish used to seal the wood. The passage of time had robbed the wood finish of its shine, leaving a rather dull and uninspiring appearance.