A Trip to The Beach: Cleaning and Oiling Hardwood Floors and Dealing with Water Damage

By Scott Schneider | June 4, 2020

Ocean waves are crashing, palm trees are swaying on the breeze and people all around are enjoying the beach and soaking up the sun. Some are playing beach volleyball, some are surfing, but we are here to work! We’re at Santa Monica Beach and we’re about to revive the hardwood floors of the wonderful Annenberg Community Beach House!

The 1920s Masterpiece

The history of this Beach House dates way back to the 1920s, though at that time it wasn’t public property. It was constructed for actress Marion Davies where she hosted Hollywood legends such as Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, etc. Unfortunately, the Mansion with over 100 bedrooms was demolished in the 1950s but the original facilities such as Marion Davies Guest House and historic marble-tiled pool are still there and open to all without the need for membership!

But enough of the history lesson, let’s give these floors a shine that would make Marion Davies proud!

Cleaning

Sand particles can damage the finish of the hardwood, especially in high-traffic areas. And given the number of guests in the Beach House, especially in the summer, we can safely say that the entire flooring is one big high-traffic area. After they get tracked inside, these small particles can scratch and damage the floor when being stepped on. That’s why it’s essential to vacuum or sweep the floors regularly.

Regular and proper maintenance of hardwood flooring is extremely important, as adequately maintained floors can really last for generations. When you have hardwood floors in a beach house, like here in Santa Monica, propper maintenance is even more important since the floors are constantly exposed to some of its worst enemies – water and sand.

That’s precisely what our Olde Tyme Flooring team is going to do first at Santa Monica Beach House. After a thorough vacuuming, we clean the floors with a white pad and a cleaning solution. Note that you should never use a soaking wet mop to clean the hardwood floors!

After the floors are completely dry it’s time to apply natural oils.

Applying the oils

You know how hand creams and skin lotions work, right? You apply them onto your skin, they get absorbed and they revitalize your cracked and dry skin. Well, basically the same goes for applying natural oil onto hardwood floors.

Natural oil gets soaked into the floors making the wood itself much stronger while enhancing the organic look of the wood. So instead of adding the glassy shine as polyurethane finishes do, these oils will give the floors a more natural and warm look. Also, unlike polyurethane finishes, natural oil doesn’t release unhealthy chemical emissions so it’s a far better option from a health perspective.

Now that you know something about natural oil finishes, let’s get back to our Olde Tyme Floor team at Annenberg Community Beach House. After natural oil is spread onto the floors, it acts as a conditioner and it’s buffed into the pores of the wood. Once dirty and worn, floors of the Beach House have regained their luster!

Water damage

The first thing you should know is that changes on the hardwood flooring due to water damage don’t happen overnight. The negative effects of water build up over time, so the earlier you notice the moisture-related problems on your floors, the easier and cheaper it will be to fix it. In most cases, the water damage is repaired by resanding and refinishing the affected area.

But before you call a hardwood flooring service, like Olde Tyme Flooring, to fix the damaged wood it’s important to know where the water comes from so you could prevent the problem from happening again. If you accidentally spill water from time to time, that won’t cause a change of color or cupping. What causes these problems is a constant exposure of wood to moisture. Some of the frequently encountered sources of the water problems are leaking radiators, persistent drips from refrigerators and dishwashers, or your dog’s water bowl and the mess he makes around it after drinking. So in order to prevent the water damage, pay special attention to all of the possible sources of water drips and leaks.

We’ve encountered something similar in the Beach House. The water damaged area is around 15 inches wide and it was caused by a potted plant. Of course, applying the natural oil alone wouldn’t do the trick, so to correct this, we’ll lightly sand and restain the damaged area. It’s a fairly simple procedure for professionals, which our guys from Olde Tyme Floor certainly are! Problems like this are rather frequent so if you’re having a similar issue with your hardwood floor, give us a call and we’ll do it in no time!

It’s time to call it a day

After a productive day and successfully revived hardwood floors, we made it in time to sit down and enjoy the enchanting sunset at Santa Monica Beach. Now that’s a special day in the office!

If you like how we did things here at the Annenberg Community Beach House and you’re looking for hardwood flooring services in Los Angeles, please feel free to contact us!

Also, check out the video below to get a better picture of our workday in Santa Monica, CA:

Posted in Blog, Flooring Experts and tagged california, flooring experts, flooring projects, hardwoodfloor, hardwoodflooring, santa monica

Corey Zirlin 6/1/2011

Angi

I have worked on several projects with Olde Tyme Floor, from simple sanding and staining to new home construction. The customers see samples of work prior to installation and are well-informed of the project's status. While there are surprises in every large project, Olde Tyme Floor is always communicating with the client and managing their expectations.

Dominque Defelice 7/26/2011

They did a great job. We mixed a custom dark color it came out beautiful.

Jay Kalish 9/9/2011

Olde Tyme Floor Co. did a wonderful job redoing our hardwood floors. We bought an older house that had existing hardwood floors but the additions didn't have wood. Olde Tyme Floor Co. had to level the area that had sub flooring and feather in the new wood to match the existing floor. It looks fantastic, no one can tell where the old floor ended and where the new floor started. Scott was very professional, explaining the entire process to us, if we had any questions he was always available. The quality of workmanship can't be beat. The crew were professional, courteous, and cleaned up each night after they finished. When it came time to choosing the floor color they found out what colors we liked and then laid out several color swatches on the floor for us to select from; their input was extremely helpful. We are so pleased with the way the floors came out, everyone that comes over comments on how beautiful the floors are first thing. There is a real love for what they do and our floors definitely reflect it. Beautiful floors make the house and now ours looks like a million bucks.

Pam Adams 9/16/2011

Scott came out and gave me an estimate on re-sanding, re-staining and re-sealing my kitchen, breakfast room and two hall floors. He worked around my schedule. Was willing to negotiate a price.... Was professional, courteous, friendly and helpful. The job took 10 days ( a little longer than anticipated) but he included doing my sliding door thresholds.....and was so very accommodating! He even left my oven on rollers, so the repairman who started the oven repair, could move it out and back without harming the new floors. His workers were careful with my belongings and replaced everything back exactly as it was when they originally started. If you need flooring USE SCOTT! He is so good, I am having my bedroom floors done next. Great guy, has terrific employees, reasonable prices and I could not be happier! Most importantly, he stands by his work and will not leave until you are satisfied. Thank you Scott!

Terri Stambaugh 10/15/2011

It took longer than I liked but it was worth it, top quality!

Kathleen Haff 10/22/2011

Although the hardwood floors were in very bad condition it only took a few days before they were transformed into the gorgeous satiny floors they are today. AND ALMOST NO DUST!!!!!!!!!! The process was seamless. One of the easiest and most satisfying transactions I've ever had. The Old Tyme Floor team made a very stressful time in my life a lot easier. I can't recommend them enough.

Susan Gesshel 11/3/2011

I had contacted this contractor through the Big Deal on Angie's List hoping he could do some kind of temporary fix on some splitting boards. When I met Scott, I found that he had absolutely excellent references outside of those on Angie's List. Scott advised me that any fix would be temporary, and that it would be more prudent just to replace the floor now. Because of his references, I chose to replace the floors. His crew was absolutely A+. Since I was using a random grain wood, the layout of the individual boards was very important to avoid color pooling or boards that did not look good together. I watched as one member of his crew laid the boards out. He was meticulous at choosing boards so the floor would look good. The crew worked quickly and cleaned up everything before they left each day. Scott stopped by to check the work daily. The floors are beautiful. So glad I had the work done by this company.

David Glazer 11/25/2011

Scott is very personable, friendly and truly interested in what you are doing. I had several estimates and Olde Tyme Floor wasn't the cheapest, but they also were not the most expensive. One reason I went with Scott's company was his ability to be creative. I had an estimate from Lowe's, and the estimator/installer could not fathom how to deal with a difficult transition from my kitchen tile floor to the new wood floor. Scott's team Cesar and 2nd Cesar were very good craftsmen. Cesar cut away some of the tile and installed a slightly inclined wood threshold which makes up for the one inch height difference in the floor. They also did a very nice job on the other difficult transition from my tile hearth to the new wood floor. Cesar and Cesar were very nice and extremely careful in putting plastic up over my shutters, ceiling fan and doorways to mitigate dust. They installed the leveling in one and half days. I think that was the hardest part of the job. Then Cesar and Cesar laid the flooring. I purchased new primed MDF moulding from Home Depot. I pre-painted it myself and the Cesars installed it. I spackled and touched up the nail holes the day after they were done. They worked for 4 days and every evening cleaned up and put their tools neatly into a corner of the room for the night. They both had a great work ethic and were very professional. A lot of pride was observed in the work they were doing. The finished product has made me love my house again.

Evie Klein 1/16/2012

He was very personable, knowledgeable, and accommodating but unfortunately it was just too expensive for me to move forward with the project at this time.

Kathleen Hale 1/20/2012

The owner was friendly and helpful. The workers did a great job.

A Trip to The Beach: Cleaning and Oiling Hardwood Floors and Dealing with Water Damage

The 1920s Masterpiece

Cleaning

Applying the oils

Water damage

It’s time to call it a day

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Established in 1980, Olde Tyme Floor Co has over 43 years of experience creating beautiful floors for our customers throughout Los Angeles County and surrounding communities.

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