Sixty-four years, counted where it counts
The shop on Tanners Row
We rescue floors. It is cheaper than replacing them.
The vale is full of pitch pine and quartersawn oak that somebody papered over in 1974, and the trade has been quoting to rip it out ever since. We lift the coverings carefully, meter the boards for moisture before we promise anything, and repair what needs repairing with reclaimed stock from our own racks. Nine times in ten the floor you already own is the best floor you could buy.
The fixed-figure estimate
The number we write at the measure is the number on the invoice. If the job runs long because we misread it, that is our day rate, not your problem — sixty-four years and the rule has not bent.
Services & rates
The rate card
The same card every address in the vale gets. The measure is free, the quote is fixed, and every line already includes dustless containment, the moisture log and the handover clean. Coverings removal is priced at cost — we would rather you found out what is under there.
Rescue & refinish$4.75 / sq ft
Coverings up, boards repaired, full dustless sand, three coats
Straight refinish$4.05 / sq ft
The floor is already bare: four cuts, hand edging, three coats
New lay, solid oak or ash$8.60 / sq ft
Acclimated on site, secret-nailed over a metered subfloor
New lay, engineered$7.40 / sq ft
4 mm wear layer minimum, glued or floated to suit the room
Stairs, sanded$74 / step
Treads, risers and nosings stripped and finished to match
Reclaimed board repairfrom $21 / board
Grain- and species-matched, woven in board by board
The vale, 2025 — 2026
Floors we gave back
Six rescues from the last year, photographed at handover with the furniture still in the hall. The dark one spent forty years under a rubber mat; the pale one under coconut matting since the coronation.
How it goes
Four days, coverings to topcoat
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Day 0
The measure
We lift a corner of every covering, take pin-meter readings of boards and subfloor, and leave the fixed quote on paper. If the moisture says the floor is a lost cause, you hear it before you spend a dollar.
Day 1
Coverings & containment
Lino, carpet, adhesive and the odd layer of 1960s newspaper come up. Doorways are sealed, machines go on HEPA extraction and the rooms run negative air from here to handover.
Day 2
Repairs & the first cuts
Splits and scars are cut out and woven flat with reclaimed stock. Then the dustless sand begins: 36 grit to 120, drum and edge, water-popped where the grain asks for it.
Day 3
Colour, then coats
The finish is mixed and rubbed onto a board offcut in your own light — you sign the sample before it touches the floor. Then a cut sealer and the first topcoat.
Day 4
Final coat & handover
Last topcoat, the skirting wiped by our hands, and the care card with your dates, your batch numbers and the winter humidity to keep the house above.
Neighbours
The vale talks afterwards
Two firms quoted to board over our hall and lay laminate. Marrow & Mallet lifted the doormat, looked at the edge of the pine, and quoted less to rescue it. Four days later it is the colour of toast and the whole street has been to see it.
They found eleven boards too far gone and matched every one from a rack of demolition pine out the back. The moisture log came home with the invoice — readings twice a day, initialed. I have never been handed anything like it.
Our stairs were the embarrassment of the house — paint, grip strips, a hole where the runner wore through. They sanded the lot, turned a new oak nosing for the top tread, and finished it to match the landing exactly.
Before you book
Asked at every kitchen table
The five questions the vale asks before signing. Anything stranger, the shop line at the foot of the page runs seven to five and has heard it.
Is my floor worth rescuing?
Usually. If the boards are thicker than nine millimetres at the wear surface and the moisture readings are sane, rescue beats replacement on both cost and character. We tell you honestly at the measure — we keep a replacement quote template for the one floor in ten that needs it.
How dustless is the containment?
Every machine extracts through HEPA filters and every doorway carries a sealed barrier with negative air. On the last afternoon we wipe your skirting and window sills ourselves — if your cloth finds film ours missed, the final clean is free.
Engineered or solid next time?
Over a dry timber subfloor, solid. Over concrete, underfloor heating or a gorge-side crawl space, engineered with an honest four-millimetre wear layer — two full refinishes in it, and stabler than solid where the ground breathes.
What is a moisture log?
Pin readings of boards and subfloor, taken twice a day from delivery to final coat, written down and initialed. It is why our floors do not cup in August, and it goes home with your invoice so the next trade can read it.
Can we stay in the house?
Yes — one floor at a time, waterborne finishes as standard, and there is always one finished room to live in. The cat will need supervising; that part is on you.
Autumn rescues usually booked within the week · (555) 024-6190 · shop@marrowmallet.example
Tell us what the floor is hiding
Lino, carpet, or honest bare boards — the measure is free, the moisture readings are part of it, and the fixed quote lands within two business days. shop@marrowmallet.example