What we do
What we lay, sand and finish
Oiled finishes
Three coats of hardwax oil, buffed between each — a surface you repair with a cloth and a walnut instead of sanding the room again. Silk, not plastic: the grain stays open, the light stays soft, and scratches disappear with heat.
Wide-plank installation
Boards at 180 to 240 mm, end-matched, secret-nailed and glued. They acclimate in the rooms they will live in until the meter says floor and subfloor sit within two percent — beside a lake, that is a reading twice a day, not a date on a calendar.
Restoration & repair
Board-by-board matching from reclaimed stock, lye and soap finishes for pine that has gone dark, and stair conversions that keep the old nosing's line. The floor keeps its history; the damage does not.
The north shore, 2025 — 2026
Recent floors
Six floors from the last year, photographed the morning the owners moved back in. Nothing styled, no filters — an oiled floor does not need them.
How it goes
Eleven days, start to rugs
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Day 0
The visit
We come with meters, sample boards and the oil kit. You get a written quote before we leave, and every choice — species, width, finish — is made against real samples in your own light.
Days 1–5
Acclimation
The boards live in the rooms, stickered and stacked, while we read floor and subfloor twice a day. Beside a lake, the reading is the only calendar that counts.
Days 6–9
The lay
Wide boards, end-matched, glued and secret-nailed, then sanded flat in three cuts. Old floors are repaired in the same window — board for board, matched.
Day 10
First oil
Cut back, vacuumed, and the first coat of hardwax oil worked in with a buffer. The grain darkens a half tone and locks.
Day 11
Coats two and three
Buffed between coats, walked on that evening, furniture on felt after three days and rugs after a week. The care kit goes home with you.
The north shore says
Kept quiet, walked on daily
The oil was the argument I needed to lose. Two years of a dog and a lake house on this floor, one scratch, fixed with a walnut and thirty seconds. The lacquer in our last place showed everything.
They read the subfloor for four days before a single board went down, and told me exactly why: the crawl space by the water runs wet in spring. The floor has not moved a millimetre.
Our pine had gone the colour of tea from eighty years of feet. Nordholm lye-brushed it back to pale and oiled it — same boards, same knots, and the room is twice as bright.
The standard
Measured, then laid
Booking three to four weeks out for the season · (555) 013-9985 · visits@nordholmfloors.example
Book the floor visit
We come to the house with the meters, the sample case and the oil kit, and you get a written quote before we leave. Evenings and Saturdays suit most lake houses. visits@nordholmfloors.example