Restoration Register

Heritage wood flooring restoration in Ontario

An original pine floor can be sanded roughly three times in its life, and most nineteenth-century floors have already used two. The most common damage done to heritage flooring is not neglect, it is one aggressive drum sanding that takes off a century of patina and most of the remaining wear layer.

Heritage flooring work is board repair and replacement in matching old-growth stock, splicing and dutchman repairs into damaged boards rather than lifting whole runs, re-securing boards to joists, stabilising and levelling subfloors in buildings that have moved, and finishing in a way that suits the age of the floor. Light abrasion and a hand-applied oil or wax finish keeps the patina; a full drum sanding and polyurethane makes a hundred-year-old floor look like a new one. Salvage yards are the source for matching boards, and width, species and saw marks all need to match. Only three specialists are verified in this category province-wide, so a general flooring contractor briefed properly is often the practical route.

What to ask before you hire

  1. How much material will the sanding remove, and is there enough left? Ask for the wear layer to be measured before anyone starts.
  2. Can damaged boards be spliced rather than replaced? Dutchman repairs in matching stock keep more of the original floor.
  3. What finish are you proposing, and why? Oil and wax finishes are repairable in place, while polyurethane has to be sanded off to renew.
Grant funding

Flooring is usually eligible only where the designation by-law protects interior features. Where it does not, flooring often still forms part of a broader eligible project, so ask heritage staff how they treat interior work in your municipality.

Across Ontario

All heritage service pages · Grants by municipality