Flooring in Richardson, TX

Richardson Heights, Canyon Creek, Prairie Creek, Duck Creek and the streets either side of Arapaho are largely 1950s through early 1970s — single-storey ranch, with a genuine seam of mid-century modern running through it: low rooflines, clerestory glazing, rooms that open into one another rather than off a corridor. A great many still have their original oak, and where it has survived it is worth keeping, because the wood is denser and tighter-grained than anything being milled now.

What these houses do not take well is a floor with too much personality. Heavy hand-scraping, high gloss, aggressive rustic grading and dark wire-brushed planks all read as 2010s builder house and fight the architecture they are sitting in. A mid-century room wants a low-sheen finish, a mid-tone that lets the wood look like wood, and as few transitions as possible — the floor should run continuously through connected rooms rather than changing at every opening.

The technical wrinkle is how the original floor was laid. Richardson sits right at the point where slab-on-grade took over from pier-and-beam, and oak from the fifties and sixties was frequently installed on a slab over wood sleepers, or glued straight to it. That changes what is possible. A sleeper floor generally sands like any other nailed floor; a thin glued-down floor may have very little wood left above the tongue, particularly if a previous owner has already used some of it up. Measuring that is the first thing we do, and it decides whether the honest answer is refinishing or replacement.