Reviving Your Floors: 3 Essential Tips for a Flawless Refurbishment

Welcome to Pfeiffer Design’s world of flooring! Today we’re delving into reclamation and renovation, discussing all the nitty gritty of how to maintain, upkeep and update your floors. While the allure of a brand new floor is often undeniable, taking the time to reclaim what you have existing can be just as successful as opting for an entirely new floor.

By carefully considering the look and ambiance of your current interiors or your envisioned intentions for the space, reclaiming an original timber, stone or tile flooring can effortlessly inject old-world glamour back into your home. Particularly if your space already boasts impressive period features, revitalising a beautiful parquet or intricate stone flooring can imbue your space with that antiquarian elegance, without breaking the bank!

In the space that follows, let’s explore how renovating a good quality flooring can breathe new life into your home, redefining its character, and providing a cost-effective solution for your interior design aspirations.

So to start us off, let’s discuss which floorings can be restored and what are the best options to ensure longevity?

Whether you’re updating your current space or purchasing a forever home, really thinking about your flooring choices can be revolutionary for a property that has to serve you for a long period of time. Take, for example, a good quality timber flooring – this is realistically only expected to last 10 years before it will need refreshing, and that doesn’t even take into consideration the amount of foot traffic it will receive or whether you have children or pets. 

As such, ensuring you get the right floorboards, or other material option, is key when it comes to renovating, and these are your top three options for a long-term flooring solution:

• Good quality timber flooring – solid or engineered (with a thick solid layer) will allow you sand back and re-stain;
• Hard wearing stone – Stone often has a good thickness ensuring you can grind off a layer;
• Or, in some instances, tiling – Tiles with a good thickness and through-body colour, will ensure that you can retain the look of your tiles even after removing a layer.  

As always, it is imperative that you check with the manufacturer when exploring any of these options as to the renovating capabilities of the product, but by taking the time to understand the durability of your choice you open up endless possibilities to update your space in the years to come. 

Our Success Stories

In the magnificent setting of our Regency Townhouse project, we opted for the thoughtful choice of reclaiming their original solid oak floorboards. With their inherent beauty, strength, and durability, these boards were a true gem that deserved our utmost attention. Our efforts involved a transformative process of sanding and staining, allowing us to revive the floor’s former glory after years of being adorned with a strong orange finish.

While achieving the perfect colour required several attempts, our dedication paid off, and the end result was an elegant and understated aesthetic, striking a balance between contemporary subtlety and the timeless grandeur befitting a Regency property. This stunning transformation showcases the seamless integration of the old and new, breathing fresh life into the space while preserving its historical essence. Stay tuned to witness the full details of this remarkable project as it comes to completion in our upcoming blog posts!

Original Floorboard Staining at our Regency Townhouse project

Next up, our contemporary overhaul of a spacious detached Edwardian home; this project just went to show how the right flooring choice from the outset, can offer a lifetime of effortless beauty and satisfaction. During our specification of this home, the flooring of the entrance hall became a bone of contention. Notoriously, entrance ways are high-traffic areas, and so flooring choices have to work hard to maintain their appeal in the long run. As we set out to create a striking entrance scheme, we struggled to find the ideal tile that provided both the aesthetic quality we wanted as well as the required durability for the location. 

The aesthetic brief for this project demanded design that exuded a graceful elegance, drawing inspiration from the timeless allure of French architecture and design to reflect the client’s eclectic tastes. However, finding something that emulated this that was still durable, and within budget, was a challenge.

In response, our expert design team crafted a bespoke scheme pairing two exquisite marble tiles together. The resulting design epitomised the essence of the French Riviera, tying in with the client’s existing vintage furnishings, as well as granting the entrance way the longevity that it deserved.

Creating our own Bespoke Flooring Layout combining two Marble Tiles in contrasting tones

Final our own Susie Pfeiffer recently experienced the remarkable transformation of her stunning limestone floors, which were originally installed alongside marble nearly three decades ago in her home in the rolling hills of Sussex. While some minor maintenance has been performed over the years, this recent floor restoration made a truly impressive impact.

Spanning the majority of her ground floor communal areas, the limestone endured heavy foot traffic over the years, leading to inevitable wear and tear. Comparing the before and after of this space truly exemplifies the enduring quality of a well-chosen flooring material; after thirty years, the floor still radiates its classic allure and is poised to last another three decades, if not more, with proper care.

Through a meticulous and non-invasive process, the floor was buffed, scoured, and skillfully stripped before being resealed. While endeavouring to restore flooring does involve some cost and time, it pales in comparison to the expenses of replacing an entire floor. Today, Susie’s limestone floors still stand as a defining feature of the home, a testament to the value of investing in high-quality flooring from the outset.

Limestone Flooring Renovation after 30 years at our own Director’s home in Sussex

And so in conclusion, whether you’re putting in something new or just want to update your current floor, stop and think, can I refurb this? 

Renovating a good quality flooring opens up a world of possibilities, both in terms of budget and design. So, before embarking on a complete overhaul, consider the power of a well-executed floor renovation and let your creativity flourish while preserving what you already love.