"RESTORE"

"The floor beneath your feet
is probably better than
you think it is."

Replacement is the easy answer. New boards go down quickly, the room looks clean immediately, and nobody has to think about what was there before. But in a Victorian terrace, an Edwardian semi, a period flat — the original floorboards are part of the fabric of the building. They are old-growth timber that is denser, more stable and more characterful than almost anything available today. Replacing them with new engineered oak is not an upgrade.

Restoration takes more time and more skill than a new installation. Assessing what a floor needs, sanding it in passes without over-cutting into the board thickness, matching repairs so they disappear rather than announce themselves, applying a finish that brings out the grain rather than flattening it — this is craft work. We approach it that way.

Before & After

What Restoration
Actually Does

Before

Original Parquet · Islington

1930s herringbone parquet — heavily worn, lifting blocks, stained with old polish

44 square metres of 1930s finger parquet. Approximately a third of the blocks were lifting or loose. The surface was obscured by decades of wax and polish build-up, and the original finish had worn through in the main traffic lines. The client had been quoted for full replacement.

After

Restored & Refinished · Same Floor

Blocks re-fixed, three-pass sand, hardwax oil finish — the floor the house was built with

Loose blocks were re-adhered and allowed to cure before sanding began. A coarse-to-fine three-pass sand removed the polish build-up without taking unnecessary material from the blocks. The hardwax oil finish was chosen to match the depth the timber had developed over ninety years. Cost: roughly forty percent of replacement.

What We Restore

Four Floor Types.
One Standard.

Victorian
Pine Boards

Original Victorian softwood pine boards — typically 100–140mm wide with a characterful grain — are among the most commonly butchered floors in London. They are routinely covered, painted, or replaced unnecessarily. Sanded back, they are warm, distinctive, and genuinely irreplaceable.

Three-pass coarse-to-fine sand
Knot filler and flexible gap filler applied between passes
Hardwax oil or lacquer finish
Board replacement with period-matched reclaimed pine where needed
Squeak treatment before finishing

Typical property: 1850–1910

Edwardian
Oak Boards

Edwardian oak boards — denser, closer-grained than Victorian pine, often laid in narrower widths — respond particularly well to restoration. The grain that emerges after sanding is almost always finer and more interesting than anything available new. These floors were made to last a century and they can last another.

Light initial pass to avoid unnecessary material removal
Grain direction assessed before sanding begins
Stain option available for colour refresh
Hardwax oil, lacquer or Osmo finish
Matching board replacement sourced from period stock

Typical property: 1901–1918

Original Parquet
& Block

Original parquet — finger block, herringbone, basket weave — is the most technically demanding restoration work we carry out. Blocks that have lifted must be re-adhered before sanding begins. The sanding machine must follow the pattern, not cut across it. The result, when done correctly, is extraordinary.

Loose and lifting block re-adhesion before sanding
Machine sanding follows the pattern direction
Edge and corner work by hand where machine cannot reach
Replacement blocks sourced to match original species and size
Wax and polish build-up fully removed before finishing

Typical property: 1920–1960

Contemporary
Engineered Oak

Modern engineered oak floors with a wear layer of 3mm or more can be lightly sanded and refinished — typically once, sometimes twice over the floor's lifetime. The result refreshes the surface, removes surface scratches and scuffs, and allows a finish change. The floor does not need to be lifted or replaced.

Wear layer thickness assessed before work commences
Fine orbital sanding — not drum sanding
Finish change available — oil to lacquer, light to dark stain
Glue residue removal on floating floors
Suitable for floors with 3mm+ wear layer only

Any age — wear layer assessment required

What's Included

The Full Scope
of Restoration

Full Sand-Back
& Refinish

A complete restoration — the floor is sanded back to bare wood in three passes and finished to the agreed specification. This is the foundation of everything else.

Pass 1: coarse grit — removes old finish and levels boards
Pass 2: medium grit — removes scratch pattern from pass 1
Pass 3: fine grit — prepares surface for finishing
Edges sanded with edging machine, corners by hand
Finish applied in two coats minimum

Gap Filling

Gaps between boards are filled with flexible wood filler mixed with the sanding dust from the floor itself — producing a colour match that is specific to your floor rather than generic. Applied after the first sanding pass, before finishing.

Flexible filler — accommodates seasonal board movement
Mixed with floor's own sanding dust for colour match
Applied after first pass, before second and third
Not suitable for gaps wider than 6mm — board replacement advised

Board Repair &
Replacement

Damaged, split or structurally compromised boards are replaced before sanding begins. We source period-matched reclaimed timber for Victorian and Edwardian floors — same species, similar age, similar grain character — so the repair is invisible once the floor is finished.

Reclaimed period timber sourced for historic floors
Like-for-like width and thickness matched
New boards aged with stain before the floor is sanded
Structural subfloor repair included where needed

Stain Change &
Colour Refresh

Changing the colour of an existing floor — or refreshing one that has faded or yellowed — is one of the most transformative things you can do to a room without touching anything else. A stain is applied after the final sanding pass and before the finish coat.

Full stain range — natural, grey, dark, white-washed
Custom stain development available for exact colour matches
Sample boards assessed in property light before committing
Compatible with all finish types — oil, lacquer, hardwax

Crack & Squeak
Treatment

Squeaking floorboards are caused by movement between boards or between boards and the subfloor. In most cases the cause is fixable — screws driven from above before sanding begins, or a flexible lubricant applied between boards. We assess the cause before recommending a method.

Cause assessed before treatment — movement vs friction
Screw-fixing from above on boards with movement
Counter-sunk, filled and sanded flush before finishing
Subfloor bracket repair where boards are lifting at joists

Parquet Block
Re-Adhesion

Loose and lifting parquet blocks must be re-adhered before any sanding begins — sanding over lifted blocks causes irreparable damage to the pattern. We lift, clean, re-bed with appropriate adhesive and allow full cure time before the first sanding pass.

All loose blocks identified and marked before work starts
Old adhesive removed from block and subfloor
Re-bedded with epoxy or polyurethane adhesive
Weighted and allowed to cure — minimum 24 hours before sanding

The Three-Pass
Sanding System

Every LIGNORA restoration uses a three-pass sanding system — coarse, medium, fine — regardless of how worn or how clean the floor appears. Cutting the process to two passes saves an hour. It also leaves a scratch pattern that becomes visible under raking light once the finish is applied. We do not cut it.

Coarse Pass

The first pass uses a coarse grit — typically 24 or 36 — to remove the old finish, level any unevenness between boards, and cut back to bare wood. This is the most aggressive pass and the one where the most material is removed. Direction follows the grain.

Medium Pass

The second pass — 60 or 80 grit — removes the scratch pattern left by the coarse grit. This is the pass most often skipped by operators trying to move quickly. Skipping it means the deep scratches from pass one are visible beneath the finish. We do not skip it.

Fine Pass

The final pass — 100 to 120 grit — prepares the surface for finishing. At this stage the wood is clean, flat and open-grained, ready to accept the stain or finish. Gap filler is applied between passes two and three and allowed to cure.

Finish Application

Finish is applied in a minimum of two coats, with a light buff between coats. The second coat is applied once the first is fully cured — not when it appears dry. Cure times vary by product and ambient conditions; we allow the full manufacturer-specified window.

Before We Quote

We Assess
Before We Advise.

Not every floor can or should be restored. Some floors have been sanded too many times and have too little board thickness left. Some have structural damage that makes restoration impractical. Some are simply the wrong product for the room.

We visit the property, assess the floor in person, and give an honest recommendation — including, where relevant, whether restoration is the right choice or whether replacement would serve the client better in the long run. We do not quote for work we do not think will produce a good result.

Board Thickness Assessment

We measure remaining board thickness before advising on sanding. Boards below 8mm remaining above the joist level may not be suitable for a full sand-back. We advise accordingly.

Structural Condition Check

The subfloor is walked and assessed for movement, soft spots and any signs of rot or infestation. If structural work is required before sanding, we include it in the quote rather than discovering it mid-project.

Previous Finish Identification

Old wax, oil, lacquer and paint respond differently to sanding. Identifying what is on the floor before starting determines grit selection, sanding speed and whether any chemical stripping is required before mechanical sanding begins.

Honest Recommendation

If restoration is the right answer, we quote for it. If it is not — if the floor has been over-sanded, if the boards are too thin, if the material is not worth saving — we say so and discuss alternatives.

What's There
Is Worth
Keeping.

Victorian
Pine Boards

Edwardian
Oak Boards

Original Parquet
& Block