How Custom Hand-Scraped Flooring is Created

Local wood flooring professionals who offer custom hand-scraped flooring will help you achieve a vintage look on your old wood floors, which is a trendy and attractive option for homeowners today.

Much of the hand-scraped products on the market today aren't really hand scraped at all. It's been through a machine so that every board looks the same. But professional wood flooring professionals work diligently to hand scrape wood floors one board at a time to create the vintage look you seek.

The hand scraping technique accentuates the natural attributes of the wood, the distinctive grain patterns, knots, wormholes, and other character markings that are more visually striking on a contoured surface. Light hits the broad, shallow grooves on the scraped boards, creating depth and revealing texture.

Here's how custom hand-scraped flooring is created by wood flooring professionals:

• Start with the wood. Many professionals prefer unfinished solid red oak, but white oak, hickory, walnut, beech, and other woods can be used.
• A heavy duty tool that resembles a paint scraper with a four-sided, two-inch wide steel blade and 16-inch long handle is used. The craftsman files the blade until it's very sharp.
• The floor is worked in four-by-four foot sections.
• The hand-scraping process begins, and the floor is dampened using a towel or sponge.
• Starting at the left side, the technician places the blade on the floor and pulls and scrapes it along the surface of the wood in a very straight line to create the desired effect. The scrape runs are done parallel to one another to create a distressed texture
• After the floor has been completely scraped, the scrapings are swept off the floor and the floor is smoothed out with a sanding screen on a rotary floor buffer. The floors are then swept, vacuumed, tacked, and stained
• The floor is then stained and finished, using three coats of sealer.

Hand-scraped flooring is ideal for traditional American homes as well as French Country, American Colonial, Spanish, Old World European, and Rustic Western homes. When a homeowner is going for a design that incorporates the look of handmade craftsmanship, the hand-scraped finish is ideal.

If you already have solid wood floors in your home, you can refinish them in the hand-scraped technique. If you have solid red or white oak with a thick enough wear layer, they may be a good candidate. Talk to a local wood flooring professional for advice on custom hand-scraped flooring for your home. Look online to find wood flooring professionals who can do the job using custom hand-scraping tools and professional staining products.

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