The Shaughnessy
Heritage Project

When we first walked into the Shaughnessy home, the potential was hidden beneath decades of design decisions that hadn't aged well. The 1980s had brought wall-to-wall shag carpet, and a subsequent renovation in the early 2000s had attempted to cover the main hallway with laminate flooring glued directly to the substrate.

Our mandate from the client—an interior designer specializing in heritage preservation—was simple but exacting: remove everything artificial, and return the home to its 1928 glory without making it look "new."

The Excavation

The primary challenge was the adhesive. The glue used for the laminate had seeped into the grain of the original oak. Standard sanding would have heated the glue, gumming up equipment and potentially burning the wood.

We utilized a diamond-abrasive buffer system to slowly grind away the adhesive layer before beginning our traditional sanding sequence. This dustless process ensured that the home's intricate crown moldings remained pristine throughout the restoration.

Matching the Grain

Upon exposing the raw wood, we discovered a 40-square-foot section in the dining room where water damage from a radiator leak had rotted the subfloor and the oak planks.

Replacing 100-year-old wood with new lumber creates a visual jar; the grain tightness and oxidation color never match. Instead, we sourced reclaimed white oak from a demolition project in a neighboring district built in the same era. We precisely "laced in" the replacement boards, staggering the joints so the repair became invisible.