Two jobs on the same street
Holladay has a split personality right now, and it shows up in the work.
On one side there are original mid-century homes, mostly fifties and sixties, on lots that are large by valley standards with trees that have had seventy years to grow. Many are owned by people who have been there decades and are updating a room at a time.
On the other side there is significant teardown and deep-remodel activity, where an older house on a good lot gets taken to the studs or replaced entirely. That is a full new-construction flooring job with a designer and a schedule.
We do both, and they are almost nothing alike. The first is careful work around a house somebody is living in. The second is a trade sequencing problem.
Check for hardwood before you buy hardwood
This is the single most useful thing we can tell a Holladay homeowner.
Fifties and sixties construction in this part of the valley very often included oak flooring throughout the main level as standard. In a large share of these houses that oak was carpeted over in the seventies, eighties, or nineties and has been sitting there untouched ever since.
Original mid-century oak that has spent forty years under carpet is frequently in better condition than oak that stayed exposed, because it has not been walked on. Before you spend money on new flooring, let us pull back a corner in a closet and look. It costs nothing to check.
The two things that decide whether it is worth refinishing are how much wood sits above the tongue, which we check at a floor vent, and how badly the perimeter was damaged by carpet tack strip and staples. Damage in the last few inches at the wall is common and usually not fatal, because that strip disappears under base.
Mature trees, and what they do to floors
Holladay’s mature tree cover has a real effect on flooring.
Heavy shade means less UV fading, which is good, and it also means main floors that stay cooler and slightly damper than an equivalent house in full sun. Combined with mature landscaping and decades of irrigation close to the foundation, we see more moisture in Holladay crawlspaces and basements than the dry-climate reputation would suggest.
So we meter. Particularly before installing engineered hardwood or a glued product over a slab, and particularly on the shaded north side of a house.
Additions and floor height
Older Holladay homes have often been added onto, sometimes more than once. Every addition is a place where two floor assemblies meet, and they are rarely at exactly the same height.
That transition has to be handled deliberately. Where the difference is small we can often build the substrate up to meet it so a single floor runs through continuously. Where it is significant, a transition strip is the honest answer and trying to hide it produces a floor that looks wrong. We will walk it with you and show you the options before anything is cut.
Getting to you
Holladay is about ten minutes from our Murray shop, which is close enough that a quick look at a problem does not need to be a scheduled appointment.