Real life “green” decisions

The first challenge in the adventure of my new apartment is the quandary of the wood floor. Unlike the main floor, which is a nice quartersawn oak, this upper floor is some sort of Southern pine. Wide board, very soft, tends to just flake off and cause horrendous slivers. The floor is quite uneven, and boards are also somewhat warbly. What are the possible courses of action?

The criteria from the landlord’s side are cost, durability and ability to clean up after tenants. The renter wants clean, no slivers and preferably a nice looking floor. Keeping the existing condition is the least expensive, the floor can be somewhat cleaned, but it splinters something awful and looks terrible. Option 1 might be cheap carpet, but this is a problem keeping clean in a rental. Option 2 is tearing it up and putting down a new subfloor and floor, but this is definitely more expensive, and would probably have ended up in a laminate floating floor. My experience with putting shiny new plasticky floor finishes down is that they make everything else look old and grungy. Putting down an expensive wood floor does not make good economic sense from a landlord’s standpoint. Floating a floor over the existing floor would also not work, since the surface is far from level.

The solution, find a renter who is suffering from handy(wo)man withdrawal syndrome, and just craving to do some work. Make sure this person has a strong sense of self-identify in her surroundings, and is wanting to put her personal imprint on the place – and voila – you have all the dedicated labor you need to rehab the current wood floor. A little horse-trading of labor for rent, and the deal is arranged.

Having resolved the economics, the next question is that of practicality, and durability. Practicality would dictate a quick coat of polyurethane, knowing that the rapid relative humidity changes in this climate would probably play havoc with the floor finish. But it would be done in a day or so. Still looking grungy, but shiningly so.

Fortunately, this same renter has no sense of practicality but a strong sense of aesthetics and dedication to durability, and thus has lovingly rehabilitated the floor. Sanding to remove the layers of grunge and patina, patching to fill in the many, many gouges and holes, linseed oil to nourish and harden the wood fiber, a sanding sealer resin to provide a stronger top surface, and finally, a top lacquer coat. Yes, it took a full week for the extra time for the oil to penetrate and cure, but it was well worth it. The floor is gorgeous and good for another 100 years…. Both renter and landlord are happy.

Is this the recommended solution in all cases? No, but the point of the story is that there are many perpectives of involved stakeholders, several "green" criteria to consider, and many options. "Greenness" is a result of choices made based on situations. This was our reality, and hence our solution.