When deciding on reclaimed flooring to use in a space, most people focus on species and finish to determine which flooring will look best. But really, the milling of the flooring plays a large role in how the finished product will look. To better illustrate this, let's look at Antique Reclaimed Oak Flooring in three different varieties: Original Face, Smooth Face and Skip Planed.
Original Face: Taken from the original, time-worn faces of reclaimed timbers, our Original Face flooring is textured with natural patina, original circle saw marks and other century-old characteristics. Aside from milling it into flooring and giving it a light sanding to eliminate any stray splinters, we leave this wood just as we find it on the timbers we reclaim from structures built over a hundred years ago.
Smooth Face: Smooth Face reclaimed flooring is also created from reclaimed timbers, but it is milled in a way that takes off the top layer (or the original face) and reveals the beautiful, smooth wood underneath. This gives a more uniform, polished look as well as a smoother feeling surface to walk on than the Original Face flooring, but the character of the wood is still preserved through visible nail holes, worm holes and color variations.
Skip Planed: If you're torn between these two distinct looks, Skip Planed Flooring may be the happy medium you're looking for! Our Skip Planed Flooring is the perfect blend of Original and Smooth Face. We achieve this unique look by sanding down various parts of each board's face, leaving some pieces smooth and other pieces original. With this flooring, no two pieces are the same!
Heidi + Frank Stoddard