Marietta Wood Flooring has handled wood-flooring in Buckhead for more than 20 years, and most of our calls here start with one question: how old is the floor? A floor laid in the late 1920s has usually been sanded, waxed, covered with carpet and uncovered again, so before a drum sander touches it we check how much wood is left above the tongue.
That first check sets the pace for the whole visit. We confirm the build year, because federal lead-safe rules reach any home built before 1978. We take a moisture meter reading on any board that has cupped, and we test the existing coating to learn whether it is paste wax, shellac or a later polyurethane. Each answer changes what we recommend.
From there the job might be a full sand and refinish, a screen and recoat on a floor that only needs a fresh top coat, a patch where a floor furnace grate once sat, or new solid hardwood where carpet or laminate went down decades ago. Stairs are priced tread by tread. The estimate is itemized, so you can see what each part of the work costs before you decide.
Tudor and English Cottage Floors on Curving Streets
Garden Hills Historic District was entered in the National Register of Historic Places on August 17, 1987. Its nomination describes an early 20th century planned residential neighborhood, the creation of developer Philip C. McDuffie, who advertised it as the “Garden Spot” of Atlanta. The district’s specific dates run from 1925 to 1941, and the larger houses date from 1925 to 1929.
Those first-wave houses are the ones we see most often in this part of Buckhead. They carry nearly a century of refinishing, and the floor we find on arrival is rarely the floor that was put down.
Brick Veneer, Frame and Period Styles
The nomination describes the interior houses as typically one or two story brick veneered or frame dwellings. The predominant styles are Tudor and other English cottage designs, along with Colonial Revival, including Georgian Revival and Dutch Colonial. Both wood and brick were used, with stone entrances or chimneys, and on Rumson Road many of the original homes were designed in the Tudor style.
For flooring, a period house means we do not assume anything about species or thickness. We identify the wood on site, often by lifting a register cover to read a board end, and we tell you whether it is red oak, white oak or something else before a stain sample goes down. The architects named in the nomination, among them Ivey and Crook, Burge and Stevens, and Hentz, Adler and Shutze, designed individual houses rather than one repeated plan, so we inspect each room’s floor on its own.
Lots, Setbacks and Natural Drainage
Houses in the district interior typically sit about 20 feet back on lots of 70 by 180 feet, with corner lots somewhat larger. The streets curve with the natural drainage of the land rather than running on a grid. That layout is part of what the National Register recognized.
It also matters inside. A house sited where the ground falls toward a drainage line can hold more moisture under the floor in a wet stretch, and that shows up as cupping, with board edges standing higher than the centers. We read the boards with a meter and wait for them to dry before sanding, because a cupped floor ground flat while still wet will crown once it dries out.
Looking for wood-flooring closer to Roswell? See Wood-Flooring in Roswell.
Depression-Era Period Houses in the Club and Brentwood Sections
Garden Hills was laid out in three sections. The Peachtree Road Section opened in 1925, while the Country Club and Brentwood sections were planned by 1926 and developed by 1941. According to the nomination, the Club and Brentwood sections remained undeveloped until the 1930s, and by then smaller “period” houses were built, which were more affordable during the Depression years.
So the neighborhood holds two generations of house within a few blocks of each other. The 1930s homes are smaller, and their floors have their own history of patches, coverings and changes.
Smaller Rooms and Removed Walls
In a compact period house, a hallway and two bedrooms often share one continuous run of boards. When a later owner took out a wall, closed a doorway or pulled out a floor furnace, the gap was usually filled with whatever was on hand. We cut those patches out and weave new boards into the old run, staggering the joints so the repair disappears after sanding.
Where carpet went down over the wood, we pull the tack strip and carpet pad and fill the rows of nail holes before sanding. If a room was covered in luxury vinyl plank or laminate with no wood left underneath, we can lay new tongue and groove hardwood to match the rest of the house, including the stair treads and nosing.
Wax, Shellac and Orange Oak
Floors from this era were often finished with shellac and maintained with paste wax for years. A modern polyurethane will not bond over either one, so we identify the old coating and strip it completely before anything new goes down. Skipping that step is why some refinished floors peel within a year.
Many owners also want to lose the orange oak tone that older oil-based finishes leave behind. We lay stain samples on your own boards and help you choose between waterborne polyurethane, oil-modified polyurethane and hardwax oil. Clear finishes are chosen by their federal VOC category under 40 CFR 59 Subpart D, not by the number meant for opaque floor coatings.
Termite Damage Found Before a Closing
Older houses anywhere in Georgia face subterranean termites and powderpost beetles, and the signs are often mud tubes near the floor edge or fine frass below a board. We do not fill over damaged wood. Once the pest company has treated, we cut the damaged boards out and lace in matching wood.
When a buyer’s inspection turns up damage ahead of a closing date, we work from the Official Georgia Wood Infestation Inspection Report so the repair addresses what the report found. Sellers and buyers get a written scope and a schedule that fits the contract dates.
Apartment Houses Along Peachtree Road
Garden Hills was never only single-family houses. The nomination records two apartment buildings facing Peachtree Road built in 1927, the Alhambra at 2855 Peachtree Road and the one at 2795 Peachtree Road. It also notes 76 E. Wesley Road as an unusual 1938 Modernistic design.
The original deed restrictions set a minimum value for both houses and apartment buildings. Floors in these early buildings have lived through generations of tenants, and they need a different approach than a detached house does.
Working Inside a Shared Building
In any building with shared walls and floors, the rules come from the declaration and the association, not from us. Before we start, we read your own declaration and any rules adopted under the Georgia Condominium Act for underlayment, working hours, elevator and hallway use, and debris removal. If the documents require approval, you have it in hand before we schedule.
We then plan the work around neighbors. Dustless sanding keeps fine dust out of shared halls, and we stage equipment so it does not block entries. Where a floor must be replaced rather than refinished, we match the board width and the direction of the existing run.
Rental Floors and Move-Out Records
Renting is common in this part of the city. In ZCTA 30305, which we use only as a labeled proxy because it covers part of Buckhead including Garden Hills, owners occupy 49.4 percent of occupied units, and 53.1 percent of housing units are in buildings with fifty or more units.
For landlords, we write itemized floor-damage estimates that can stand next to a move-out inspection under O.C.G.A. 44-7-33. Pet urine stains, water stains, sun fade and deep scratches in traffic lanes are each listed separately, with a repair method and a price for each one.
A Buckhead Neighborhood Inside the City of Atlanta
Buckhead is not its own municipality. It is the uptown district of Atlanta, covering roughly the northernmost fifth of the city, with 43 neighborhoods that include Garden Hills. The nomination records that Garden Hills was brought into the City of Atlanta with the adjacent Sheridan/Delmont area in 1952 under the Plan of Improvement, and the district sits in Fulton County.
For any question about paperwork on a floor project, we point you to the City of Atlanta Department of City Planning rather than guessing at an answer. The National Register listing recognizes the district’s history, and we treat the floors inside it with the same care.
Lead-Safe Sanding in Pre-1978 Houses
The district’s houses went up between 1925 and 1941, and even the later intrusions the nomination describes date from the mid-1960s to early 1970s. Every one predates 1978, so the EPA RRP Rule and TSCA Title VI apply whenever we disturb painted surfaces such as baseboards, quarter round and thresholds.
In practice that means containment around the work area, dust collection on every sander and careful cleanup before we leave. We confirm the build year at the estimate so the lead-safe steps are priced in from the start, not added later.
Humidity in the North Fulton Forecast Zone
Garden Hills falls in National Weather Service forecast zone GAZ033, “North Fulton.” Summer humidity is the usual cause of the cupping and board gapping we see here, as wood swells in the wet months and shrinks back when the heat comes on.
Before sanding a cupped floor, we measure moisture and let the boards settle, sometimes with a dehumidifier running. For new installations we allow for acclimation and leave a proper expansion gap at the walls. Where a terrace level sits below grade, we install engineered wood rather than solid hardwood, because solid boards do not belong there.
- 20+ Years on Wood Floors
- Free Written Estimates
- Moisture Checked Before Sanding
