Marietta Wood Flooring brings more than 20 years of wood flooring work to Midtown Atlanta, and some of the most interesting of it happens in condominium units that were apartments long before anyone owned them. A floor in one of these homes has usually been sanded, stained, covered and uncovered by people who never expected to be its last caretaker. We read that history before a sander comes off the truck.
Our visits start with questions rather than a price per square foot. How old is the unit, what finish is on the boards now, and what does your association’s declaration say about work inside a unit? Those three answers shape nearly every decision that follows, from the grit sequence to the morning the crew arrives.
We refinish, repair and replace hardwood across the neighborhood, from a single cupped room to a whole unit that has lived under carpet for decades. When a floor can be saved, we say so plainly. When a section has to come out, we show you which boards and explain why.
Midtown Condos That Began as 1920s Apartments
Much of Midtown’s housing is recent. In ZIP code tabulation area 30308, which we use only as a labeled proxy because it covers part of Midtown and areas outside it, 53.4 percent of housing units were built in 2000 or later. Yet 15.8 percent of units in that same area predate 1940, and some of Midtown’s condominiums belong to that older group.
Those older condos did not start as condos. They began as rental apartment buildings and passed into individual ownership decades later, which means the floors inside them have outlasted landlords, tenants and several owners in turn.
Reid House and the 1975 Conversion
Reid House stands at 1325 Peachtree Street, across from the High Museum of Art. It was built in 1924 as a luxury apartment building, designed by Philip T. Shutze of Hentz, Reid and Adler in the Classical Revival style. A $2 million renovation during 1974 prepared it for a new role, and in 1975 it was converted to a luxury condominium building.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 29, 1979. For an owner there today, that history means a unit which spent about fifty years as a rental and roughly as long again in private hands, with each owner deciding in turn what the floor should look like.
Biltmore House: Apartments, Hotel, Then Condominiums
The Biltmore Apartments were built adjacent to The Biltmore in 1924. The building was later converted into a guest-suite hotel that continued operations until 1998, and in 1999 the suites were converted to condominiums and the building was renamed Biltmore House. Its original 66 units total approximately 55,000 square feet of living space.
That sequence of apartment, hotel and condominium matters to anyone planning floor work. Whatever flooring a unit holds today has either lived through those changes of use or replaced something that did, and a hotel period in particular tends to leave behind quick fixes rather than careful ones.
Why Ownership History Shows Up Underfoot
Rental and hospitality years favor durable, fast repairs: a coat of wax over a worn traffic lane, a patch cut from whatever board was on hand, carpet laid to hide the rest. Owners who came later often layered their own choices on top of those.
When we lift a corner in an older unit, we expect to find more than one era of repair. Sorting out which layer belongs to which period is the first real job, and it decides what the rest of the project costs.
Looking for wood-flooring closer to North Druid Hills? See Wood-Flooring in North Druid Hills.
Floor Work in a Century-Old Unit
A unit that is about a hundred years old needs a different opening sequence than a condo finished in 2015. We do not assume the species, the finish or the wood left above the tongue. We check each one before quoting the work.
Lead-Safe Work Before Any Dust
Federal lead-safe rules under the EPA RRP Rule reach homes built before 1978, and Reid House and Biltmore House both date from 1924. We confirm the build year of your unit before sanding and set up the job to follow those rules, since old finishes and nearby painted trim can hold lead.
Dustless sanding with contained collection is part of that plan rather than an add-on. The same check applies elsewhere in Midtown’s older fabric, including homes in the Midtown Historic District, which is listed on the National Register. The listing tells us the general era, but it never replaces confirming the date of the specific building.
Wax, Shellac and Layered Finishes
Floors of this age often carried paste wax or shellac at some point, and a rental or hotel stretch can leave a wax-over-polyurethane mix that no modern finish will grip. We test the surface first and strip what we find. That way a waterborne polyurethane or an oil-modified polyurethane actually bonds, instead of peeling along a traffic lane six months later.
A floor that was screened and recoated repeatedly over old wax can look sound and still reject new finish. We would rather learn that from a small test patch than from a whole living room.
Wear Layer, Patches and Moved Walls
Every full sanding removes wood, and a floor that has served several owners may have been sanded more than once. We measure what remains above the tongue before choosing between a full sand and a screen and recoat, and we set the grit sequence to spare as much as the floor can give.
Conversions and later renovations sometimes moved a wall or pulled out a register. Where that happened, we lace in boards woven into the existing run so the repair does not read as a rectangle in the middle of the room. Matching the width, grain and color of an old floor takes patience, and we sort stock until the fit is right.
Leaks, Cupping and the Moisture Meter
In a stacked building, a water stain can start with a neighbor’s appliance rather than anything in your unit. We trace the source, dry the area, then take moisture meter readings and photographs room by room before a single board comes up.
A cupped floor is not sanded until the readings say the boards have settled back. Sanding too soon grinds a humid summer’s crown flat while the wood is still wet, and the floor cups the other way once it dries.
Choosing Finishes and Replacements for an Older Unit
Once the floor’s condition is clear, the choices turn to appearance and durability. An older unit gives you more options than you might expect, and a few of them are easy to get wrong.
Stain Samples on Your Own Boards
Stain reads differently on every floor, and on boards that have been sanded several times it can surprise anyone who chose from a brochure. We lay stain samples on your own floor, in your own light, so you can judge them beside the windows and trim you will live with.
Some owners want the warm tone an old finish gave the room, while others want to leave an orange oak cast behind. Water popping before staining deepens the color on some species, and we show you both versions before committing a whole room.
Finishes by Their Federal VOC Category
Clear wood finishes are sorted under 40 CFR 59 Subpart D, and we choose them by their clear-finish category rather than the number meant for opaque floor coatings. That matters in a building where neighbors share hallways and air.
Sheen level is the other decision owners tend to underestimate. A lower sheen hides the fine scratches that come with daily walking, while a higher gloss shows every one. We bring samples so the choice is made on the floor rather than on a chart.
When Replacement Makes More Sense
Some units reach us with carpet over the whole floor, sometimes over boards and sometimes over nothing worth saving. We pull the carpet, the carpet pad and the tack strip, then tell you honestly whether the wood beneath can be refinished or should be replaced.
Where replacement is the answer, we match the product and method to what we find under the old flooring, and to what your declaration allows. Laminate and luxury vinyl plank can come out the same way, and hardwood goes down in their place with transitions and quarter round finished to the adjoining rooms.
Planning Around a Historic Building’s Association
A floor project in an older condo is half carpentry and half coordination. The coordination is where most delays begin, so we start it early.
Your Declaration Comes First
Georgia condominiums operate under the Georgia Condominium Act, and each building’s own declaration and rules govern what an owner may do inside a unit. We ask to read your documents before work starts rather than guessing what an older building expects. We do not assume any answer about approvals, working hours or flooring materials, because the document you hold is the source.
Practical questions are worth settling with management in advance. When can the service elevator be reserved, where can the sander and dust collection run, and how does debris leave the building? Answers in hand before the start date keep a two-day refinish from stretching into a week.
Who Answers Which Question
Midtown has no government of its own. It is a district of the City of Atlanta, in Fulton County and Neighborhood Planning Unit E. Midtown Alliance, established in 1978, is a nonprofit rather than a regulator.
If a question about the building itself comes up, the City of Atlanta and your association are the right places to ask. We will help you frame the question and bring the details about the flooring work, but we will not guess at an answer that belongs to someone else.
Owners, Buyers and Landlords
Tenure in the area is mixed. In the 30308 proxy, 35.2 percent of occupied units are owner-occupied, and 61.9 percent of renter households moved in during 2020 or later.
For an owner who rents a unit out, that turnover makes documentation valuable, so we write itemized floor-damage estimates a landlord can hold against a move-out inspection. For sellers and buyers, we assess damaged boards and price the repair before a closing date, so the floor becomes a known number rather than a late surprise.
- 20+ Years on Wood Floors
- Free Written Estimates
- Moisture Checked Before Sanding
