Spotted Gum Floor Restoration, Burleigh Heads | Project

The brief

A young family had just bought a 1970s Burleigh home with original spotted gum hiding under decades of orange-tinted polyurethane. It was scratched, sun-faded in patches and lifting at the joins near the back doors. They wanted the natural colour back - light, warm and modern - without the dated yellow sheen.

What we did

We cut the floor back through three sanding grades to bare timber, lifting every trace of the old solvent coat - that’s where the yellowing lived. The lifted boards by the doors were re-fixed and a handful of deep gaps filled with a colour-matched filler so they’d disappear under coat.

Because they wanted to keep the timber’s true colour, we sealed and finished in a crystal-clear waterbase 2-pack at satin - tough enough for kids and a dog, with none of the ambering a solvent coat would have added back.

The finish

The spotted gum’s chocolate-and-honey grain came roaring back. Satin was the right call for the big northern windows - it reads rich without throwing glare across the room. Three and a half days on site, dust-controlled throughout, and the family was back on the floor that weekend.

A stunning polished wooden floor in a modern living space

Timber stairs full sand back to bare timber with a Feast Watson walnut direct stain with a polyurethane semi gloss finish

“We couldn’t believe it was the same floor. Naz brought the real colour back - it’s the first thing every visitor comments on now.” - The Hartley family, Burleigh Heads