Nantucket Floors

Client: Andrew & Annette Dey
Location: Nantucket, MA

While rebuilding their house in the historic district of Nantucket Island, Andrew and Annette Dey found yellow pine subfloor that dates to the 1800s, and perhaps earlier. Instead of adding to the dumpster, they called Greensaw, and invited us north for a week of springtime work.

Not bad, right?

We loaded up tools, football, dog, and bathing suits. Eight hours later, standing on the deck of the ferry from Cape Cod, it became clear we would not be needing the bathing suits.

On site we started by cleaning the boards, coaxing out 200 year-old dirt caked in the grooves and settled on the rims of our tongues. We sifted the boards to map out which would go in which room. The widths and thickness varied greatly, so we marked the back of each board, and drew up a layout plan.

Andrew had bought cut ship nails from a factory in Vermont. We put the boards down with these, having silent competitions to see who could drive the nails furthest fastest. None of this seemed to bother the dog, who curled up in the flannels discarded from overheating (see pic).

Meanwhile we took bikes rides with Andrew and Annette and their kids Rani and Mamta, had ping-pong and pool competitions, and read books about Nantucketers and how they ate each other when their whaleboats capsized. And the floors turned from hay to gold.


Client Testimonial

"Greensaw did a wonderful job installing salvaged wide pine floors in the renovation of our 1830's Nantucket home. After being sanded and finished, the floors were breathtakingly beautiful! Thank you to Greensaw for bringing this bit of architectural heritage back to life."

Andrew Dey

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