Wilmington flooring
Yes, we work in Wilmington
Wilmington is the longest run on our map from where we work from in Dover, and we make it regularly, because the city is full of floors worth saving. Rowhomes, twins and older single family houses, most of them with real hardwood somewhere under a carpet.
City work is also its own discipline: narrow streets, shared walls, parking, stairs and no room for a truck outside the door. We plan around that rather than being surprised by it.
What a Wilmington floor is actually up against
Age, first. A lot of this housing predates the Second World War, so the floors are narrow strip oak or old growth pine that have been under carpet for decades. That is good news: the wood is usually excellent and it has been protected the whole time.
Then basements. Unlike most of Kent County, houses here have them, and a basement slab in an old city house is porous, often damp and usually bare. Moisture has to be tested before a coating is picked, because a resin floor that lifts off a wet slab is a wasted job.
What we handle here
Floors we work on in Wilmington
Hardwood Refinishing
The core of our Wilmington work. Narrow strip oak and old pine sanded back, stained and sealed, with the stairs done to match. See hardwood refinishing.
Parquet and Pattern Floors
Older city houses have parquet, borders and inlays worth keeping. They are repaired and refinished rather than ripped out. See hardwood work.
Basement Floors
Epoxy and coated concrete for basements, with the slab tested for moisture before a system is chosen. See our epoxy work.
Commercial and Rental Floors
Offices, studios, halls and rental turnovers, scheduled tightly because an empty unit costs money. See commercial flooring.
Why Wilmington calls us
Why Wilmington homeowners call Best Choice
Old floors punish guesswork. How much wood is left, whether a board can be saved, how a hundred year old pine will take a stain: none of that is on a chart. Mike Reed has been answering those questions since 1993.
He is on every job, including the ones up here. The crews are insured, the company is fully bonded and the work is guaranteed, and the floor gets the same preparation whether it is in a Dover ranch or a Wilmington rowhome.
Where you will find us around Wilmington
Route 1 and I-95 get us in, and from there it is the neighborhoods: the older streets around Trolley Square and Little Italy, the Brandywine side, and the suburbs spreading south and west toward the county.
Access is the thing we plan for. Narrow streets, stairs and shared walls change how a job is staged, not whether it gets done properly.
Where we work
Laying and finishing floors across Wilmington
We cover Wilmington and the New Castle County suburbs around it. South on 1 takes us to flooring in Middletown and flooring in Townsend, then on through our Smyrna service area to where we work from in Dover.
Ask the man doing the work
Straight answers about your flooring questions
Do you travel to Wilmington?
Yes, regularly. It is about forty five miles north of Dover up Route 1 and I-95, and there is plenty of work up there worth the drive. Call (302) 480-9637.
There is carpet over my floors. Is the wood any good?
Usually very good. Carpet protects wood, so what comes up after decades is often in better condition than a floor that has been walked on bare.
Can you refinish parquet and borders?
Yes. Pattern floors are repaired and sanded rather than replaced, because nothing sold today matches them.
Can my basement slab be coated?
Often, and moisture decides it. We test the slab first, because a resin floor over a wet slab lifts and the job is wasted. Tell us where in Wilmington you are and we will fit it in.
Can you work around a rental turnover?
Yes. Tell us the date the unit has to be back and we will plan the sanding and the coats backwards from it. We cover all of Wilmington.
Is parking and access a problem?
It is a planning question, not a problem. Tell Mike what the street is like and it gets built into the schedule. That is the same in Wilmington as anywhere else we work.