A first for M&A: Restoring and repurposing pine floorboards into beautiful wainscot

After 25 years in business restoring and preserving historic architecture, there are not many ‘firsts’ for M&A Architectural Preservation.

This project was a first as we transformed original pine tongue-and-groove floorboards from a building designed and built in the early 1900s to wainscoting panels installed in a common area.

This former convent located at 116 Norfolk Street in Cambridge has been owned by the Cambridge Housing Authority since 1975. They began a modernization and restoration project over the last several years that included our work to restore and preserve various historic elements. The architect, HMFH Architects, designed the building’s common gathering room to be paneled in wainscot repurposing the original pine floorboards.

Transformation of Pine Boards into Wainscoting Panels

M&A was tasked with transforming the narrow tongue-and-groove pine floorboards of the convent’s public spaces into beautiful wainscot. 

We began by carefully taking up the old flooring from the old dining room and other public areas which were in relatively good condition.

We salvaged as much of the original flooring as possible – boards with no surface gouges, cracks, stains, or other damage, and with intact tongues and grooves.

Each board was cleaned, the tongues and grooves were cleaned and sanded to fit, and the boards were cut to length.  Boards showing center wear from frequent foot traffic were excluded.

There was a wide color variation in the pine flooring, and the architect requested that we produce a random variation effect, so we selected the boards for each section to achieve a good mix of light and dark tones.

The boards were assembled into custom-length sections based on the new room dimensions, allowing for inside and outside corners, large windows, and new doors.

Stability was ensured by constructing the sections with a plywood backing, and the backing was sized to overlap at the end of each section, securing a perfect fit between sections.

The chair rail and baseboard components had to be fabricated new. M&A chose best-quality reclaimed pine in thicknesses that could be suitable and milled and shaped the stock to the correct profiles.

The wainscot sections and running trims were shop-refinished in custom stain to match the new millwork in the rest of the building. Assembly was completed on-site and installation was completed.

It was a pleasure to work on repurposing and restoring these original pine tongue-and-groove panels to convert to beautiful wainscot for the building’s common area.

Read more about the preservation and restoration work we did at Norfolk Street in Cambridge.

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