Installation
New hardwood and reclaimed heart pine, nailed down and laid true — straight-lay, wide-plank, herringbone and custom parquet — over sound subfloor we prep ourselves.
Installation →
Athens & Oconee County, GA · Hardwood & Antique Heart Pine
Floors that outlive
the houses they’re
laid in.
Jim & David Baker install and restore high-end hardwood — and centuries-old heart pine — the way it was meant to be done: milled, laid, sanded and finished by hand, on site.
50 years combined experience
Antique heart pine specialists
Historic homes & new builds
Site-finished, by hand
1800s
Old-growth heart pine we bring back to life
The Baker standard
Anyone can lay a board. We finish a floor.
There is a difference between a floor that looks new and a floor that looks right — one that reads the grain, respects the age of the wood, and lands a finish so even it disappears under your hand.
For half a century between them, Jim and David Baker have specialized in the hardest floors to get right: reclaimed and in-place antique heart pine, wide-plank restorations, herringbone and parquet, and site-finished oak. No crews of subcontractors, no shortcuts — the same two hands that quote your job are the ones kneeling on it.
What we do
Three things, done to the bone.
We keep a narrow trade on purpose. Everything below is performed in-house, start to finish, by Jim and David themselves.
Refinishing
Multi-grit sanding to bare wood, hand-troweled fill, custom stain, and your choice of hardwax oil (Monocoat) or polyurethane — cut in tight to every wall and stair.
Refinishing →Heart Pine Restoration
Board-by-board repair of centuries-old floors — feathered replacements, dutchman patches and cut-nail work woven in so seamlessly you’ll never find the seam.
Heart pine →
The specialty
Centuries-old heart pine, brought back.
Antique heart pine was cut from old-growth longleaf forests that took three hundred years to grow. It is denser, redder, and more alive than anything milled today — and it is unforgiving to work.
Softer on top yet iron-hard beneath, it burns if you sand it wrong and blotches if you stain it wrong. Getting that amber depth without losing the grain is a feel you earn over decades. It’s the floor most shops turn down. It’s the one we’re known for.
50+
Years combined
2
Master craftsmen
100%
Site-finished by hand
1 trade
Wood floors, only
How a Baker floor happens
A process you can watch.
No mystery, no disappearing act. Here is exactly how your floor gets from first walk-through to the day you step on it barefoot.
01
Walk & assess
We read the floor in person — species, wear, cupping, subfloor, and how the light moves through the room — then quote an honest range, not a guess.
02
Prep & repair
Damaged and missing boards are cut out and feathered back in with matched stock; gaps and knots are hand-filled. On installs, we deck and level a subfloor that will stay flat.
03
Sand to bare wood
Multiple grit passes with the big machine and the edger take the floor back to raw fiber — flat, clean, and open to take finish evenly.
04
Color & sample
Stain samples are laid right on your floor, in your light, so you choose the color on the wood itself — never off a card.
05
Finish by hand
Your choice of hardwax oil (Monocoat) for a natural, repairable matte, or polyurethane for a tougher sheen — applied thin, even, and cut in tight.
06
Walk it together
We hand the room back clean and inspect it with you, board by board. If it isn’t right, it isn’t finished.
Selected work
A few floors we’re proud of.
Refinished antique heart pine in a timber great room
Site-finished heart pine, cathedral grain under oil
The rich amber grain of centuries-old heart pine
Custom parquet medallion in stained oak
Sanding heart pine, board by board
Reclaimed heart pine, tight grain and old nail holes
Antique heart pine with dramatic figured cathedral grain
Buffing amber oak to a warm hand-rubbed glow
Woods we work
Species, and what each one wants.
Every wood has a temperament. Knowing it — how it cuts, drinks stain, and ages — is the whole job.
Antique Heart Pine
Old-growth, amber and red, tight-ringed. Our signature — and the most demanding floor to finish well.
White & Red Oak
The workhorse hardwood. Takes stain beautifully and wears for generations. Site-finished to any sheen.
Hard Maple
Pale, dense, and bright — the gymnasium classic. Burnishes under the buffer for a glass-smooth finish.
Walnut
Deep chocolate with purple undertones. A premium, softer wood that rewards a careful, patient hand.
Reclaimed & Mixed
Salvaged barn and building stock, blended and laid for character no new lumber can fake.
Cerused & Ebonized
Specialty reactive and lime-rubbed finishes that pull dramatic black grain out of pine and oak.
They took a heart pine floor everyone told us to rip out and made it the best thing in the whole house.
Placeholder review ·
Ready when you are
Tell us about your floor.
Get a transparent price range in about a minute with our estimator — then reach out and we’ll come see it in person.