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Replace painted back porch floor on Robinson House (HS-10) with stained fir boards.
Lincoln Home National Historic Site » Replace painted back porch floor on Robinson House (HS-10) with stained fir boards. » Document List
The painted tongue-and-groove fir wood floor on the back porch of the Robinson house is rotting and becoming slippery despite using porch paint with grit incorporated into the paint. As an experiment to test for the over 20 other porch floors within the park, the maintenance proposes to replace the current floor with stained tongue-and-groove fir wood floors. The stain will help preserve the wood without making it slippery and will not hold moisture as long or as often as painted wood when outdoors. The floor would be stained annually. The water-based stain color will be chosen to help the floor to blend in with the siding colors, which are earthtones, and would eliminate the bright "new wood" look. The stain will be Minwax Wood-finish Water based semi-transparent color stain in "Honey" or something similar. The porch floors are repaired and replaced in-kind where necessary approximately every 7-8 years on a cyclic schedule. This porch was last repaired/replaced in 2016.
This porch was chosen for the experiment not only because it needs to be repaired/replaced, but also it faces south and east to check for fading, is not visible from the Lincoln Home, and is attached to a house that serves as an office and will have regular but not heavy traffic.
If the stain wears too quickly or causes the wood to rot more quickly than it would if painted, the park will return to painting floors with porch point.
This porch was chosen for the experiment not only because it needs to be repaired/replaced, but also it faces south and east to check for fading, is not visible from the Lincoln Home, and is attached to a house that serves as an office and will have regular but not heavy traffic.
If the stain wears too quickly or causes the wood to rot more quickly than it would if painted, the park will return to painting floors with porch point.