An Industrial Farmhouse Kitchen Restored from the Floor Up

The homeowners had only recently purchased this Craftsman-style ranch in Oregon City’s Redland-Fischers Mill-Viola neighborhood when a sink loss caused water damage. They had been planning a few minor projects, but suddenly they were dealing with an insurance claim and a kitchen that needed to be rebuilt. They wanted to keep the kitchen they had chosen with the house, and they were concerned about how much of the work might fall outside their insurance coverage.

At first, the plan for this Oregon City water damage restoration appeared straightforward. Repair and refinish the green cabinets, reinstall the quartz countertop and plumbing fixtures, and replace the damaged flooring with the wood-look LVP the homeowners had already wanted. Then the crew began preparing the floor and found the real challenge: a surface that changed elevation by six inches across roughly 30 feet.

Rebuild the Kitchen Without Turning It Into a Different Kitchen

The exposed brick, green cabinetry, and white quartz already gave the kitchen its industrial farmhouse style. There was no reason to replace those elements simply because water damage had forced the room apart.

The quartz countertop, cabinet hardware, sink, and faucet were kept for reinstallation. The cabinets needed more attention, so a specialist repaired them and applied a new finish in Sherwin-Williams SW 6181 Secret Garden.

The homeowners made one planned change during the restoration. They had wanted wood-look flooring before the loss, and the rebuild gave them the chance to move forward with it. They selected COREtec Originals Reserve Oak LVP for the kitchen and adjoining areas.

Work with a Floor That Had Settled in Several Directions

The existing floor was not just lower at one end of the house. The home’s post-and-beam framing had settled unevenly over time, with individual posts and sections of the foundation dropping by different amounts. The surface rose and fell from room to room, creating several slopes instead of one consistent plane.

That mattered because LVP needs a flat surface beneath it. The crew could not make one broad adjustment and expect it to work across the entire area. They checked each room separately and prepared the floor in sections, bringing it within the manufacturer’s requirements before installation.

The front door complicated that work. Raising the floor too much near the entry would have kept the door from opening properly. The crew had to improve the surface while protecting the clearance at the doorway, so the amount of correction changed as the work moved through the house.

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Find a Cleaner Solution at the Brick Hearth

The final flooring problem was at the wood stove. The new LVP needed an expansion gap where it met the brick hearth. Covering that gap with quarter round would have left a strip of trim wrapped around the masonry.

The crew chose to undercut the bottom of the brick instead. That allowed the LVP to slide beneath the hearth while leaving the expansion space the flooring required. It took more care than adding trim, but it gave the flooring a better place to end.

What It Took to Complete the Restoration

Finishing this project meant reusing what could be saved and fixing the floor before the kitchen went back together. We repaired and refinished the cabinets, reinstalled the countertop, hardware, sink, and faucet, and prepared the uneven floor room by room for the new Reserve Oak LVP. Along the way, we kept the front door clearance intact and fit the flooring beneath the brick hearth without adding quarter round. With those issues resolved, the homeowners got their kitchen back with the flooring update they had already planned.