About us

Locally-owned and operated company
specializing in high end, custom hardwood floors.

Nehalem Bay Hardwoods is a premiere hardwood flooring specialist serving families and business owners throughout the Oregon and Washington areas, primarily focused on Oregons North Coast for 25 years.

Owner Josh Schmidt is a 3rd generation hardwood craftsman, dedicated to delivering dependable, unique handcrafted hardwood floors in the warmth of your home or business. Using classic and innovative flooring techniques, we can help navigate you through all the current hardwood flooring methods, options and trends.

Excellent service! The floors came out beautiful! The team was very professional and efficient! I highly recommend Nehalem Bay Hardwoods.

-- Elizabeth Arims

Meet The Team

Fully-licensed and insured flooring experts
with over 25 years of combined experience

Joshua Schmidt

President & CEO

Shawn Ballard

Lead Floor Technician/ Project Manager

Leslie Hardy

Flooring Technician

Dylan Knight

Flooring Technician

Eric Mansell

Floor Technician

Randy Bernise

Flooring Technician

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some answers to the questions we receive the most about our services.
If we missed anything, please do not hesitate to contact us. We’ll be happy to help

An engineered timber plank consists of more than one layer as opposed to solid timber which is one single layer or one single solid plank of wood.

Engineered planks are also more stable than solid timber planks. The stability of an engineered plank is provided by each layer being placed so that the grain runs perpendicular. This gives it more strength and stability than a traditional solid plank.

As engineered and solid planks are both real, genuine timber, both are susceptible to changes in atmospheric conditions and moisture. However, due to the construction of engineered planks, with the grain of each layer running in perpendicular to the next, the expansion or contraction of the timber is much more minimal than that of solid timber.

This makes engineered wood flooring highly suitable for Oregon Coast projects given our volatile climate.

When it comes to creating a particular aesthetic in your home or business, The Nehalem Bay team is here to help you navigate the desired look with both pre finished and site sanded options. 

With pre finished hardwood flooring the color and finish is created before installed on site. 

With site sanded hardwood flooring the material is installed at its raw form and then is sanded and finished on site after installation. Site sanded hardwood floors have all the same color options, and techniques however allow our teams to create a more complete finish process because we are finishing once the flooring is completely installed. This provides the opportunity to fix any inconsistencies or flaws in the material. 

Both options have their pros and cons. Talk to one of our specialist today to discuss these options in more detail.

It is a common thought that when hardwood floors are being refinished or a new hardwood floor is being sanded, that there is a lot of dust created during the process. 

With the evolution of hardwood flooring sanding equipment, this problem has been greatly reduced. With the use of high end vacuums and dust collecting machines, the amount of dust that is created has been reduced to a minimal amount. 

Any and all dust that is created during the process that is not collected through out the sanding process, is thoroughly cleaned by our teams once the project is complete.

Traditional sand on site hardwood floors have the option to be stained a variety of colors. The Nehalem Bay Hardwoods team will help guide you with these options and then provide actual samples applied to the floor before making the final decision. This allows the client to see exactly what the color is going to look like on the flooring.

A common decision which must be made during the hardwood flooring process is choosing between water based and oil based polyurethane finish.   

With water based finish, the finish is a thinner, stronger finish. Many water based finishes have a two component hardening system the has hardening agent  in it. This is good for high traffic areas, or areas with very heavy furniture. Water based finishes have a very low VOC( Volatile Organic Compound) index. Meaning there is very little off gassing of harmful chemicals into your home or business. Another benefit to water based finish is the presence of UV resistant properties. Water based finish stands up to the strength of the sun really well, and reduces fading or yellowing over time. 

Water based finishes seem to scratch easier do the the hardness, are significantly more expensive, and lack the warmth of traditional hardwood flooring with out the addition of stains.

Oil based polyurethanes on the other hand, are the other primary option. With oil based floors the finish is drastically thicker than water based finishes. Oil based finishes are a softer, more flexible style of floor finish. Due to this the flooring can dent much easier, however the scracthing the present wount be as noticeable as  water based finishes. Oil based finishes, have a very warm natural tone with natural ambering being present in the finish. Oil based finishes accompany oil base penetrating stains very well.The oil based finish has a much higher VOC, and take much longer to cure. 

To read more about Nehalem Bay Hardwoods preferred finishes you can read more from these sources.

https://www.duraseal.com/products/

https://www.bona.com/en-us/products/professional/coatings/waterborne-finishes/

Penetrating oils are another very strong option for finishing your hardwood floors. In comparison to water/oil based polyurethanes that sit on top of the flooring, penetrating oils do precisely as it sounds. Penetrating oils penetrate deep into the woods pores, and harden to create a very protective surface. Every day ware and tare such as scratches an d dents don’t show up like they do with traditional polyurethanes. 

To read more about Nehalem Bay Hardwoods preferred penetrating oils you can read more from these sources.

https://www.rubiomonocoatusa.com/collections/oil-plus-2c

https://www.rubiomonocoatusa.com/pages/oil-plus-2c-colors

 

 

 

 

After hardwood floors are completed its important to protect the flooring during the remaining construction as well as during the curing time of the hardwood floor finish with site sanded flooring. With site sanded oil based floors we recommend waiting 10 days before covering with ram board, 14 days before returning furniture, and 30 days for rugs. With water based finish we recommend wait a minimum of 72 hours before replacing furniture and 14 days for rugs. All other flooring can have ram board placed on flooring at completion of the project.

Engineered, and solid hardwood flooring have a wear layer. The wear layer is the the top layer of the flooring. The thicker the wear layer the stronger the material. Thick wear layers allow for multiple refinishing’s and a sturdier feeling under foot. Talk with a Nehalem Bay Hardwoods representative to talk in more depth of particular flooring options and wear layers.

A very common way of modern home heating includes running heating systems below the flooring called radiant heating. Although Nehalem Bay Hardwoods does not offer radiant heating systems, we offer many types and applications of hardwood flooring that are suitable for Radiant Heating Systems.

Many engineered hardwood floors have a thick enough wear layer that the flooring can be sanded down to raw wood, and refinished. There just has to be a thick enough wear layer to sand. Contact a Nehalem Bay Hardwoods representative to inquire about having your pre finished hardwoods refinished.

Unfortunately all furniture must be moved before any work can be completed.

Nehalem Bay Hardwoods  offers full service cleaning for your solid or engineered hardwood flooring. Ideal for restaurants, businesses and vacation rentals. This systematic cleaning process, deep cleans and polish’s existing hardwood flooring.