Meet Chris Traver
Chris Traver, Owner
Chris grew up in Bozeman — not as a transplant who discovered Montana, but as a sixth-generation native whose family history is woven into this state. He spent 18 years working hardwood floors across western Montana, from the newer subdivisions south of Bozeman to the century-old bungalows in Helena's historic neighborhoods near Last Chance Gulch. That range of work — different wood species, different subfloor conditions, different levels of damage and ambition — is what shaped how he works today.
In 2023, Chris relocated to Helena with his family. He saw what Helena's housing stock offers: block after block of turn-of-the-century homes with original fir and pine floors that have been buried under carpet for decades, waiting. Working those floors — reading the grain, assessing what's there, deciding what they can become — is work he finds genuinely worthwhile. He's also continued to serve Butte, Bozeman, Big Sky, and the surrounding communities, taking on everything from a 200-square-foot kitchen refinish to a full historic home restoration.
How He Works
Chris specializes in water-based finishes — not because they're newer, but because they perform better in Montana's climate. The dry winters here, the wood stoves, the forced-air heating that pulls indoor humidity down to 20% or lower: all of that puts stress on a finish. Water-based products cure faster, flex better with seasonal wood movement, and hold up without the heavy odor that makes oil-based finishing a multi-day disruption to your home. That specialization comes from 18 years of watching what works here, not from a product catalog.
His work has been featured in national wood flooring publications. But the projects he talks about most aren't necessarily the high-end builds — they're the floors other contractors walked away from. A flood-damaged original-growth fir floor in a Gulch-area Victorian. A Big Sky chalet with a herringbone pattern that needed matching after water intrusion. A set of stairs buried under decades of carpet in a multi-story Helena home. He'll give you an honest assessment of what's actually there: whether restoration makes sense, what it will cost, and what the result will look like. If replacement is the better call, he'll tell you.
A Family Legacy
Chris has mentored four sons in the trade. That's not a marketing line — it means the people working in your home have been taught by someone who cares deeply about the quality of the result, because his name is on it. The Traver name has meant something in Montana for generations. It still does on every floor we lay.