floorboard work

[urchaidh]

Now into the sixth month of the big kitchen overhaul and there is light at the end of the tunnel (probably a torch I bricked up in the wall). Have completed steelwork, slapping, brickwork, leckie, plumbing and plastering. Next job is the floor.

The kitchen floor is mostly original 100 year old imperial floor boards with one smallish area redone in newer 136mm boards. It has been sanded and varnished thought this needs redone now.

As the kitchen is now bigger, there's a whole new area to one side that will require flooring with new boards, hopefully macthing.

Overt the years the existing floor has been hacked about a bit for access and in most of these holes the removed sections damaged by the initial and repeated removal. I'm not sure about sourcing matching boards to repair these holes so intend to lift a whole board (or two) from the edge, next to the new bit anyway, and use those to make replacement parts for the holes.

So, the questions:

Where sections of boards have been lifted noggins have been nailed to the joist to all.In some placed the noggins have sagged a bit. I thought I could use a router to cut back the existing (fixed) board halfway over the joist so as the replacement board sits on the joits at each end. Worth the effort - I'll be cutting new sections to fill anyway so the change of length ois no an issue?

Secondly, how to fit them in. The obvious way seems to be to cut the bottom lip of the groove (and maybe sand the tongue a wee bitty) so that they'll slot in. Any other/better suggestions.

There may be one long joint where I have to tongue/groove old and new boards together. I can get the right thikness, but if the tongue/grooves don't match what's the best way to acheive a good join.

Should I treat new boards with anything before fitting. The underfloor area is (thankfully) dry as a bone?

Any hints on making the new boards match the old boards?

Soryy for the long post, thanks for all your help.

[andrewpreece]

Stain the new boards with antique pine wod dye otherwise they will be too light. I should test the effect on a spare bit of wood first. Otherwise, the main problem with the new boards is their pristine condition ( I presume the old boards were not sanded back to a perfect finish? ). I can only suggest somehow beating them up a bit for that old floorboard look.

Andy.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Try and get re-claimed boards. The sort of wood the originals are made of is difficult and expensive to get these days.

[BigWallop]

It might be a good idea to take the opportunity of lifting all the old boards, carefully of course, and re-lay them all at one end / side of the room to make the new boards fit at the other end of the room. It can make the transition between the old and new boards a decorative feature, as well as keeping the area for the new boards all in one place. If you see what I mean.

We lifted all the old boards in this old flat, and laid them back starting at the entry and working back through the whole house. When the good undamaged ones had all run out, we found that the only room not to have original boards was the kitchen. Now the kitchen has a nice new shiny floor all of its own and the transition point between old and new is at the kitchen door.

It might work for you too.

[urchaidh]

All of the new boards will be at one side of the room anyway as I've slapped through a wall to enlarge the room. What needs reflooring is the new space and a small area of the old space where I had to lift some boards.

The exceptions are the small sections that have been cut out (not always very well) over the years for access under the floor and then stuck back down onto noggins. I hope to replace those with sections of a pristine old board I'm going to remove from the edge, routing back over the batten to get a solid fit.

These access points were made in three or four places across ths floor

- it did occur to me to lift everything and start again but the only thing I'd really gain would be removing the evidence of these access holes completely, which would be great and very tidy, but maybe not worth the effort. God forbid I might even need them again.

[BigWallop]

You could always raise the noggins slightly to fit new boards on. This takes up the small difference in thickness quite well. Once the floor is sanded back you shouldn't notice the new boards that much.

[urchaidh]

Which reminds me...

The existing floor was sanded and varnished by the previous owner and really only needs re varnishing. The boards are nice and flat and in resonable condition.

Do I need to attack it again with one of these drum sanders? That seems a bit extreme as they remove a lot of wood, so would a smaller hand sander do the job better - it would certianly be cheaper? If so, belt, orbit or random orbit?

• Don't worry about speed as I have a very patient and dedicated wife who excels at this kind of long, tedious job. I just don't have the patience myself.

[urchaidh]

Which reminds me...

The existing floor was sanded and varnished by the previous owner and really only needs re varnishing. The boards are nice and flat and in resonable condition.

Do I need to attack it again with one of these drum sanders? That seems a bit extreme as they remove a lot of wood, so would a smaller hand sander do the job better - it would certianly be cheaper? If so, belt, orbit or random orbit?

• Don't worry about speed as I have a very patient and dedicated wife who excels at this kind of long, tedious job. I just don't have the patience myself.

[BigWallop]

A good idea is a low grade belt on one of those industrial jobs of a sanding machine. The grade of roughness on the sanding belt determines the job on these things, and you don't need to remove loads of surface to make the job of re-varnishing easier for you. But if you don't want to, then fine. It's probably me being lazy anyway. :-)

An industrial sander is the easiest way to go with finishing something like the job you have. It really makes light work of smoothing new to old boards a lot easier anyway. Trying to remove even a few millimetres from the difference in the thickness can be a real chore with a hand sanders, no matter how patient you are.

It also leaves the difference in the flooring colour at a point were a little light staining and varnishing is all that's needed to match everything up again.

My preferences on all this you understand, but just trying to make your life easier. :-)

[urchaidh]

Low grade == fine? Any suggestions on what grade. I've never used one of those big floor sanders but always assumed they came with belts rough as Gerry Halliwell to remove a hefty layer of wood.

I don't want to remove a load of surface, I really just need to remove the old varnish as the boards are in pretty good condition.

Now that's a good point, I hadn't really considered sanding as the way to level the new boards to match the old. 90%+ of the new boards go on an area where I've to put in new joists, so I was planning to mung the joists to fit rather than the boards.

Thanks for all the advice, it's a big help and I do appreciatte it.

[bigcat]

Sounds like youre making a whole lotta work for yourself for nothing. Unless the old boards are a serious state, theres no reason to sand them. There is no hope of new wood matching, if you dye it the colours will change over time etc.

Easy solution: get old boards of similar colour, fit, wash em all and varnish. end of story.

NT