Floorboards

[puffernutter]

Maybe a silly question (so I suppose I should expect some silly replies!)

We have an 1890 Victorian terrace. I should like to replace the floorboards on the upstairs landing, stain them and put down a carpet runner. My problem is that the landing is pretty well the main conduit for all services; waste water from the bathroom, hot and cold water, central heating, gas pipe and of course electrics (cooker, shower, socket ring mains upstairs and downstairs as well as lighting).

So, what I would like to do is replace the current floorboards (they have been up and down so often!) with new boards, but I don't really want to use tongue and groove, so I can plan to have some I can easily take up for access.

The landing is only 3 feet wide, so how much rigidity does the tongue/groove give (could I I use a thicker board?), or does it also prevent all the dust etc. working its way up from the floor space beneath?

The alternative I suspect is to use tongue & groove, but machine off the tongue where I expect to have to remove boards? The trouble is that with so many services under there - it could be a lot of tongue removed, hence the question!

Cheers

Peter

[harryagain]

Tongues and grooves add significant extra strength to floors, you don't want plain boards without, at least not lots of them. If you need very wide access holes, I would think about using sheets of thick ply under carpets etc where it can't be seen. You need to be careful not to damage the services in your activities. You can get new T&G but it seems to be slightly different size to old stuff, you need to watch out for this. It is all best screwed down, stronger & less chance of creaking noises. You are supposed to use floorboard cramps to fit T&G BTW. If you don't large gaps appear as the wood dries out.

[Chris Bartram]

Are your original boards T+G? My house is a bit older than yours, and they aren't, but IIRC they're also a bit thicker than normal T+G boards.

[Fredxx]

A Victorian house I had many years ago 7" x 1" PAR floorboards.

[NT]

I'm not sure why you want new T&G. Such houses were normally built with planed boards, no tongues or grooves, which work fine. If you want smoke resistance, another way to achieve it is to line underneath with hardboard. Old boards cleaned up look far more in character than new.

Floorboard strength & rigidiy arent a significant issue, unless you use boards so thin (eg half inch) that they cant realistically be T&Ged anyway.

NT

[puffernutter]

They used to be! Very little tongue left and only half a groove on some!

Cheers

Peter

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Are the originals T&G? They're not on my Victorian house. IIRC, non T&G are simply slightly thicker.

To make removing them for access easier, screw them down, rather than nailing. Not such hard work these days with power screwdrivers etc. Obtain the correct pilot drill that does a pilot clearance and countersink all in one go.

[the_constructor]

Best thing to do is refit with new tongue & groove floorboards but instead of removing the tongue & groove at the places where you may need access to the services, just remove the bottom part of the groove leaving the top part intact so that it still looks presentable. I agree with others, screwing them is far more preferable to nailing but if you want the floorboards to be on show, nailing would be best, IMO anyway.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Carefully fitted brass screws with the slots lined up. ;-)

[Geoff Pearson]

T&G is not universal in England but is so in Scotland. It is a much better system and I would think the resale price of a house would be much reduced if there were new plain boards down. Scottish T&G are usually 1 and 1/8 inch thick and are readily available (but not in B&Q). There is a good place in Causewayside which has all the traditional sizes (esp for sash windows). I couldn't imagine replacing in anything other than T&G.

[John Rumm]

I suspect a fair bit of regional variation here. In the SE, similar age Victorian stock would have almost certainly had 7x1" PSE boards. Originally fitted up snug to each other - but typically with some shrinkage over time that results in gaps.

The gaps allow dust through into the ceiling void, and draughts up needless to say.

T&G is often a little thinner when used these days. As others suggested, if going with T&G, you can chop the bottom of the groove off on the boards you expect to lift. Screwed boards can be attractive if done well (if using brass screws, then fit a steel one first and then replace with brass).

[Owain]

You could do the floor in sections, so individual boards are T&G and are glued/screwed together underneath, but the non-T&G joints are always over joists.

In other words, make the landing floor a series of lift-off trapdoors rather than a boarded floor.

Owain