Holes and See-saws (floorboards)

[Suz]

We ripped off the old carpet on the stairs and landing tonight in preparation for a new carpet coming tomorrow. The floorboards leave a bit to be desired. There appears to be 2 problems:

1. One floorboard has a triangle bit sheared off about 8 inches long and going from 0 to 1 inch. Looks like it has broken along the line of the grain and dropped among the joists. this is right at a heavy wear point at the top of the stairs. The carpet coming off, although absolutely ancient has been good in its time so the hessien backing was thick. The underlay was like horse hair felt and did look a bit battered but thick too. Will this long hole cause a problem or will it be OK?

1. Another floorboard is see-sawing on a joist. Lifting it shows what looks to be a newish joist at the high point. The boards beside are not as affected for 2 reasons; the joist lowers away, and also they are longer and have a great run to bend back down.. This one has been sawed in a couple of place ( to put the central heating in the past I suspect). My hubby wants to leave it 'cos he's a lazy git but it's right at our room door and might drive me mad. It's to short and too rocky to screw at both ends, so my idea was just to chisel a bit out of the board at the joist so it sits snug on top?

Hit me with all opinions and ideas

TIA Suzanne

[Dave Liquorice]

If I couldn't find or retrieve the bit I'd cut an fit a bit of timber to fill the hole. 1" is rather large IMHO.

One way. Or fit a noggin at one end to screw into provided that both ends and the middle are all flush with their surroundings if you do that, without having to bend the board. From your description the middle is proud so needs to be lowered to cure that, which will stop the rocking...

[Ian Stirling]

It should be filled. Ideally, you'd take a router, and a plank. Take the plank and screw it down with a couple of very small screws in a line to guide the router along the edge. Now, use the router to neaten up the edge. Then, move the plank over a bit, and make a lap joint by reducing the thickness of the plank a bit. Make a matching top from a suitable bit of wood, and screw and glue through the lap using small screws (drill a clearance hole through the top bit of timber). Alternatively, but not quite as secure, a bit of wood to the approximate shape, with hacksaw/stanley knife, and glue all round the edges.

Chiseling the board will weaken it. However. If it's not properly supported at both ends, you can glue/screw blocks to the side of the next joint, then screw onto those, and it'll be quite secure.