Help Please!

[nemofish]

Hi all

I know there are a great many posts on this group on the subject of floorboards so I apologise if this has already been answered but I couldn't find out quite what I need to know.

I have an old house with very badly worn and cut floorboards. I will be laying new solid oak floor boards over the existing floorboards at right angles. I'm not lifting the existing boards as I do not want to disturb the ceiling below or damage the joists in any way (they have neen attached by woodworm in the past). My question is how do I fix the new flooring to the existing floorboards? I see 2 options :

- screw and plug the new boards over the old flooring

- lay the new floor as a 'floating' floor by gluing the new tongue and groove boards together

If possible I want to avoid any cupping of the boards and would obviously prefer not to see gaps opening up in the floor over the winter when the central heating will be used more.

At the minute I'm really unsure of the best option, can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks Mat.

[Christian McArdle]

Remove the old boards. It won't take long. It won't disturb the ceiling and you can remove the old boards as you fit the new ones, so you don't have any large holes to fall through!

Christian.

[Alan]

Secret nailing into the tounge? Hire a nailer to do this from HSS or similar.

Alan.

[Michael Mcneil]

Should be a doddle if it's only held by woodworm.

[nemofish]

Thanks for the responses. Whilst the floorboards are in poor condition they are in places very sound and held down with huge wrought iron nails. These have not proved to be easy to lift (when putting the electrics in) and I don't want to risk any damage to the ceiling below. I've been told that overboarding is not unusual and that this will further strengthen the floor. The change in level is not a problem as there are no doors.

My question is what is the best method of overboarding? Has anyone any experience of this? I want to try and avoid gaps openning up between the floorboards.

Many thanks.

[RichardS]

Get hold of the book "Hardwood Floors" by Bollinger, shoudl be easily found on Amazon.

It talks a lot about laying flooring on an existing subfloor. Subfloor HAS to be an even and flat surface before you start otherwise you're onto a losing bet from the start. In practice this means that you will have to hire a floor sander to sand the floor level. This will invariably involve setting the existing floor brads using a nail set and a hammer - if you don't do this then you run the risk of ripping through sanding belts at a very great rate, and worse, damaging the drum surface of the sander, which will cost you dearly when you return it to the hire shop.

I wouldn't go with glueing the floor to create a floating floor, and plugging and screwing all the boards in a whole room will take forever (I've done it for small areas).

Use a Portanailer or similar to secret nail through the tongues, you won't need to surface nail unless you've got wide boards (ie > ~14cm).

Make sure that you buy the boards well in advance and leave them unwrapped in the house to acclimatise to the moisture content. Mine were hanging around for about 6 weeks before I was in a position to lay them, and I've not had any problems with splitting or cupping. Couple of weeks shoudl do it.

My recommendation would also be to take the skirting boards off and refit after the job is finished. IMHO quadrant strips look naff... but that's just my opinion!

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[nemofish]

Thanks Richard

Unfortunately time pressures mean that I don't have the luxury of being able to leave the boards to acclimatise as I need to fix them in a weeks time. The boards are kiln dried so will this make a difference? The other problem is that we don't have central heating installed yet so that will obviously affect the moisture levels this coming winter. Do you know if kiln dried boards (about 8% moisture content I think) are likely to shrink much over winter?

If the subfloor isn't level (and it isn't) is packing the boards underneath an option?

Thanks for the tip on the book I will certainly look that one up.

Mat.