Imperial floorboards

Aug 27, 2018 17 Replies

Hi,



I'm going to need some Tongue and Groove floorboards, after I rip out my old kitchen and get ready to fit the new one.



Last time I did any floorboard replacement many years ago, I could go to the local timber merchant and ask for 7/8" imperial PTG floorboards and get something that matched perfectly the original floorboards in my 1930s semi.



Now everything is online and metric, what would be the nearest standard floorboard that will be compatible ?



My current floorboards are:


7/8' thick
4 3/8' wide

Thanks


Depending on the size of the kitchen it might be easier to rip out the old and replace with new, modern T&G flooring tends to be about 19mm thick that 's a noticeable difference that will show through the likes of vinyl floori ng. Trying to match in floor levels will be a mare never mind trying to get tongues and grooves to match.

Richard

I went to the timber merchant, asked for the next size thicker, then they put them through the thicknesser for me.

You may need to get the timber merchant to thickness some thicker stock to the size you require. Probably easier to specify plain boards and not T&G as well. Rip the tongue off the existing floor board that needs to adjoin the new.

+2

Just use T&G 22mm caberfloor in 8*2 sheets. remember to glue the T&G.

And then they shrunk and ended up too thin :-(

Why does a thicknesser made timber thinner ?. Often wondered why the name was chosen. Planer I can understand.

Fair point if you don't need to replace too many. As a matter of interest, how does the price of such boards compare at a proper timber merchant? I did wonder, at one time, whether I could justify getting a thicknesser which would give me the option to "recover" 7/8 boards down to metric size as well as to make the odd 7/8th depending on the requirement.

I guess that will vary quite a bit depending on your local merchant and where you are. Do a web search for a local timber place - some will have price lists.

If you do much with timber and have the space for it, then its usually a no brainer - you can usually save the price of a basic "portable" machine fairly quickly buying sawn timber rather than PAR, especially if buying hardwood...

Another option to consider if you just want a few boards for a repair job, is buy them over thickness, then just route a rebate in the backs where they sit on the joists, rather than thicknessing the whole board.

(or you can even buy undersized ones and add packers on top of the joists to bring them up to the right finished floor level).

Cause they are for making what ever thickness you want hence thicknesser

good old inch and an eighth T&G floorboards...Mmmmmmm can't beat them....

Because it varies the thickness. It isn't called a thickener.

A planer is different, it doesn?t just control the thickness.

My 1880's house has a few floorboards patched with 22mm chipboard strips.

Head down to the reclaim yard

NT

I'd sort of ask what is wrong with the old ones. Unless rotten, I'd bet they are better than most replacements. Brian

sometimes they can be turned over if damaged, or backed by crosspieces to fix cracks.

NT

Some of ours were cracked/split down the middle. Others had been cut into small piece over the years for floor access.

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