I had six old oak floorboards to lay in my 500 year old house. My
problem was that the floor was not flat but curved down 10 cm towards
one corner

I tried

- Fixing one end of the floorboard in position and putting a heavy
weight on the other end. Result - no noticeable deflection in five
days

- As above but laying a wet towel on top of the floorboard where the
bend needed to be. Result - no noticeable deflection in five days

- At which point I gave up pussyfooting around and enthusiastically
used a wallpaper steamer where the bend needed to be. That was the
magic ingredient which made the floorboard sufficiently flexible that
I could stand on it to get screw and penny washer fixings in position.
Result - one week later I loosened a floorboard and found that the
board had deflected by a couple of centimetres.

I dont trust it to stay deflected so I fixed it back down with screw
and penny washer. In a month or two I will remove the penny washers
and countersink the screws

Anna
--

~ ~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England
|""""| ~ Lime plaster repair and conservation
/ ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc
|____| www.kettlenet.co.uk

Glad to hear the steam bending worked. Did you do this with a steaming
bag, or simply by applying the steam plate? How thick is the board and
how long did you steam for?

wrote in message
...
Glad to hear the steam bending worked. Did you do this with a steaming
bag, or simply by applying the steam plate? How thick is the board and
how long did you steam for?

I've successfully bent softwood skirting boards quite dramatically by
steaming them for half an hour inside a vertical length of 5 inch soil pipe
(steam cleaner hose in at the bottom, of course)

On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:51:58 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

Glad to hear the steam bending worked. Did you do this with a steaming
bag, or simply by applying the steam plate?

Steam plate

How thick is the board

10mm or a bit more

how long did you steam for?

One reservoir full for three boards

Anna

--

~ ~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England
|""""| ~ Lime plaster repair and conservation
/ ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc
|____| www.kettlenet.co.uk