DIYbanter - View Single Post - Reducing thickness of reclaimed parquet flooring

Stuart Noble

wrote:
On 13 Feb, 10:50, Stuart Noble
wrote:
Phil L wrote:
wrote:
I have around 12 sq.m of reclaimed parquet flooring (pitch pine) with
each board around 12" x 3" x 1". I want to reduce the thickness of
this to something much less.
I'm intending to use the boards to lay a parquet floor over concrete.
The concrete floor is level with existing parquet flooring in two
adjoining rooms so I'd like to reduce the thickness of the boards
before I lay them so that there is only a small height difference
between the floors in the different rooms. An incidental benefit would
be to remove the residual bitumen on the reclaimed wood.
What is the cheapest practical way of doing this and with what tool?
I'm happy to rent something (thicknesser, band saw?) from HSS, or buy
a cheap (£100'ish) tool for the job or get someone else to do it.
Also, given that I'm laying on to a flat level surface, what is the
minimum thickness people would recommend for the boards?
Thanks in advance!
Colin
Either pay a professional parquet flooring contractor to come and do the
floor with new blocks, or throw the ones you have in a skip and get a
carpet, either way, make sure they all end up in a skip as they are more
trouble than they are worth.
Believe me, only heartache and many hundreds of wasted pounds lie down this
road, and the result is always, always horrendous.
I wouldn't quite go that far, but variations in width, length, *and*
thickness would make it too labour intensive to be justifiable on any
grounds other than sentimental. The first two dimensions could probably
be standardised by spending an 8 hour day on a sawbench, but the
thicknesss is the killer.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I've laid reclaimed parquet and it's turned out fantastically well -
you have to buy it all from the same batch, but you'd have to be
pretty naive or stupid to do otherwise.

Same batch doesn't mean a lot when it's been on the floor for 100 years
and has shrunk to varying degrees. A mm or two variation would drive you
crazy over a 12 sq.m surface