Where do you get the natural wood colour Dow Corning acrylic frame sealant
from ?
I have tried google but could not find anything.


"andrewpreece" wrote in message
...

"Adam" wrote in message
om...
Hi All,

Time to seek your collective sage advice again...

We've decided to have a wooden floor in the lounge - easier to clean
and (IMHO) better looking. We've pulled up the very cheap carpet that
was down when we arrived, but the floor underneath doesn't look to be
in particularly good condition. In several places, presumably where
they've had to lay pipes, boards have been cut with a circular saw,
damaging the boards on either side. There are several large (~5mm)
gaps, although the majority of the boards seem to be well fitted. Many
of the boards appear to have warped upwards in the middle, and there
are a couple of places where there are 'steps' of 2-3mm between
boards. There is lots of paint splashing, the outer edges appear to
have a very old black varsh on them and, lastly, the boards appear to
be softwood.

Is it worth trying to renovate them? Our other options appear to be
relaying boards, possibly recovered ones, or laying a laminate floor
on top - what would you suggest?

Cheers - Adam...

Only you can decide if it is worth doing. I renovated my softwood
floorboards
in January and am pleased with the result, though I was cursing at the
time.
You will need to hire an industrial belt sander and a circular sander for
a
weekend.
Cost will be ITRO £90 inc. abrasive paper.
However, the whole process takes much longer. You need to:-
1. Remove all furniture from that room
2. Rip up the carpet and underlay
3. Sink any protruding nailheads down out of the way (sanders don't
like
'em )
4. Fill any holes.
5. Rip up all carpet grips
6. Remove any underlay staples etc.

Thats just the non-negotiable stuff. If your gaps are uneven ( I would
suggest that
widish gaps aren't a problem in themselves ), you may wish to pull up
those
boards
worst affected and re-lay them. Use shims in the gaps to force the errant
boards to have more consistent gaps, then nail them back into position. If
you are
leaving your skirting boards in position ( that's another crappy job I had
to do ) then
you can still sand right up to them using the circular sander, but how are
you going
to lift any errant floorboards if you leave the skirting in place? Tearing
the skirting off
will probably damage the skirting, and almost certainly tear chunks off
the
wall ( another
job ). I took my skirting off as I wanted to reposition the electricity
sockets, so I had
more motivation to replace them.

As for some boards being warped upwards, don't worry, the belt
sander
will flatten
them no worries ( I had a bucket of sawdust at the end of it ). I would
suggest the
sander will remove the steps between boards as well, as long as it's not
one
board
depressed and all the others proud. The belt sander will take off the
paint-splashes no
problem. The black stuff around the edges will come off too but beware it
tends to clog
the sandpaper, so lots of it means more sandpaper expense. Your boards
sound
a bit
unruly so it may take some hours of pushing the belt sander about ( at 45
degrees to
the boards mind! ) to get the bulk of the sticky-uppy stuff off, then some
more hours
going down through the sanpaper grades to get a decent finish. Best to
finish off with
a fine grade, going along the boards this time, with the grain.

Circular saw cuts are a fact of life; some of my boards had been
sliced in two to
allow access. Either fill the cut with an appropriate filler, or maybe a
mixture of wallpaper
paste and sawdust ( or pva and sawdust - experiment first ). It might be
that extending the
cut made by a circular saw right across the board ( not necessarily cut
right through though )
will look more natural. Unless you have a very smart or modern house a bit
of character in
the floorboards adds to the charm - you'll have rugs on a lot of it
probably anyway.

If you have a suspended wooden floor, gaps wll cause draughts - do
you want that?
I caulked my gaps with a mixture of twists of hemp string rammed in (
tedious ) and a natural
wood colour Dow Corning acrylic frame sealant ( comes in a tube for those
gun things ). I
understand papier mache works too, or clear silicone - beware, many
sealers
specifically
warn that they should not be used between floorboards. I also insulated
the
joists underneath
for insurance.

Finally, I applied woodworm treatment ( perhaps not necessary ) and
after that had
dried, a water-based quick dry antique pine floor varnish ( three coats ).
I
am now of the
opinon that staining the boards would have been a better option, as if you
ding the floor
and take off a chunk of varnish it shows. Also I think stain may not show
brushmarks/stops/starts
so much as coloured varnish. A few coats of clear floor varnish will then
protect it.

If you're into doing a thorough job, allow two weeks of the room
being uninhabitable,
and one weekend being a write-off. Cost, probably £125 minimum.

enjoy,

Andy.






Andy