"N. Thornton" wrote in message
om...
"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?

Yes, I had a floor like that, it wasn't hard.

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

I think it took a day or so to do one small room. There are many
choices in how detailed you get, it depends on how new you want it to
look. New floors tend to look right out of place in old houses, I
prefer a floor thats cleaned up nicely, has the gaps and so on sorted
out, but that still shows at least some wear. It fits in
aesthetically.

As for laminates, first I think they look out of character in old
houses, second these old places normally only need a few planks
replacing here and there to get a good sound floor, and 3rd laminate
will look knackered after a while, whereas a trad floor will last a
century.


"andrewpreece" wrote in message
...

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.


I didnt do much of this, and it looks great.

1. Job 1 is a good clean up. Uuse a mop and bucket, warm water and
washing powder, and a few drops of bleach in it. Its slow, just wet
the floor and mop it from one end to the other, repeat, repeat. Slowly
it comes up very nicely. Have patience with this, it can take hours to
get a good clean finish.

2. To lose the gaps, relay the lot, topping up with similar old
boards. This step can be skipped if you're OK with the cracks. Use
screws on any board that isn't completely flat, and ring shanked nails
on the rest. Screwfix do them.

3. Or just repair any problem boards, ie ones with damaged surface. In
most cases just turn them over. If no good, replace them.

4. Screw down any wobbly or sticking up boards.

5. Use a hand held sander to sand off the stubborn bits that wouldnt
clean up properly. A circular sander is a fast easy option, just take
care to always sweep it across the floor so you dont get marks.

6. Never use coloured varnish!! Finish coats must always be clear.

Done, and looks good, is original, and it shows.


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?

Just lift them, they dont move the skirting. If you have a board that
you have to lift and it runs the full length, cut it in 2 over a
joist.


will look more natural. Unless you have a very smart or modern house a
bit
of character in
the floorboards adds to the charm

definitely. Dont get all fussy about it.


If you have a suspended wooden floor, gaps wll cause draughts -
do
you want that?

At first they did, but the gaps soon fill up with rubbish. The 100
year old gapped floors I've seen aren't usually draughty.


Finally, I applied woodworm treatment ( perhaps not necessary )

best avoided. Read up on it if you're considering it.


dried, a water-based quick dry antique pine floor varnish ( three
coats ). I

never use that The floor soon looks terrible. Pine mellows and
yellows by itself, just give it a month to begin mellowing. naturally
mellowed pine looks much nicer than stained.


If you're into doing a thorough job, allow two weeks of the room
being uninhabitable,

mine only took a day.

and one weekend being a write-off. Cost, probably £125 minimum.

cost: Sandpaper, use fibre discs - £5. Varnish £7. Thats it. Most of
the floor wasn't sanded at all.

BTW any potential splinter has usually found its way into someone's
foot long ago


Regards, NT

Sir,
I salute your speed! Of course, as you say it depends on the effect
you want
and the details of the job. To do it in a day requires that your floor is
either fairly
good already or you like the rustic look. I decided to go ( rightly or
wrongly - I
appreciate the natural look argument ) for a smooth look. This required a
lot of
work getting the boards sanded - one weekend just for that.

As for the gaps, lifting and relaying boards is difficult stuff -
damage may be
occasioned to the boards, and if they are laid closer together, finding a
matching
floorboard to go on the end could take ages. Even if skirting boards are not
taken off,
cutting boards in half over a joist to lift them would feel annoying to me,
but it is probably
the easiest option.

Using a belt and orbital sander requires pushing all the nailheads
down out of the
way else an expensive ripping sound ensues. Filling the resulting nail holes
was a bit
anal retentive of me but that's the way I am! A hand-held orbital will not
cope with
getting a flat, smooth finish on old boards; a flat finish requires the hire
of an industrial
belt sander and orbital sander. Choose what finish you want to live with.

I also had some woodworm problems, close to the gaps - applying
woodworm
treatment requires three applications, with considerable drying time in
between. I've
read that woodworm problems in houses probably predate central-heating, but
I'm
not so sure - I've discovered fresh woodworm sawdust under woodworm holes
under
my stairs, so I chose the belt-and-braces option for my floor.

I admit that floorboard gaps may fill up with debris over time, but I
have seen the
rug lift at one corner years ago before we had fitted carpets, when a strong
wind was
blowing outside, as the wind came up through the floorboards. With that in
mind, with
some widish debris-resistant gaps, and with the prospect of being visited by
our little
eight-legged friends, I went for the nuclear option and filled the gaps.
Finding a suitable
filler either requires making it yourself ( wood filler doesn't work ) or
hunting around for
a sealant which is a colour match and doesn't specifically forbid being used
between
floorboards. Being unwilling to see sealant perhaps drop through the gaps if
the gaps
widened seasonally, I went for the belt-and-braces approach ( again ) of
packing the gaps
with twisted hemp string. I also insulated the underfloor joists, so that
heat would not
belost now that the fitted carpet was gone.

If there is that black gunk on the floorboards ( as used to be the
fashion ) it takes
extra time and sandpaper to get off.

If any of these problems is not catered for up front ( i.e. having all
necessary tools
available ( like circular saw/floorboard saw, filler, sealant, clawhammer,
jemmy, wedges
nails, woodworm treatment, varnish, stain, etc ), or having spare matched
floorboards
of the correct thickness available etc, the amount of running around and
cursing could
easily stretch to two weeks ( it did for me! ).

I think most people will get it done in a time longer than one day,
but less than two
weeks. I demanded perfection, and did it the hard ( belt-and-braces ) way,
which is why
I'm prepared to share my experience here - I was scratching my head a lot of
the time
due to lack of knowledge. Looking back, I would not go for such a good
finish perhaps,
as it shows up dings very plainly. I think the hemp packing in the gaps was
possibly OTT.
The coloured varnish finish seems to be rejected by most people on this
thread.

The rest I am happy about; people should look at the list of options
in this thread and
pick what's good for them. Hopefully all the options and most of the
problems are now on
the table for readers to see,

cheers,

Andy