We ripped off the old carpet on the stairs and landing tonight in
preparation for a new carpet coming tomorrow.
The floorboards leave a bit to be desired. There appears to be 2 problems:

1. One floorboard has a triangle bit sheared off about 8 inches long and
going from 0 to 1 inch. Looks like it has broken along the line of the
grain and dropped among the joists. this is right at a heavy wear point at
the top of the stairs. The carpet coming off, although absolutely ancient
has been good in its time so the hessien backing was thick. The underlay
was like horse hair felt and did look a bit battered but thick too. Will
this long hole cause a problem or will it be OK?

2. Another floorboard is see-sawing on a joist. Lifting it shows what
looks to be a newish joist at the high point. The boards beside are not as
affected for 2 reasons; the joist lowers away, and also they are longer and
have a great run to bend back down.. This one has been sawed in a couple of
place ( to put the central heating in the past I suspect). My hubby wants
to leave it 'cos he's a lazy git but it's right at our room door and might
drive me mad. It's to short and too rocky to screw at both ends, so my idea
was just to chisel a bit out of the board at the joist so it sits snug on
top?

Hit me with all opinions and ideas

TIA
Suzanne

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 22:04:41 +0100, Suz wrote:

1. One floorboard has a triangle bit sheared off about 8 inches
long and going from 0 to 1 inch.

If I couldn't find or retrieve the bit I'd cut an fit a bit of timber
to fill the hole. 1" is rather large IMHO.

2. Another floorboard is see-sawing on a joist.
snip
It's to short and too rocky to screw at both ends, so my idea was
just to chisel a bit out of the board at the joist so it sits snug
on top?

One way. Or fit a noggin at one end to screw into provided that both
ends and the middle are all flush with their surroundings if you do
that, without having to bend the board. From your description the
middle is proud so needs to be lowered to cure that, which will stop
the rocking...

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Suz wrote:
We ripped off the old carpet on the stairs and landing tonight in
preparation for a new carpet coming tomorrow.
The floorboards leave a bit to be desired. There appears to be 2 problems:

1. One floorboard has a triangle bit sheared off about 8 inches long and
going from 0 to 1 inch. Looks like it has broken along the line of the
grain and dropped among the joists. this is right at a heavy wear point at
the top of the stairs. The carpet coming off, although absolutely ancient
has been good in its time so the hessien backing was thick. The underlay
was like horse hair felt and did look a bit battered but thick too. Will
this long hole cause a problem or will it be OK?

It should be filled.
Ideally, you'd take a router, and a plank.
Take the plank and screw it down with a couple of very small screws in
a line to guide the router along the edge.
Now, use the router to neaten up the edge.
Then, move the plank over a bit, and make a lap joint by reducing the
thickness of the plank a bit.
Make a matching top from a suitable bit of wood, and screw and glue through
the lap using small screws (drill a clearance hole through the top bit
of timber).
Alternatively, but not quite as secure, a bit of wood to the approximate
shape, with hacksaw/stanley knife, and glue all round the edges.

2. Another floorboard is see-sawing on a joist. Lifting it shows what
looks to be a newish joist at the high point. The boards beside are not as
affected for 2 reasons; the joist lowers away, and also they are longer and
have a great run to bend back down.. This one has been sawed in a couple of
place ( to put the central heating in the past I suspect). My hubby wants
to leave it 'cos he's a lazy git but it's right at our room door and might
drive me mad. It's to short and too rocky to screw at both ends, so my idea
was just to chisel a bit out of the board at the joist so it sits snug on
top?

Hit me with all opinions and ideas

Chiseling the board will weaken it.
However.
If it's not properly supported at both ends, you can glue/screw blocks
to the side of the next joint, then screw onto those, and it'll be quite
secure.