laying a Victorian floor

[Andriy]

Hello

I would appreciate any advice please:

I am laying floorboards in a Victorian house and we would like to do it with a minimum of gaps (or none at all!)
If I buy new pine I think it may shrink and gaps will open up
I thought about buying reclaimed boards and laying them tight so there are no gaps. Does anyone have experience of laying originals and how best to do it to avoid gaps?
What would be the best finish to give the boards an original look? What sort of varnish?

Also - in the basement I have a concrete floor and want to put in pine boards on top, sand and varnish. What is the best way to do this?

Many thanks
Andriy
:deer

 

[Shane]

Wood will move in whichever way it wants, very determined stuff is wood, no matter what you seal it with it will shift eventually, depending on humidity of the supplied timber and the continued conditions of your house

I presume you will be leaving gaps around the edges under the skirting?

The only way to prevent movement will be to buy wood that has the same moisture content as your house has

 

[Andriy]

Okay, so does a time come when the wood settles down and doesn't move any more?
And is there a way of filling in any gaps afterwards?
Or do we just have to live with gaps as I have seen in friends' houses?

 

[Shane]

Softwood should settle reasonably quickly, within a couple of weeks at a guess, just go for the dryest you can get, it would be better if it had to swell to meet the right moisture level and work it's way under the skirting a little, but it all depends on the supplier

I've not used anything to fill gaps before but others may have

 

[Shane]

If you really dont want gaps you could always go for an engineered wooden floor which is glued together

 

[Shane]

Or you could stack the wood in your house in stick for a couple of weeks to let it settle before fitting

 

[Jacob]

Reclaimed boards can be a pipper to fit unless you are very lucky with the source.
New or reclaimed - lay the boards now but without nails (watch out for trap ends - perhaps a temporary nail here and there). Have central heating on for a few weeks and then cramp and nail. Or wait until late summer and ditto. If you want to protect the surface in the meantime you could do the first lay upside down, or cover with hardboard

 

[hanser]

As a DIYer I've laid both new and reclaimed boards. A lot depends on the quality of either, moisture content etc. Even after acclimatisation new boards will shrink some more and will cup and bow. Reclaimed will tend to be more stable. Use tongue and grooved planks and floorboard/joist clamps to get things nice and tight. Remember those boards probably end up a lot drier than the rest of the house -particularly those over pipe runs/ on the first floor.

Re the basement. Presumably this will be a little damp etc -use engineered boards floating over polystyrene sheets/insulation.

 

[mickthetree]

Hi there

I bought a load of straight edged reclaimed boards from ebay couple of years ago. Left them in the house for a couple of weeks to acclimatise.

Our hous ewas built in 1895 and the boards happened to come from a house of very similar age. Butchers in Birmingham that was being demolished. (the boards were from the upstairs so no blood ;-) )

We also had a concrete floor to lay them on. The concrete was very dry, about 10 years old and showed no signs of moisture. I placed a sheet of hardboard on the floor for a couple of days to draw any moisture through but none, so I was confident that it was good and dry.

Concrete was also quite level so didnt bother with any leveling compound.

Put 9mm plywood down on the concrete floor using no more nails. Seems ot have held to date (2ish years)

Took off the skirting and started laying the boards. Left a credit card thickness sized gap between each. When they were all cut I screwed them to the plywood with solid brass screws through the old nail holes. Suggestion of a mate and they look really good.

The boards were mostly black and a couple of hours with a hired industrial sander they were all done and ready to finish. I am very very pleased with them still.

I used HG wax which was a mistake. Lots of people recommeded osmo hard wax oil and I was a cheapskate and didnt get it. Wish I had as the HG stuff just isnt upto the job. The room is the first room when you come in the front door and dirt has got through the wax. I'm confident that it will clean up with a light sand, but I need to get round to that and put Osmo down instead.

Remember that 100 year old boards have had a long time to season and as long as they've been stored well will be pretty stable.

Only trouble I had was a few of the boards had some worm. I specifically asked if they did and the seller said no, but I got them for a bargain price and the guy delivered them from birmingham. I chopped up and wormy ones and burnt them. The rest I treated and laid and have never had a problem.

HTH

 

[dickm]

Relevant query mainly for my own benefit, but it may help OP as well - is there any difference between the different brands of flooring nailers that seem to be about? I've got a lot of square metres of reclaimed maple to lay (once it's all cleaned up and assuming the cleaning doesn't finally wreck my Ryobi thicknesser) and been looking at ways to speed up the laying. Are the manual nailers (where it looks as if you hit a plunger that drives the secret nail) OK, and if not, is there a particular air or other nailer to look for?
Any tips on how to clamp the boards tightly together while nailing? I suspect the nailer alone won't give enough pressure.

 

[Andriy]

thanks for all your replies, and especially mickthe tree for such a detailed response. I'll try to follow that for the floor on top of concrete. It's reassuring to hear 'voices of experience.'
Andriy

 

[Deansocial]

i would say no to secret nailing softwood, to moves too much, It looks best nailed down with cutnails IMHO. they need to acclimatise as long asposs with the heating on

 

[shipbadger]

As a child one of my regular jobs was for my Grandmother. She had carpet in the middle of the room ( a large rug) but the periphery was painted floorboarding. This needed a new coat of paint every year or so as it became scuffed. To fill the gaps between the boards old newspaper was used to create paper mache (sorry, don't know how to do the accent) and my job was to fill all the gaps between the boards. With some sticky paint on top the filler would last a while but inevitably eventually disappeared, must have been a mountain of the stuff under the floor. I may be wrong but as a filler it worked quite well because of the 'give' in the paper mache.

Tony Comber

 

[Deansocial]

bona mix and fill for the gaps