Reclaimed floorboards in Birmingham

[Deejay]

Morning all

My brother in law in Brum is having difficulty finding a supplier for four and a half inch T&G floorboards. They are nominally seven eighths thick.

He needs to cover about two sq. m. in a 1905 house and match the rest of the floor, prior to sanding.

He's gone through the Yellow Pages and visited a couple of yards but can't find what he's looking for.

Anybody up there have any suggestions please?

Cheers

Dave

 

[Tusses]

Has he tried salvage yards ?

Does he want them clean ? or ok to clean/de-nail/treat for worm etc himself ?

I have some I wasn't thinking of selling. But if he is desperate, I'm sure I could sell him a couple of M2. I'd have to check they are T&G though. They might be older than that !
I have no idea what to charge either , but it would be whatever the 'going rate' is. I'd have to investigate.

I'm not far off J3 on the M6. So not too far away.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I'm surprised they're T+G in a 1905 house. That's the same age as ours. I doubt you'd find anything other than simple 6" boards round here.

Is it possible the floor was re-laid at some time in the past?

Anyway, Could you cheat, by grooving with a biscuit jointer and slipping in a loose tongue? IIRC, the tongue is usually about 1/4" thick, and, if you're patching, you'll probably have to lose the tongue on one side of the patch anyway. Also, if you started with reclaimed 6" boards, you could T+G them yourself and still probably miss the usual nail holes.

My biggest concern with new timber would be the colour difference, if it's supposed to be seen. You've a game chance with reclaimed boards of decent age.

 

[Deejay]

Evening all

Yes, he's tried the salvage yards with no success, that's why he phoned. One of the two yards he went to wanted £4 a metre. That's a linear metre, as recovered. That's about forty quid a square metre. The words urine and take spring to mind.

I doubt that the boards are original, but I'm only the messenger.

All he wants is enough reclaimed stuff to cover a couple of square metres to match the rest of the floor.

Failing this, he could take up the rest of the floor (about 18 square metres) , lay new hardwood T&G at about £25 a square metre, flog the old stuff and make a profit.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Dibs-h]

I've found http://www.salvoweb.com useful in the past.

HIH

Dibs

 

[misterfish]

One of the two yards he went to wanted £4 a metre. That's a linear metre, as recovered.

The local salvage yard in Chichester charge £1 per linear metre. You do have to search through piles of the stuff to get what you want but it has had the main floorboard nails removed.

Where we used to live in Somerset had a a much better and wider choice of salvage yards and you could get newly machined boards from old beams as a reasonable price - 'pine' as well as oak.

Misterfish

 

[Deejay]

Thanks for the link Dibs. I'll pass it on.

Misterfish, he may end up widening the search to get what he wants. I am just surprised that he can't get it locally.

Tusses, I might be sending you a PM

Cheers

Dave

 

[Tusses]

Tusses, I might be sending you a PM

Cheers

Dave

I've been and checked, Mine are wider and not T&G , sorry.
Like has been mentioned, 4 1/2 seems narrow for boards of that age !

Also, £4 a linear meter, for the stuff I have (it's "proppa" old ) doesn't sound far off - worth it to me to keep them, as I couldn't get them again !

They are just waiting for the right project

 

[Dibs-h]

Does he have any machining facility (or do you?)

Reason I ask is that I can easily source old beams and have the supplier resaw them down to just over 1". Their saw would deal with the nails and a couple of passes thru a planer\thicknesser (once you'd punched the remnant of the nail out )and you'd have the right width and thickness and it would be old timber. T&G'ing wouldn't be rocket science.

Sometimes one has to get a tad bit inventive.

HIH

Dibs

Edit: Just realised you're in Devon & he's in Brum! :mrgreen:

 

[Deejay]

Morning Dibs

Neither of us have machining facilites, but thanks for the suggestion.

At the end of the day, I think he'll have to bite the bullet and pay £4 a metre for the matching size, or compromise and lay something a bit wider/narrower.

Cheers

Dave