Resawn floorboards

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SDev

Member
Joined
30 Jan 2021
Messages
12
Reaction score
12
Location
Kent
I have a question about the installation of wood flooring. We have recently renovated our 1902 costal home. It was freezing cold with no draughtproofing or insulation so we put in underfloor and roof insulation, underfloor heating, external wall insulation, airtightness and mechanical ventilation heat recovery. The house now is an even 20C with 40-50% humidity maintained, so all good there. Unfortunately, in the process, we had to take up all the lovely original floorboards on the ground floor. They were set aside for reuse but many were ruined and we now have about half of what we need. We have tried to source replacement boards (22mm Baltic pine) but the only way we can get these is to use re-sawn reclaimed joists which are obviously very expensive and not the same thing at all. The original plan was to stick the 22mm boards onto the structural deck, which is made of a proprietary 22mm routed chipboard for the ufh pipes covered, as per manufacturers instructions, with screwed and glued 6mm ply. My current idea is to resaw and plane the original 22mm boards into 2 no 8mm boards then glue these onto the plywood deck, effectively making an engineered floor. I have to glue to avoid hitting ufh pipes. The surface layer has no structural role because of the chipboard and ply so 8mm should be ok. Warping is obviously a risk but the boards have been acclimatised in the house for 6-8 weeks to minimise this and prompt glueing to the floor should also help. I get one go at this so I am anxious to avoid big mistakes! What do the forum think of this possibly crazy idea?
 
Crazy idea!
Just buy new floorboards. Either have a tiny step of a few mm where they meet the old, which you could fair in to make it an inconspicuous slight change of level. Or bring the joists up to level by laying on thin ply strips to make up the difference. Ply is available in lots of thin sizes.
Tip - lay your new boards but without nails - leave for 6 months and cramp them all up again and nail. Takes up all the shrinkage. You could lay Protec or similar to keep them clean during the first phase
PS don't glue or screw any of it, use nails - they allow a bit of movement and are less noticeable than screws, much easier and much cheaper.
 
Last edited:
Do you have picture of the original boards.

I know a firm who would machine to you spec from swedish pine if your interested.

Cheers James
 
Thanks, that's great. I will send one on. I guess Swedish pine is the same as baltic pine which the reclamation guys say was all used up by the Victorians?
 
Thanks, that's great. I will send one on. I guess Swedish pine is the same as baltic pine which the reclamation guys say was all used up by the Victorians?
Swedish pine IS baltic pine. It's imported via the Baltic sea. There used to be Kara Sea pine, Archangel pine etc (better quality from further north) but the distinctions are blurred, Swedish being the big one, followed by Russian.
 
personally, you have already moved away from traditional with UFH. I would use a modern engineered wood or laminate floor designed for UFH as a floating floor.
 
personally, you have already moved away from traditional with UFH. I would use a modern engineered wood or laminate floor designed for UFH as a floating floor.
Well yes but interestingly I've noticed that you can feel the warmth under bare feet where our CH pipes are under our new traditional redwood floor boards. Don't see why UF wouldn't work throughout. The boards would dry out to near zero so would have to go in dry to start with - or be dried by not nailing as described above.
Has anybody tried UFH under normal T&G boards?
 
Thanks for these helpful comments. Just to say, you can put ufh under normal boards, we have done this on the first floor using pipes clipped to joists and it works well with no warping or splits after 2 months.
 
Nothing to do with woodworking but on my screen further up is an advert for ECCO shoes with big discounts - Complete scam but looks very professional. The shoes never arrive but they send a pair of copy Rayban sunglasses so they have a signed delivery slip or POD. When you query it they say "ran out of the shoes so we substituted". You then start a procedure to get your money back which I think a proportion of people just give up. Happened to a mate of mine.
 
Many thanks for the heads up on that scam Robbo, they really are both cunning and clever,,trouble is were slowly edging towards a situation where we cannot use the internet,,,even been cases of people refusing to believe the covid jab booking calls are scams (which some might be!!) where does it end though?
 
Nothing to do with woodworking but on my screen further up is an advert for ECCO shoes with big discounts - Complete scam but looks very professional. The shoes never arrive but they send a pair of copy Rayban sunglasses so they have a signed delivery slip or POD. When you query it they say "ran out of the shoes so we substituted". You then start a procedure to get your money back which I think a proportion of people just give up. Happened to a mate of mine.
I’ve recently fallen for this, not from that advert but from a website looked legit, I ordered shoes and got a scarf!!!! But they have your card details and all sorts of transactions were tried, lucky for me I paid with an account I only keep a bit of money in just in case this happens. Uber eats was popular. If this has happen to you I would keep a close eye on your bank acc. And maybe block it and get a new card. 😔
 
Last edited:
Many thanks for the heads up on that scam Robbo, they really are both cunning and clever,,trouble is were slowly edging towards a situation where we cannot use the internet,,,even been cases of people refusing to believe the covid jab booking calls are scams (which some might be!!) where does it end though?
The whole covid pandemic was a scam. Fake vaccines and unnecessary lockdowns.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top