Edwardian kitchen floor

[JBean]

We have just bought an Edwardian house (1905) and are putting in a different kitchen. There is barely any heating in the room (just one tiny radiator) so we are looking at ways of warming it up. Bigger radiators, plinth heating and retro-fitted underfloor heating are all options.

The floor is pine planks, probably original and full of gaps and gouges, with some patches of new planks. It's been recently stained so the new planks merge in. The off-shot has been recently tiled in black and white but is badly scratched and only runs to the cupboard doors, then it is just plywood, so we will need to retile this area. It is currently slightly higher than the pine planks. The living room has a (lovely) new herringbone oak floor, which is also slightly higher than the pine kitchen.

We'll need to replace the off-shot part of the kitchen floor anyway. A tradesman has suggested putting thin electric underfloor heating mats on top of the existing pine planks (and the plywood in the off-shot) and then tiling the floor. I don't know if this is sensible or even possible. And then we would need to think what sort of tiles might suit the character of the house. I've read that Edwardian kitchen floors were often quarry tiles so that might work, but it wouldn't be authentic in this particular house...

You can tell I am all at sea over this! My first thought was to keep as much as possible of the floor because part of it is old, just retile the off-shot and have a big new radiator. But putting in a new kitchen does mean if want to change and / or heat the floor, we should do it now...

Any advice or thoughts very much appreciated!

 

[bennoa1]

How big is the room? Without knowing detail I'd go bigger radiator and leave the floor as much as you can. Is it north facing? Assume you have other rads - how big are these and do they heat the room. Try and leave doors open for circulation. Is it listed?

 

[JBean]

Thanks for the reply. The kitchen is about 3m by 3.5m, plus the off-shot, which is 1.8m by 0.75m. The kitchen flows through into the bigger dining room (which has the same pine floor and two more radiators). It's west-facing I think with lots of windows. And no it's not listed.

I think if the off-shot had the same pine planks, we'd leave it, but given we need to re-tile that area anyway, it makes us wonder about doing all the kitchen, or even all the kitchen and dining room. Especially as the pine is not in great condition, with a dark brown stain and lots of damage and wear.

 

[kreyszig]

damage and wear is a feature 'round these parts, also known as 'patina' dark brown stained pine is in keeping with the age of the property (as are quarry tiles)
i'd keep the wooden boards, and look at plugging any large gaps. Maybe look at putting boards down in the off-shot instead?

 

[malcolm]

The decision would be much easier if you live with the place as it is for maybe a year and then make the changes. I had all sorts of ideas when I first bought my place, but by living with it for a while I got to know what works, what doesn't, and what actually needs doing. A small radiator in the corner of the kitchen turns out to work just fine for me - the other half doesn't want it hot in there if the oven is going to be on.

I would avoid electric heating if there is any alternative. I've installed an energy monitor to understand my constantly increasing electricity bills which now match the gas bill. It turns out there is so much junk that uses just a few amps all the time and the thought of adding heating to all that makes me cringe.

 

[bennoa1]

Picture would be useful here I think. You should be able to get replacement boards to match - check on f-bay as some are a good deal. I'd be concerned over wooden boards in a kitchen to be honest - you really need a hard surface for spills.

 

[plasticpigeon]

I don't really know the layout of your house, but I've seen many turn of the century houses where there is a rear reception room as it is called now, perhaps called a kitchen at one time, that was a sort of utilitarian living room as I understand it, with a scullery out back which is where food prep and washing and other dirty stuff went on. As I'm no historian I'm not absolutely sure where the actual cooking happened, but I think the cooking may have happened in the "kitchen" on a range, and anything dirty that used hot water was done in the very utilitarian scullery which would have had a copper (water heater) and sink. This would explain the solid floor in the back (scullery) which would have been quarry tiled, and wooden flooring in the larger room. Floor boards can be very gappy, and as there should be decent ventialtion underneath, all the gaps can add up to a large area, even as much as leaving a door open. It should be possible to plug the gaps between boards. There are products on the market to do this. One is an expanding foam string, that is made if the same stuff that expanding industrial ear plugs are made of. Squash it put it in the gap and it expands to fill it. Great as it is totally reversible. If much of your floor is ok than it is possible to patch in. Your local wood yard will be able to plane planks to exactly the right size to fit. Thety will be too bright to begin with but will mellow down. I would want to put quarries in the back though. I'm not a fan of underfloor heating in a domestic scenario, as it only really works well in places that need constant heating. this is because the floor slab is so massive that it takes a lot of energy to heat and takes ages to cool down, meaning that if teh room needs heating only at certain times of day it is not very efficient.

 

[JBean]

Thanks for the further thoughts. I know 'patina' is good but we have big recent gouges where the last owners dragged out their US-style fridge freezer. It is difficult to feel too attached to them! But I guess they will become mellow and part of the house's history in time...

I think we are moving away from the idea of underfloor heating as too disruptive, inefficient and expensive. Hubby is concerned about the spills and other problems with boards in a kitchen, but they are stained so not too much will show, and I'm interested in the idea of some sort of reversible gap-filler - plasticpigeon, can you give me a name or a link so we can track this down?

It was an artisan's house originally, so not sure how many servants they would have had, if any, but it's quite possible that the off-shot was a sort of scullery for mucky jobs and never had a wooden floor. Maybe patching the boards where they are and quarry tiles in the off-shot is a good way to go.

BTW I can completely see Malcolm's point about living in the house for a year before making changes. It was just that the kitchen was laid out in a way that didn't work at all for us, and would have required us to buy like-for-like big appliances. Plus it needs a new boiler, which means new pipes through the kitchen anyway. As we have a few weeks before we need to move in, we thought, let's "just" get the kitchen done...

 

[JBean]

For the filler, do you mean something like Draughtex or StopGap? Sorry if I'm not supposed to use trade names on here, I am new to all this!

 

[plasticpigeon]

Hello JBean

Yes those 2 are the ones I have seen. I haven't used either but I much prefer the idea of draughtex. I do intend to use such a product in my house but haven't got around to it yet!!!

 

[mardinor]

The other option for gap filling is pre-cut tapered wood wedges that you tap in then cut off flush. More effort but probably better looking and longer lasting. Haven't personally used them but remember them being mentioned on here previously

Just google 'wood floor slivers'

 

[Roger H]

The building isn’t listed and the floor sounds indifferent. I would vouch for wet underfloor heating under stone flags but in this instance, would wet ufh on timber not be an option?

Lifting the present floor for reuse, and then insulating properly beneath with ufh above, then boards back down would be my suggestion.

 

[JBean]

Rather belatedly, here are some photos - one of the floor boards and one showing the off-shot, which appears to be tiled on concrete, rather than ply as I had thought....

Any further views welcome - do the boards look like they might be original, or at least fairly old? Are they worth saving or (as hubby thinks) probably just stained modern timber from Wickes...?

 

[plasticpigeon]

My tuppence worth is that they don't look very old. They are quite narrow too. I'd expect old boards to be at least 6" across.

 

[Feltwell]

Any further views welcome - do the boards look like they might be original, or at least fairly old? Are they worth saving or (as hubby thinks) probably just stained modern timber from Wickes...?]

Yep - they're modern boards that have been stained. Sorry!

 

[JBean]

No need to apologise. We are just trying to get clear what we need to conserve and what is 'up for grabs.'

 

[angrybird]

I agree that they are modern boards On old boards one would expect lots of patina,gaps and some hand forged nail heads peeping through.In my floorboards case quite a few woodworm trails too! (Which I like)

 

[bennoa1]

Agree looking at the picture that they are modern and stained. Can you see if they are a modern tongue and groove, ie the tongue or groove in the centre of the board? Also look at the nails - they look like clout head galvanised to me - again modern.

 

[Toby Newell]

Little shrinkage, no iron stains, no oblong holes where the original cut brad nails would have been, just modern, wrong round wire nails, wide growth rings, no convoluted grain around the knots, modern fast grown timber. Badly stained.

 

[JBean]

Toby, I am sorry you think they are quite so horrible, as we have decided to keep them. Any advice on how to improve the staining would be appreciated.

We will be putting brick-bond quarry tiles in the off-shot.