Oak Floor Board Repairs

[jfulltho]

Dear Members

We are exposing a number of hidden original features in our upstairs bathroom which does include the original oak floorboards of varying widths. Unfortunately one of the boards approximately 0.5 m x 0.2 m wide has deteriorated as this use to be an airing cupboard which had the immersion tank in. This has now been removed and I believe that water ingress from heating / domestic pipework in this area (over time) has attributed to this board getting wet. I was considering repairing the damaged board with a reclaimed oak board, although these are really difficult to get hold of, so I was considering replacing the board with green oak. Has anyone repaired an oak floor board with green oak? I am aware that in guidance published by SPAB it does suggest carrying out floor board repairs with timber of a similar age, but this is approximately 300 years old and it is unlikely that I will be able to get an oak board replacement of that age even from a reclaimed yard..... not that easy to find. I am not that keen to remove original historic fabric of the property BUT, we will need to access this end of bathroom when its is finished so leaving the floorboards exposed this need to be repaired as sympathetically as possible. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Many Thanks

 

[livias]

Where are you based? I had no trouble getting old oak floorboards from Womacks in Norfolk though we had to search through a big pile to pick out good ones. They were not desperately expensive either. About 30 pounds per square metre about 10 years ago I seem to remember

When you find some they will be hard as iron so to persuade them to mould to the shape of your floor hold a steam wallpaper stripper on top until they relax

 

[88v8]

Bang on, not wanting to use modern materials.

Agree it should be fairly easy to find old boards 8" wide. Salvage yard - I can think of one about 5 miles away - eBay even. The challenge will be finding the right thickness, but you can always prop it up on slips.
Green oak shrinks and goes on shrinking for a looong time, not suitable for internal joinery not at all at all.

Ivor

PS fantastic idea, wallpaper stripper.

 

[Toby Newell]

Just buy a piece of oak, you will never find 300 year old oak with the correct provenance unless you can actually see the building it is coming out from.

99% of stuff on eBay is a scam, if you can find a good, trustworthy reclamation yard (even the good ones rarely know what they are looking at, I have restored several thousand square metres of period oak flooring over a 25 year period and it's hard for me to tell which century) and buy an 'old' bit, you might get a 100yr old piece.

Any certified 300 year old English oak will already have been snapped up to be sold on for £300 to £500 psqm.

I admire your attention to detail!

To asses the age of oak, like an antique, takes years of practice the first indication is the colour, of the bare stripped wood free from any finishes and / or stains.

The second is the detail of the grain, older wood has more detail, in general and was cut more on a quarter grain so will typically show more waviness and more medullary rays.
Normally the medullary rays are much lighter than the rest of the timber but after 100 years or so these rays darken so this can be a good indicator, after 300 years they are barely lighter and after 500 or 600 years they are the same colour. If I want to age oak timbers I therefore search for a section displaying medullary rays first.

The third is the usage of the timber, wood was used for different things at different times and different species were used at different times. For example English handrails may have been made in elm 420yrs ago, in walnut 350yrs ago and from mahogany from 280yrs ago until present with oak being popular in the last 150 years too.

The fourth is from the dimension of the timber. Floor boards for example were made in different sizes, roughly equating to their age of use.

The fifth are manufacturing techniques and any original artefacts like fixings or pegs. Looking on the reverse of the boards you can sometimes see saw marks, if you know what you are looking for you can identify the difference between pit saw, hand saw, machine saw, hand plane and machine plane marks. This is where you have to be VERY careful, such is the subliminal association of tool marks (either by hand or machine) with age a whole industry is devoted to artificially applying these marks to timber, especially flooring to fake its age. I have been to countless properties where people have been sold period timber, sometimes at considerable cost which, I can see in twenty seconds is fake.

The sixth, if you are buying, is price. Genuine 100yr old oak timbers start at around £100sqm if you are lucky. So if someone offers you some for £30, £40 or £50 psqm then it obviously isn't.

My advice would be seeing as its in a cupboard and seeing as it will be difficult for you to find a certifiable piece of old oak, just buy any old piece of oak that fits.

As Ivor says, green oak probably isn't a good idea for flooring timber unless you want splits and massive gaps and the possibility of considerable warping.

Smiling at the wallpaper stripper!!! Thanks for that. Oak is impressively stubborn and basically it takes centuries to stop moving so steam manipulation is not half as good as with other timbers such as beech. I suspect the steam technique would work only in conjunction with a large applied force (weight) and the subsequent drying out of the timber would have to be very carefully controlled.

Best of luck. I have a 200yr old oak carved banister, a 200yr old Burmese teak block from the V&A and some Victorian, Georgian and Edwardian pine boards but sadly no 300yr old oak.

 

[Lewis Tiffany]

Just seen B&Q are selling wide oak boards looks like good stuff but extremely expensive larger stores only .
Still has the bark on the side . would be ok if you needed
Just a small bit . it rough sawn about 1inch thick .
It next to the chipboard and shelving
They are marketing to make your own rustic furniture or shelving units .

 

[dans]

Personally, I would either repair the original best I could or splice a section of old timber (doesn't actually need to be oak), or replace with an old oak board commonly found at reclaimers.

The think with old oak, is no matter how bad they look, once cleaned, dried and waxed, they're then beautiful! The amount of times I've grabbed an old beam or floorboard, for someone to tell me "you're mad, that looks dreadful", for it then to turn into a beauty lily aged, textured piece of timber with minimal effort...

 

[dans]

If you are near Norwich and you only need a small piece, I have plenty in my yard!!

 

[Zebra]

Hello dans! Haven't seen you in a while!

 

[dans]

Hey zebra! Oh, I keep my eye in occasionally!! Pretty much finished our old farmhouse project now! Well, I say finished, but as you know, there's always something to do!!!

 

[Zebra]

Oh! I know!!