The best laid plans...and floors

[chapel]

Hi all,

An idea i'd like to run past you...

So i'm trying to bring our old 17th century oak floor back to life. It's been covered for years with carpet, below which aluminium sheet and lead had been used to covers gaps between the boards. Goods news in that now its all removed and cleaned its beginning to look nice.

Now, the oak boards are about 12' wide and T&G and in many places the tongue, as such, or is it the groove, has broken away leaving a trough between the boards. Now this wouldn't be matter so much, but we have a young'en and there are plenty of gaps, ranging from a few mm to a few cm which attract fingers and toes.

So, the plan:
Buy some thin solid real wood flooring in an aged oak close to the existing floor in colour.
Cut thin strips of above, in both width and depth, to match the troughs between boards (what with i don't know...)
Tidy up troughs so that they are regular
Glue strips into troughs

What do you experienced PPF'ers think?

Paul

 

[robgil]

Why not just use strips of oak to repair the floor? Do you have any photos?

 

[chapel]

Hi Rob,
I guess if i could source some thinnish oak strips and age/stain/wax then yes i could do that. Will have a chat to the local timber merchant. I've seen some of the aged oak flooring in the big DIY sheds though which would be a pretty close match, and with a wax would fade into the floor completely.
Will get some pics done - know you guys love 'em
Paul

 

[Penners]

the plan:
Buy some thin solid real wood flooring in an aged oak close to the existing floor in colour.
Cut thin strips of above, in both width and depth, to match the troughs between boards (what with i don't know...)
Tidy up troughs so that they are regular
Glue strips into troughs

What do you experienced PPF'ers think?

That's a fairly standard way of approaching the problem, Paul.

One word of warning, though - glue only one side of the fillet strips. If you glue both sides, given that a good wood glue joint is usually stronger than the wood itself, you run the risk that any shrinkage of the boards in dry weather could split either your fillet or the floorboards that it's glued to. If you glue just one side of the fillet, you allow it to 'float' with the contraction and expansion of the board.

 

[masochists-r-us]

Think your plan is sound as you're unlikely to impact existing historic fabric.From what you say, in area terms you're not very short of what you need so would it be worth considering buying reclaim ? I know it's very expensive, but if you don't need much, most reclaim yards usually have small supplies of very old oak planks.Would also love to see a picture if you could oblige.

 

[chapel]

Here we go wood fans!
You can just make our where the T&G has failed leaving the lower part and the trough/gap
Palul

 

[88v8]

To cut the strips, yes, I know this is Amazon US, but these saws are sold over here as well. Try some good tool shops. Sharksaw make various pullsaws, finer and coarser.
This one will cut very fine, but there is one that will cut end-grain oak 1mm thick.
http://www.amazon.com/Shark-Corp-10-2440-Fine-Cut/dp/B0000224U3

Make your strips slightly wedge-shape, tap them in and plane off flush. Planing without gouging the boards could be tricky. I think there is a plane with a convex blade for flooring work. Try Axminster.

Ivor

 

[Penners]

So that's where I dropped my 50p. I've been hunting high and low for it.

88v8 has suggested a good choice of handsaw for cutting your fillets, but speaking for myself I wouldn't consider hand cutting that quantity of thin strips. Have you got a bandsaw (for shaped fillets) or a table saw (for straight fillets)? In either case, you'll need to fit a ripping blade.

 

[chapel]

No band or table saw i'm afraid. Love one, but can't really justify it at the moment.
One of the reasons for thinking about making strips from thin "aged oak' real wood flooring from a shed, is that I could cut it 'artisan style' using my Fein Multimaster with the circular blade. I know its not perfect for cutting long straight strips, but I think it'll do a good enough job considering the strips will need to be a little wobby anyway...
I'll be using the plunge blade to tidy up the troughs too.


Paul

 

[chapel]

Just thought i'd let you know...

After a few attempts at cutting strips I've decided to follow Toby's advice from another post....
It was just too difficult cutting strips in both varying width and varying depth to fit in the troughs between the boards. Where the floor is drunk it also made pinning/glueing them pretty awkward.

So after making sure the boards are nice and fixed, i'm using a two part resin filler to go into the gaps and then painting/dying/waxing to get a close as possible match to the adjoining boards. Seems to be working - and it is very difficult to tell the repairs.

Paul