Victorian Pine floor boards

[monmaison2009]

Hi

I am restoring the floor in my property, it has original Victorian pine floor boards however the previous owners have made repairs to the plumbing, heating and electrics and have cut the boards where it was convenient for them. The floor looks quite messy and I would like to purchase around 41 sqm of original (antique) Victorian pine floor boards with a length of 4.5 to 5.5 meters and a width of 17cm.

if you could recommend where to get it from?
Thanks

 

[MdB]

Pford45 thought his floor needed replacing due to all the cuts and joins in it (If I remember correctly - apologies if I'm wrong). He was persuaded to keep his current floor and look how it turned out:
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11085

Are you sure it can't be patched / repaired?

 

[monmaison2009]

Pford45 thought his floor needed replacing due to all the cuts and joins in it (If I remember correctly - apologies if I'm wrong). He was persuaded to keep his current floor and look how it turned out:
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11085

Are you sure it can't be patched / repaired?

Hi

Just followed the link in your post and also had a look at the video in youtube, his floor was in a lot better condition of repair than mine. I will post some pictures so you can have a look.

Thanks

 

[benmc]

If you must then try here

http://www.salvo.co.uk/forsale.html

or ebay

I have used Mark from PHOENIX RECLAIM, South Yorkshire, UK. Tel: 07795820336
Used him twice for both parquet blocks and skirting and was very happy both times.

Ben

 

[Penners]

monmaison2009 - as benmc has suggested, architectural reclamation yards are probably your best source of old floorboards. You should find several in your Yellow Pages.

But do make sure that you patronise yards who subscribe to the Salvo code. This is a safeguard against buying materials from dodgy sources.

http://www.salvo.co.uk/salcoinfo.html

 

[monmaison2009]

But do make sure that you patronise yards who subscribe to the Salvo code. This is a safeguard against buying materials from dodgy sources.
http://www.salvo.co.uk/salcoinfo.html

Hi,

I have not heard of Salvo before (I am quite new to all this), however there seems to be a lot of internet sites that sell reclaimed materilas including wood. Could you explain how the Salvo code works? Is it applicable to all reclaimed materials?

Here are some pictures on the floor I would like to restore( in total around 42 sqm)

Random cust to access the joists below

Cuts to allow for previous heating/ gas pipes

Different color boards where they have been replaced with new ones (here in a yellowish color)

 

[Nigel Watts]

Mon ami

Your floor looks eminently restorable to me. Mine was in at least as bad condition, and if your house is constructed like mine the floor boards will go right under the stud walls making them well nigh impossible to remove.

Having some boards of a different colour, or using new wood to replace or repair is not a problem if you use a skilled finisher. Toby Newell, a regular poster here, is one such expert. He did a superb job on my floor, staining all the boards to match, doing a very light sand which preserved the floors' character and finishing it with a french polish and wax. I managed to find some new wide Russian pine boards (from Moss & Co in Hammersmith) which I fitted myself before handing over to Toby.

 

[monmaison2009]

Hi Nigel

It is nice to see your post again I do not thing I have stub walls, all of the walls around this area are original. The pictures I posted are only a small indication of the type of problems I have in the floor, I think I will have to replace the ones that have holes in them. I have a couple of questions if you do not mind me asking:
As I will have to replace some boards (around 30%) and I have quite wide gaps between them, do you thing it will be better to relay the floor rather than work around making them fit?

In some areas the skirting does not reach the floor having a 2cm more less gap, any ideas on how to fix that as I would rather not remove the original skirting

You have stained your floor, I guess to make it look even, does it require a lot of maintenance? Could you post a picture so I can see the result?

Many thanks

 

[Penners]

By the way, monmaison2009, I am well-known for my pedantry. So, do forgive me, but shouldn't you be mamaison2009?

Sorry - try not to hate me.

 

[Schoolmarm]

:lol:

 

[JoceAndChris]

I think lifting an antique floor and relaying it sounds like a complete nightmare. It could lead to a lot more damage to your boards. It's hard to imagine how a shabby old floor with cuts and damage can be transformed but it's all in the finish - have look at my amateur efforts on page 5 of this thread:

http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10707&hilit=which+shellac+sealer&start=60

New bits let in can be stained to match and look OK. I'd also recommend you use rugs and runners where possible to warm the whole thing up and cover bad sections.

If you're really bothered about the gaps you could have splines made to fill them- slivers of wood stained to match. I'm leaving mine as I think it would look wrong. The drawing room floor here still has some of the 19th century newspaper filler in the gaps, I keep pulling it out and finding the cricket scores from the 1890s! Covered in wax, it's impossible to see it's folded newspaper.

There's also a product called "gapseal" which is just a bit of rigid plastic folded in half - that's OK for smaller gaps and again the bit above it gets wax glooped in.

http://www.gapseal.co.uk/

Your floor looks like it's got great potential to me too.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I think I will have to replace the ones that have holes in them.

I think new little bits let in looks so cute and is more of a sympathetic restoration.

 

[Feltwell]

By the way, monmaison2009, I am well-known for my pedantry. So, do forgive me, but shouldn't you be mamaison2009?

Or, if you're going for the posh hotel look, malmaison??

Always thought that was a very odd name for a hotel.

 

[Pford75]

Your floor doesn't look any worse than ours did before restoration. Our floor had 3 different widths of board and different colours....they were tinted to match and the end result is amazing.

There were a few small repairs and we had lots of loose boards. I couldn't have acheived the results myself....it really was worth paying a professional (not least because their equipment meant much less dust than on my own attempts at sanding other floors.)

Before you spend money on reclaimed boards, I would encourage you to speak with a professional (we used Toby Newell from this forum)..they may save you money.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I so agree. I couldn't deal with the dust either, so did a wet scrub with wood soap ( actually 3 days of scrubbing, using an ordinary scrubbing brush and wire wool and a scraper to remove flecks of paint).

This method isn't generally recommended because water can warp wood, however I must say I didn't really notice any problems of this kind and the satisfaction of removing all that grime was immense.

 

[monmaison2009]

Your floor doesn't look any worse than ours did before restoration. Our floor had 3 different widths of board and different colours....they were tinted to match and the end result is amazing.

Hi Pford75
Could you post some pictures?

Any advice on how to tackle the skirting boards problems (picture above)

Many thanks

 

[monmaison2009]

Your floor doesn't look any worse than ours did before restoration. Our floor had 3 different widths of board and different colours....they were tinted to match and the end result is amazing.

Hi Pford75
Could you post some pictures?

Any advice on how to tackle the skirting boards problems (picture above)

Many thanks

 

[monmaison2009]

By the way, monmaison2009, I am well-known for my pedantry. So, do forgive me, but shouldn't you be mamaison2009?

Sorry - try not to hate me.

Hi, actually it should be "a la maison" or "chez moi" however those addresses where taken

 

[Nigel Watts]

Your house and mine seem very similar. I also had large gaps between skirting and floor, caused by the shrinkage of wide skirting boards.

The easiest way to deal with this which I have seen used in neighbours houses is to fix a strip of wood three inches wide or so to bottom of the existing skirting. I dont like this solution because it changes the profile of the skirting.

I used a different approach which was more time consuming but looked better. I carefully shaped a strip of wood to fit the gap very closely, glued the top edge then slipped it in. I then put very thin wedges between the new piece of wood and the floorboard to force the glued edge to stick to the bottom of the skirting. These wedges comprised things like the tip of a screwdriver or the blade of a stripping knife. When the glue was set the wedges were removed and the piece of wood was planed/sanded level with any irregularities patched with filler.

My house is a two bay wide terrace and my original ground floor floorboards run the entire width of the house. They were clearly laid before the walls between the hall and the drawing/dining rooms were built. These walls, being framed in timber then lath and plastered are known technically as "stud" walls - the timber framing being known also as studwork. This is what I meant by the floorboards going under the stud walls. It means that no single original board, other then those in line with the doors from the hall, could ever be lifted in one piece or completely removed, even if the skirtings were removed first (another thing which is best avoided). Depending where the joists are, it can also make it quite tricky to fit new boards close up the the stud walls. The point I was making was that lifting your original boards to relay them or lay some new ones would be very tricky and potentially very messy - another reason to work with what you have.

 

[Penners]

Or, if you're going for the posh hotel look, malmaison??

Always thought that was a very odd name for a hotel.

Quite so - not least because 'mal' is an adverb.


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