Victorian Pine floor boards

[Feltwell]

Has anyone used any of these products? I'm toying with the idea of filling the gaps between the floorboards, more because of the amount of muck that gets trapped in there rather than draughts (my floor is insulated underneath).

http://www.stopg-p.co.uk/index.html

http://www.draughtex.co.uk/?gclid=C...ny.co.uk/acatalog/About_Old_Pine_Slivers.html

I know you can use papier mache but I was looking at alternatives.....

 

[Feltwell]

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.


P. Edant

Dear Mr Edant,

My ability to speak the French language is very limited, but does "mal" not mean sick or ill? In which case "sick house" seems a very poor name indeed for a hotel. Especially a posh one.

Yours sincerely etc etc.....

 

[Schoolmarm]

Has anyone used any of these products? I'm toying with the idea of filling the gaps between the floorboards, more because of the amount of muck that gets trapped in there rather than draughts (my floor is insulated underneath).

http://www.stopg-p.co.uk/index.html

http://www.draughtex.co.uk/?gclid=C...ny.co.uk/acatalog/About_Old_Pine_Slivers.html

I know you can use papier mache but I was looking at alternatives.....

You still end up with gaps trapping dirt with the first product because you are meant to push it right down, out of sight.

 

[Pford75]

I would be happy to post pics...but I'm in the US on business for the next few weeks

 

[Penners]

Dear Mr Edant,

My ability to speak the French language is very limited, but does "mal" not mean sick or ill?

I commend your observation, which is vaguely correct. Mal is normally an adverb, meaning "badly". Hence, je vais mal is used to mean "I am sick", but strictly means "I go badly".

I think the adjective that you're thinking of is malade, which translates exactly as "sick" or "ill".

Mal can also be a masculine noun, meaning "evil", and I believe that it is used adjectivally in the composite word, malmaison: "evil house".

Now, write out 100 times, "I'd rather bash my head on a brick wall than get into a pedantry contest with Penners."

 

[monmaison2009]

Hi Nigel

I very much think so too that your property and mine are similar, mine is a wide victorian terrace built on a crescent circa 1850.

I like your idea of fitting a piece of wood rather than fix a strip of wood. I will go with your idea. You also mentioned that you have stained your floor, any suggestions ? if you could post a picture that will be great.

Thanks very much for all your advice

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Dear Mr Edant,

My ability to speak the French language is very limited, but does "mal" not mean sick or ill?

I commend your observation, which is vaguely correct. Mal is normally an adverb, meaning "badly". Hence, je vais mal is used to mean "I am sick", but strictly means "I go badly".

I think the adjective that you're thinking of is malade, which translates exactly as "sick" or "ill".

Mal can also be a masculine noun, meaning "evil", and I believe that it is used adjectivally in the composite word, malmaison: "evil house".

Now, write out 100 times, "I'd rather bash my head on a brick wall than get into a pedantry contest with Penners."

Not wishing to get into the playground fight over French grammar (and I am very impressed at how far this particular thread has strayed from the subject of floorboards!), but surely the more obvious error in evilhouse's nom de plume is that it is actually 2010 and not 2009???

Incidentally, Penners, can something be "vaguely correct"? Partially correct, almost correct, largely correct, I would agree with. But vaguely correct? Surely not! The concept of correctness suggests to me a definitive precision that is entirely at odds with the notion of vagueness. :wink:

Ooh look, here come the fifth-formers to duff me up for being such a pain! :shock:

 

[Flyfisher]

"vaguely correct" reminded me of a similar thing from A-level chemistry days: "precisely about".

"precisely about" was a term used when making up a solution of something-or-other when the absolute strength wasn't too important but it was essential to know the final solution strength to a high degree of precision. Rather like putting "about" 10 litres of fuel into a car but "precisely" measuring the actual amount to three decimal places.

Hmm. On re-reading all that I'm not sure it's quite the same thing as "vaguely correct" after all . . . or perhaps it is?

(I'll help you fight off the fifth-formers FW )

 

[Penners]

can something be "vaguely correct"?

It can in one instance only. That is, when you're trying to tell someone that they're wrong, but trying to let them down lightly.

 

[Penners]

I'm not sure it's quite the same thing as "vaguely correct" after all . . . or perhaps it is?

That sounds like a definite maybe to me.

 

[Flyfisher]

Possibly. :lol:

 

[ilona73]

Well be thankful you have lovely floorboards at all you could always send them to me..!!... when we moved in and lifted the bathroom carpet can you imagine our horror when we discovered ply!! hahaha . we haven't replaced it yet its on the to do list as we work round room by room although, i must admit your foot does in down in one part where its obviously got wet and rotted . Thankfully its an inconspicuous place where one wouldn't normally tread.

 

[Penners]

Don't be too hasty in ripping up the plywood, ilona. If you were to decide that the bathroom floor is to be tiled, you might be glad of a nice rigid material on which to lay the tiles.

Even if the existing ply isn't thick enough, you could always lay more ply on top of it.

 

[ilona73]

Don't be too hasty in ripping up the plywood, ilona. If you were to decide that the bathroom floor is to be tiled, you might be glad of a nice rigid material on which to lay the tiles.

Even if the existing ply isn't thick enough, you could always lay more ply on top of it.

Yes! you have a point there my dear man. I am holding back for now too much to do elsewhere and at the moment it isnt causing a problem

 

[monmaison2009]

Hi guys, going back to the post, victorian pine floor restoration... has anyone of you stained the floor, can you post pictures and explain the process? Shall I sand the floor, would that not destroy the patina?

Thanks!

yours truly chezmoi2010

 

[Pford75]

Our floor was 'tinted' which I guess is just another word for 'stained'. This was primarily because there was more than 1 type of board in the room and we were trying to match the colours.

The floor was fixed (ie. nailed), sanded, filled/repaired, then tinted and then lacquered. Sorry that I don't know the exact details/products, but Toby Newell did it for us. I have sanded/waxed other floors in the house before...but nothing gets close to this finish. If he doesn't see this thread, might be worth PM'ing him

 

[JoceAndChris]

Congratulations monmaison! You just asked the two most difficult questions about doing up your wooden floor! I second the PM-ing of Toby Newell.

There's a whole wealth of opinion about this. I hate sanding with a passion, so on my second floor (19th C) I scrubbed instead, which didn't destroy any patina at all. Did you see the pics in the thread I linked to on the first page? The second floor went much better than the first.

On my first floor I hired one of those runaway giant floor sanding machines. I was unable to use it, and I've caused some bad damage on the boards in the bathroom - which doesn't matter too much as they'll get covered up. My dad used it on the floor in the music room (1930s boards), it created an unbelievable amount of dust and destroyed all patina. As he's a lot stronger than me he was able to control the machine so those scoring marks didn't occur, but even so, I really don't recommend this and nor would most conservationists I'm sure. If you want to sand you should do it by hand, or at least by using a smaller machine. Avoiding a patchy effect is quite hard however.

After we'd taken off all the dirt and patina I stained the floor using a water-based stain- Brown Mahogany by Mann's. (you just paint it on quickly with a big brush, being careful never to go over what you've already done, nor allowing it to pool anywhere, and removing excess with a rag) Then I applied the floor wax, which, being a complete novice I made a pig's ear of, applying far too much, and not taking it off quickly enough. The result was that the wax slipped right down into the grain sending the boards white - it was virtually impossible to remove it. I spent days with wire wool rubbing it out, and ended up with a trapped nerve in my shoulder! If I'd sealed the floor prior to waxing this wouldn't have happened.

I've since regretted staining that floor and realised you get a much better effect with just sanding/cleaning, sealing, and waxing. There are masses of products available, you need to decide what you like the look of and how hard-wearing you need it to be.

Here's some pics of the finished floor that had the sanding and staining:

You see how the colour's quite variable, which is why many people are against staining.

 

[JoceAndChris]

PS That baby bunny did get rescued after the photo.

 

[AMc]

has anyone of you stained the floor, can you post pictures and explain the process? Shall I sand the floor, would that not destroy the patina?

I'm not an expert, but this is what I did. It took a fair amount of time but I'm pleased with the results.

We had a weird problem that the boards had previously been sanded, stained and sealed with a plastic varnish but leaving large areas in the middle of the floor untreated (and covered by rugs when we viewed). After we had them lifted, insulated and underfloor heating installed I needed to refinish.

First I hoovered, cleaned them with mop and bucket, then crawled all over the floor punching down any nails that stand tall and pulling out any carpet tacks etc. that would shred a sanding belt.

I sanded them back with a Makita handheld belt sander borrowed from my carpenter (about £200 in B&Q) using a lot of belts from Screwfix. The dust extraction on the Makita was so much better than previous hand sanders I would buy one to do another floor - it also went all day without complaint. I used a hand held Bosch 1/3rd sheet sander to do the edges and details I couldn't get the Makita into - again buy a roll of not the cheapest sand paper from screwfix for less than precut sheets in B&Q etc.
I started with with some 60 to get the varnish off, then 80 grit then going down to 120. In retrospect the 120 makes the floor very smooth and is probably too smooth for safety you could stop at 80 or 100.
I then applied a very, very thin coat of Osmo Colour Foundation in Dark Oak (from http://www.vanillawoodfloors.co.uk/) using a 100mm brush. It's very important to brush it right out to the point you feel you may be over brushing or you get brush marks which show up after it's dried.

That was followed by 3 coats of Osmo PolyX hard wax oil (matt) again applied incredibly thinly with a 100mm brush.
Both Osmo products are expensive but they go a very, very long way.

As the boards are full of dents and scratches that can't be sanded out the boards still look old, but there is a uniform colour which is important to us. Heavy handed sanding will destroy all the age and you'll regret it, but in our case we weren't able to just clean and keep.

 

[Penners]

Here's some pics of the finished floor that had the sanding and staining

Those are NOT pictures of a floor. They're pictures of a fluffy puddy and a cuddly bunny.

You're so transparent. :wink: