A labour of love - restoring old woodblock parquet

[Jacob]

Looks really good! Nice to see stuff recycled.
How viable could it be to make up your own blocks with off-cuts or by recycling other boards, with a good thicknesser planer and TS?

 

[imageel]

You could apply this technique to any materials you have to hand or can source. Obviously the workflow would need to be adjusted to suite but bear in mind with the size blocks I ended up with 10 sq m is 665 individual blocks - i.e. a lot of repetitive work so the workflow is important to get right!
In my case it took a couple of months of trying different techniques to achieve an optimal workflow and tbh a lot of the faffing was around the non-obvious challenge of logistics -
I only have a 4 x 5m workshop and it's pretty cramped with a 10in planer thicknesser, 6in joiner, Kity bandsaw, massive 1m2 spindle moulder (bought on these forums from Wallace) large woodworking bench, metalworking bench, metal lathe, 6 in table saw so in reprocessing these blocks I needed sufficient space to have an infeed and an outfeed stack + free working space and some for safety.
So in my case this limited me to processing stacks of around 166 blocks or ~2.5sq m and I also required floorspace to enable me to stack the blocks on the floor side-by-side so that I could coat with paint stripper, cover with clingfilm and leave overnight before cleaning off all the crud.
For sure re-purposing another source material would negate this constraint, however ultimately space or lack thereof would limit your manageable batch size.

 

[Jake]

What was your bitumen like? I've seen some that is really nasty and thick looking, but the ones I used for this ( Woodblock floor | UKworkshop.co.uk) had a thin and crispy coating which was really easy to scrape off with Bahco scrapers and a chisel ground down to size at the tip for the groove.

 

[imageel]

I have blocks from 3 different sources, - lifted from the original house + 2 ebay purchases and they are pretty variable,. One of the ebay lots were mixed sizes, containing maybe 25sq m of blocks matching the size of the originals in the house and the rest were a longer but similar width variant that I've used for the borders. TBH amongst them all there's huge variability, some have fairly thin 1-2mm and others 4 or more mm of bitumen with concrete from the oversite attached, so some I pre-prepped by applying some heat from a torch and scraping as much as i could off prior to running through the thicknesser.
I discovered to my cost what happens when HSS blades hit concrete...
Also all of these blocks are plain with no tongue or groove, so sides were easy aside from the incredibly abrasive dirt encrusted lacquer on some.

 

[Jake]

That pre-prep was definitely the worst bit for me, and yours was a ton worse with all the size variations - really nice result and hats off for the perseveration, it's a great look well worth it when finished..

 

[baldkev]

Good job, looks fab.

defects under the old varnish like this one that appears to have a dark water stain on it, so prepared to chop it out and replace -

Get some oxalic acid, it usually removes stains and weathering

 

[imageel]

What was your bitumen like? I've seen some that is really nasty and thick looking, but the ones I used for this ( Woodblock floor | UKworkshop.co.uk) had a thin and crispy coating which was really easy to scrape off with Bahco scrapers and a chisel ground down to size at the tip for the groove.

Just re-read your post and noticed you'd recommended Snickers flooring trousers and their bean-bag knee pads - after some independent research I too chose those - and I concur they are brilliant!!

 

[imageel]

After a bit of a clear-up in the garden I started to have a sort out of the area to be laid with the remaining prepped blocks, the area is open-plan and covers a total of 55sq m encompassing a living room, sun lounge and a kitchen. I only have around 14 sq m of blocks prepped, but need to lay these such that I have room to start processing more of the 'raw' blocks. This view encompasses the approximate area they will cover with the prepped blocks stacked in the middle -

In the back, standing against a wall is a 2.5m length of solid oak kitchen worktop with a cutout to accept a flush fitting induction hob... Unfortunately whilst routing the rebate for this I slipped and trashed the piece.....
Also whilst clearing out this area I came across a prior labour of love - an unfinished loudspeaker project that got abandoned when my extension works commenced some 5+y ago. This was what I recovered after a thorough hoovering and clean-up, probably a topic for another thread!! -

For anyone interested it's based upon a design called the LX521 by renowned engineer Siegfried Linkwitz who sadly passed away in 2018.
/Ed

 

[imageel]

Factual correction, that was a picture as built back in 2015, this after cleaning up a bit is the speaker today!

 

[Jake]

Decent gloss. Any pearl in there?

 

[julianf]

Can I ask you how you physically laid the parts on the floor?

What I mean is it looks like you're pretty gap free, which must be as a result of both accurate cutting and also laying.

For standard tongue and groove chipboard floor I've used those clamp ratchet strap things to pull them together but obviously this isn't applicable here.

Did you just place them by hand? Knock them in with a hammer? Cramp?

Basically just wondering how you got it as gap free as it looks!

Thank you.

 

[imageel]

@ Jake - For the just floor two coats of Bona whitening primer and then two coats of Bona Traffic HD Extra Matt - the whitening primer takes some of the edge off the tendency for Baltic pine to adopt a yellow/orange tint when sealed.
If you are referring to the the loudspeaker then that is plain old Morrels high gloss 2k ...and a lot of polishing with 1200 grit wet & dry and a 3M automotive product Finesse-It to get a near piano finish.
@ Julian - As purchased the blocks were all deformed in some sometimes minor way - principally shrinkage along the grain such that the ends were almost serrated and embedded in dirt, and often the sides which while fairly straight were rarely square to the base or top so in processing these as I described the blocks were then uniform in size - testament to that was the fact that I replaced in total 4 blocks that subsequent to laying I noticed defects in so then chopped out and seamlessly replaced with a good one - I only documented the two in my post.
This enabled me to simply lay these on a 2mm bed of adhesive and achieve an almost gap free result, some variations were inevitable as a result of minor imperfections in the concrete upon which they were laid and errors on my part not ensuring they firmly abutted each other.
No tools aside from a wallpaper scraper and the combed adhesive spreader were used to lay the blocks - once an area was spread with adhesive the blocks were simply placed onto it and given a firm press to ensure good contact with the adhesive and the adjacent blocks.
I have a further ~54 sq m to lay and out of the batch I've already processed and I have around 14 sq m left so will document in an additional post the setting out and laying of those plus a super easy technique to make incremental cuts on a chop- saw which I developed when replacing chopped out blocks that were adjacent to the borders.

 

[bilabonic]

Wow!!

I love seeing reclaimed wood recycled and this is a stunning example.

 

[graduate_owner]

Brilliant job there, and very well documented.

Overall, what do people think is the best way to remove the bitumen? Saw it off (table saw?),, chip off after freezing? Any other ideas? And what do people do about decades of polish on the surface? I turns into chewing gum when heated.

K

 

[nickds1]

Was having lunch at Gravetye Manor yesterday.

The dining room has the most amazing 200+ year old parquet floor lifted from an old French chateau that is part of the Relais & Châteaux group.

Each piece had to be numbered and lifted with its place recorded so that it was relaid exactly the same such that the heavily textured floor still looked right.

Although the restaurant is very modern, the floor was absolutely spot on.

 

[Mehran]

This is after the 1st of 2 coats of Bona Whitening primer -
View attachment 132039View attachment 132040
Slight hiccup - I spotted this !!
View attachment 132041
..so chopped it out and replaced it!
View attachment 132042
View attachment 132043
Finally finished it all off with 2 coats of Bona Traffic HD extra matt- here after 1 coat still drying in the late afternoon sun
View attachment 132045
And here after the 2nd coat, and fully dried -View attachment 132047

There are a few minor defects, again because of using the the Bona mix and fill product, one drawback is you do get some shrinkage however I think overall it has not turned out too badly.

View attachment 132048

Finally re-hung the throne -
View attachment 132065
...for those wondering the overspray on the ply behind the bowl is WD-40 ....

Forgot to post this earlier - the notched trowel I modded -
View attachment 132066
So wrt glue coverage I used 1.5 tins to cover 10sq m against the manufacturers spec of 1 tin for 11.6m. This disparity is almost certainly down to putting the edges down separately where it was easier to 'butter' the blocks than use the notched trowel because it was just physically difficult to manipulate in such a narrow gap up against the walls and equally underneath radiators and the like.

Cheers!
Ed

How amazing is that. What talent you have. Love to see the work soon. Mehran.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I missed this first time around. What a labour of love and a fantastic result. @imageel did you get all the rooms finished in the end?

parquet flooring brings back wonderful childhood memories of my Mum tying cloths to my brother and my feet so we could skate on the parquet and of course polish it for her at the same time.

 

[imageel]

Hiya, I subsequently laid all the rest of the blocks I had pre-processed - I needed to do this to liberate enough room to allow stacking of the next batch, however I then had multiple events that were a bit of a curve-ball and now tbh I am unsure how to proceed, or more realistically if it really is sensible for me to do so!
This is where I got to before running out of prepared blocks - maybe about 40-50% of the total area to be covered -

So then I had a near miss with a small fire in my chip extractor - I documented this in another thread, and subsequently bought a couple of 220l steel oil drums to fabricate a replacement before starting back processing the next batch of blocks.
If that wasn't enough of a curve-ball, the next certainly was - I for years have experienced harmless heart arrhythmias - mainly ectopics - extra beats which frequently pass un-noticed, and as a result of a prior event back in 2018 I have an implanted heart loop recorder that monitors my rhythm and reports back to Guys and St Thomas's in London.
All good, then in mid May I had to have the 3y old device replaced as the battery was running out, and 9 days after it was replaced I had an asymptomatic AF - Atrial Fibrillation attack - these are usually not life risking however the side effects are - they can cause generation of micro-clots leading to a 5 times higher risk of a stroke. Long story short they upped my anti-arrhythmia meds and one week later I had another attack, this one awaking me and necessitating a visit to A&E to resolve.
Subsequently It has taken me a couple of months to stabilise on the cocktail of meds I am now on, and even now have yet to see a medic who can explain the short/long-term prognosis - so I am unsure whether to carry on or abandon this as a 'project too far'!!

So currently in a bit of a quandary as to what to do - this to me seems to be a bit life-changing and given the vacuum of knowledge I find myself in I really am unsure how to proceed, or indeed whether to abandon it all and sell up.
Seems a shame to consider this but hey - all part of life's rich tapestry huh? !!

Ed

 

[paulrbarnard]

Hiya, I subsequently laid all the rest of the blocks I had pre-processed - I needed to do this to liberate enough room to allow stacking of the next batch, however I then had multiple events that were a bit of a curve-ball and now tbh I am unsure how to proceed, or more realistically if it really is sensible for me to do so!
This is where I got to before running out of prepared blocks - maybe about 40-50% of the total area to be covered -
View attachment 163111

So then I had a near miss with a small fire in my chip extractor - I documented this in another thread, and subsequently bought a couple of 220l steel oil drums to fabricate a replacement before starting back processing the next batch of blocks.
If that wasn't enough of a curve-ball, the next certainly was - I for years have experienced harmless heart arrhythmias - mainly ectopics - extra beats which frequently pass un-noticed, and as a result of a prior event back in 2018 I have an implanted heart loop recorder that monitors my rhythm and reports back to Guys and St Thomas's in London.
All good, then in mid May I had to have the 3y old device replaced as the battery was running out, and 9 days after it was replaced I had an asymptomatic AF - Atrial Fibrillation attack - these are usually not life risking however the side effects are - they can cause generation of micro-clots leading to a 5 times higher risk of a stroke. Long story short they upped my anti-arrhythmia meds and one week later I had another attack, this one awaking me and necessitating a visit to A&E to resolve.
Subsequently It has taken me a couple of months to stabilise on the cocktail of meds I am now on, and even now have yet to see a medic who can explain the short/long-term prognosis - so I am unsure whether to carry on or abandon this as a 'project too far'!!

So currently in a bit of a quandary as to what to do - this to me seems to be a bit life-changing and given the vacuum of knowledge I find myself in I really am unsure how to proceed, or indeed whether to abandon it all and sell up.
Seems a shame to consider this but hey - all part of life's rich tapestry huh? !!

Ed

So sorry the hear that. I hope you situation stabilises and you can consider continuing. You have put so much in to it and the results are stunning.
I wish you a positive prognosis and a speedy return to being able to plan for the future.

 

[TomGW]

You have done a brilliant job so far, well done. I can only begin to appreciate how labour intensive the whole process has been but the sense of satisfaction must be great.
I can understand how your AF is causing you a concern at this point but hopefully it will settle again and allow you to continue, possibly at a more leisurely pace.