Pine floor quick fix. Madness?

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Bm101

Lean into the Curve
Joined
19 Aug 2015
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Location
Herts.
I have a pine floor (wood, not engineered or laminate), laid in my front and back room and the entry hall. It's quite nice condition in most places but needs a general overhaul.
Far as I can tell/guess it's laid on a screed base. I think most of the recent work on my gaff was done by the previous to one owner who was a builder according to local legend (Morris next door). Most of the work was done to a fairly good standard but oh boy, did they love a bit of unfinished pine. It's everywhere....

You get the feeling they liked pine cladding much more than painting. Most of the house that I haven't sorted looks like this. Fair play, tastes change. Could be worse.

HXooqrE.jpg


There's a couple of bits of the house that baffle me though. :D
Everytime I actually look up at this I picture the same conversation in my head.
Previous owner 1: We have this bit of unfinished pine architrave left over but I cant bear to bin it. What should we do?
Previous Owner 2: F***in' nail it over the entrance to the front room of course! You can never have enough unfinished pine architrave! Are you mad to even ask?!?

iSYyH5g.jpg


:shock:

Far as I can tell the previous owners did nothing for ten years except badly bodge few things like painting including painting over the light switches, breaking the sinks etc, nothing like doing a job properly eh, guess cutting in must have seemed a bit of a faff, and generally let the house fall into mild decay. Nothing fatal, just a general and slow refurb of the house as time and money allows. Tell the truth we couldn't have afforded the house if it was in good nick so there's that.

So. Finally on topic. Sorry.
Been doing the front room up. I'm going ok. Oversize fire surround out in one piece, skirtings off, rendered and skimmed, proper job on the decorating ongoing. But I have these woeful gaps in the floor.

GbhdiBk.jpg


m5kYq3T.jpg


Far as I can see I can't lift and trim the offenders without lifting the whole floor and relaying. That's not an option. Really.
So what I'm wondering, is could I bang the router on it with the aid of a straight edge guide. Trim out with a straight bit to maybe 4mm width and a regular depth, lets say 6mm. Then glue and tap in a 4mm strip. Plane off the extra height flush, re-sand the floor and finish to taste.
I'm not that worried about the pattern showing the inlaid strip tbh. I can live with that when it's finished but I can't live with the gaps there atm.

Is this a sensible work around for the costs involved? TBH the money for a new floor is just not there. This seems like the best option and lucky me the gaps don't even reach to the edges so I won't have to try to continue the cuts by hand where the router won't reach, just square up the ends with a chisel. Bit like a big stringing project really. :D

I'd appreciate any advice or help.

Cheers.
Chris
 
That's what I would do,
You could tack the straight edge to the floor.
Glue it to one side only to allow for expansion and contraction.


Pete
 
Cheers Pete. Much appreciated. Glue suggestion is handy, wouldn't have thought of that but makes sense.
 
If the boards are nailed through the tongue that'll take the goodness out of a router bit fairly quickly. You may need to go a bit further into the board with the router then work your way back to the join by hand to tidy up.
 
Chrispy":30ghlwun said:
Are you sure that floor is pine, it looks just like Oak to me.
No, come to think I'm not at all sure its pine. I just presumed from my limited knowledge, that with the orangey stain and the rest of the pine maybe led me to a false presumption. I'll take some better photos tomorrow in the daylight Chris. Thanks. The builder guy spent some money there's no doubt, the kitchen is ageing and a bit battered but it was a very high spec when fitted. Possibly it is oak. If it is it's a result! Food for thought. Cheers fella. Will update the thread tomorrow. Thanks again.
 
One odd thing is that there are visible nails either side of the gap but nowhere else.
I wonder if they laid T&G boards, starting from either side of the room, and ended up with two of the same edges side by side?

Even if not, I think routing out and inserting a strip would work ok. I'd be tempted to dig around in the crack with a Stanley knife or a hacksaw blade and see if I could manage to get it clean enough to get a small sliver in, without routing. It would not need to be a single piece end to end, so you could match thickness to the width of the crack.

Whatever you do, don't just nail a spare bit of architrave over it... :wink:
 
AndyT":1b28ppc7 said:
One odd thing is that there are visible nails either side of the gap but nowhere else.
I wonder if they laid T&G boards, starting from either side of the room, and ended up with two of the same edges side by side?
Wondered the same thing Andy. There's various bits in the house that look like a general builder with a lot of common and general skills but not necessarily a lot of specialist skills cracked on to get things done. Don't get me started on the electrics... :|
Cheers
Chris
 
Thats oak for sure

My best guess on that gap is that they have reversed the way they were laying the floor at that point for some reason, guess it will be the 2 groove ends of boards butted together as it looks like its been face nailed there. Id pull up the shortest side and then buy (havwoods accessories) or make false tongue. Slip that into the groove then start putting it back down the way it should have been done nailed through the tongue.

It won't be as difficult as you imagine and a much better job than with the router
 
It looks as if it could be a 2-stripe engineered oak flooring.

In which it should have been a floating floor with tongues glued. The joint you show has been nailed making it captive, hence the gaps.

Does it go under the skirtings or stop and tge expansion gap covered by a scotia bead? -if you can see the board end it may give you a better clue to the construction.

I suppose it could be direct to the floor joists hence why its been nailed in places.
 
I think I would look at making some very long thin wedges, in my case cut on the bandsaw. They could be slid in with glue and then when dry planed and sanded flush.
 
Looks likean engineered floor that someone has later lifted a few boards to gain access then nailed back down.
 
Thanks for all the pointers guys, it's been really useful and a good learning process. Taken a break from painting to have a dig around and take a closer look. I've learnt from you its oak not pine as I presumed. To be fair it did have a strip of pine laid down loose at one side of the room butting under the now removed pine skirting which is going to have to be replaced. And it is indeed engineered. More news to me.
Looking closely at the bigger gap, the tongue has been cut off badly taking some of the board with it as suggested. That also explains why a fairly expensive floor was bodged. I'd lay good odds it was the last owners not the builder who owned it before. Does make you wonder why they need to lift it....
I'll do some hunting about the net later at flooring sites for costs but I reckon this gives me a few options if it is glued in the t/g and not nailed which it looks to be (now I'm an expert.... :roll: ). The original router/sliver solution (no nails) OR to get a couple of new lengths, remove the damaged section and replace but make a decent job of it. Other than that it's replace half the floor. Ouch. Not a great time to do this cost wise. Perfect time to it while skirting is off though.

Quick question, the boards are 20mm thick, is the width measured over the top face of the board (142mm) or to include the tongue? (150mm)

Thanks for all the help and advice.
Cheers,
Chris
 
Thanks Stormer, I'll take a wander round some flooring sites later, dig up some more info.
 
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