Where to buy proper floorboards?

[Jacob]

Looks like all or nothing - either cover with hardboard and carpet or all new floor.

 

[LFS19]

Looks like all or nothing - either cover with hardboard and carpet or all new floor.

So it wouldn't be worth keeping the good boards and replacing the bad ones? More hassle than it's worth?

Thanks


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[Jacob]

Looks like all or nothing - either cover with hardboard and carpet or all new floor.

So it wouldn't be worth keeping the good boards and replacing the bad ones? More hassle than it's worth?

Thanks


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The extra labour of all new would probably be less than the amount of fiddling to fit in with the old.
Easiest cheapest would be T&G flooring chipboard - and you could stain/paint or Osmo oil it.
On the other hand it looks as though partitions are sitting on top of the boards, if so you might have to leave those behind anyway.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

In NZ the commonest flooring is chipboard varnished with water based polyurethane, then runners or rugs. Quick, easy and clean.

 

[LFS19]

Looks like all or nothing - either cover with hardboard and carpet or all new floor.

So it wouldn't be worth keeping the good boards and replacing the bad ones? More hassle than it's worth?

Thanks


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The extra labour of all new would probably be less than the amount of fiddling to fit in with the old.
Easiest cheapest would be T&G flooring chipboard - and you could stain/paint or Osmo oil it.
On the other hand it looks as though partitions are sitting on top of the boards, if so you might have to leave those behind anyway.

Fair enough, I'll have a look into chip board floors in more detail.

What do you mean by partitions?
Thanks


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[Phil Pascoe]

Stud walls. Quite often in older houses the stud walls are not over the joists, but in between. You can tell by the rows of nails where the joists are, so it is difficult to get new flooring under them and you have to be careful not to leave walls unsupported as sometimes they are (but really shouldn't be) carrying weight above them. If you have a row of nails about 10 or 12 inches from a wall there's a very good chance it's between the joists and unsupported. If you are sure the wall is carrying nothing it shouldn't be too important, but often it carries the wall directly above it. Use your sense before cutting too much out.

 

[skipdiver]

Stud walls. Quite often in older houses the stud walls are not over the joists, but in between. You can tell by the rows of nails where the joists are, so it is difficult to get new flooring under them and you have to be careful not to leave walls unsupported as sometimes they are (but really shouldn't be) carrying weight above them. If you have a row of nails about 10 or 12 inches from a wall there's a very good chance it's between the joists and unsupported. If you are sure the wall is carrying nothing it shouldn't be too important, but often it carries the wall directly above it. Use your sense before cutting too much out.

I had this problem when replacing my nieces bathroom floor with chipboard flooring. I was also doing a full refit with a cast iron bath, so had to build a supporting frame to span across to the next joist, which of course was in the next room and was a right pain in the whatsit.

 

[MikeJhn]

The correct way to build an internal partition is onto double joists if the wall is in the same direction as the joists, if at right angles to the joists then sub joists would be used and a wall plate, the flooring should stop on either side of the internal partitions, which where always solid brick/block, however it has been many years since this correct method has been used, to save on materials and speed up the build it is now the norm to build partitions on top of the flooring, together with timber studwork and plaster board, this has been a continuing problem for the owners of any dwelling built after the advent of the house builder and the lack of professional qualified Engineers/Architects involvement.

Mike

 

[Jacob]

I've put partitions on top of the boards here. It's strong enough (as long as they are partitions and aren't load bearing higher up, and not on chipboard flooring) but could be a problem if re-flooring in 100 years or so (if ever). Don't suppose I will be here!
OTOH it makes removing/re-siting a partition easier as the boards need not be disturbed.
So it's swings and roundabouts.

 

[skipdiver]

The correct way to build an internal partition is onto double joists if the wall is in the same direction as the joists, if at right angles to the joists then sub joists would be used and a wall plate, the flooring should stop on either side of the internal partitions, which where always solid brick/block, however it has been many years since this correct method has been used, to save on materials and speed up the build it is now the norm to build partitions on top of the flooring, together with timber studwork and plaster board, this has been a continuing problem for the owners of any dwelling built after the advent of the house builder and the lack of professional qualified Engineers/Architects involvement.

Mike

Yes, very true. When i first started house bashing as a young man, we would do the entire upstairs with floorboards and then start putting in the stud walls, which fell where they fell and the plans didn't account for where that was with regard to positioning on top of joists. My nieces house was built in the same 70's era. It was also in this era that we started to use the bloody awful Stramit board, which was a pain to work with and fell to bits if it got wet. Then we moved onto double plasterboard with eggbox in between (name escapes me) which was even worse and merely held together with 1-1/2" square battens at each join, plus head and sole plates the same- it was rickety as hell, all in the name of speed and profit. That's when i got out of the house building lark.

 

[MikeJhn]

I've put partitions on top of the boards here. It's strong enough (as long as they are partitions and aren't load bearing higher up, and not on chipboard flooring) but could be a problem if re-flooring in 100 years or so (if ever). Don't suppose I will be here!
OTOH it makes removing/re-siting a partition easier as the boards need not be disturbed.
So it's swings and roundabouts.

You have obviously never had to access under the floorboards for plumbing or electrical works either, as I said there is a correct way and there is the cheap as I can make it jobbing builders way.

With the advent of stud walls, some bright spark realised that by slapping Carlite on a wall they could whack up ceiling boards and they would stick, then obviously the plasterboard companies took this on board (more sales) and produced taper edge boarding with tape joints and joint cement, all done in the interest of speed to the detriment of good building practice, no longer a good solid surface to attach anything, plasterboard patress box's and wobbly electrical sockets, building life expectancy down from 100years to today's 20/25years.

Mike

 

[LFS19]

Thanks for the comments. This looks like it's going to be more work than I first thought. The partitions do indeed appear to be say on top; the boards running into the bathroom on the other side of the wall. We're actually having some work evaluated in the bathroom. We've found that the shower floor had been leaking into the bathroom flooring underneath it and causing a leak to be coming through the ceiling in the kitchen. The area is going to be redone, but I'm wondering what that will entail now.

Upon further inspection of the area in the second picture, those boards that go under to the other room have been damp once, obviously from the leaky shower.
I'm somewhat concerned now about the structural integrity of this wall on the floor below it..


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[Phil Pascoe]

And so it goes on ... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sorry ... been there, done that!

 

[skipdiver]

And so it goes on ... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sorry ... been there, done that!

Me too, several times. I was a serial mover and fixer upper for a few years.

 

[LFS19]

Haha, yes. God knows what I'll end up doing with it. Everything was fine and then all at once a ton of problems come out of the wood work (pardon the pun).

In that same room we had some what we thought it was damp coming in through the corner of the room when it rained.
Turned out it was some sort of sulphur issue caused by an old chimney stack that hadn't been capped off properly.
With all the scaffolding it cost us just under £1000 to remove it.

As usual the job you think you're going to do ends up being a whole heap more involved.
This looks like it's going to go far beyond my experience level to deal with and we'll have to call someone in. God knows how much that'll cost.


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[MikeJhn]

Assuming the wall is non loadbearing the first thing to do is take off the skirting, then you can see if the floorboards do run under the wall, if they do cut them off at the wall with a multi tool and see if there is any support for the wall, if not put some full depth noggins in from joist too joist using flush joist metal hangers, or screw a 50 x 50 wooden sub joist to the existing and notch the new noggins onto that, one under the wall and another to support the new floorboards, skew screw the new noggins into the existing joist to prevent movement, lots of different ways to achieve this, I am sure others will have some suggestions.

Mike

EDIT to add link: https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/en/p ... eed-prongs obviously you need to size them to the new noggins and depth of the existing joist, full width packing (folding wedge's) can be added at the bottom of the hanger to make up any difference in height.

 

[Jacob]

I've put partitions on top of the boards here. It's strong enough (as long as they are partitions and aren't load bearing higher up, and not on chipboard flooring) but could be a problem if re-flooring in 100 years or so (if ever). Don't suppose I will be here!
OTOH it makes removing/re-siting a partition easier as the boards need not be disturbed.
So it's swings and roundabouts.

.....

You have obviously never had to access under the floorboards for plumbing or electrical works either, as I said there is a correct way and there is the cheap as I can make it jobbing builders way.......

Not "the cheap as I can make it" solution at all - just practical - if the floor structure is strong enough, and it is here.
Yes there would be a slight prob with re-flooring (with the partitions going parallel to the joists) but floors are presumed to last the life of the building.
No prob accessing under the boards or partitions either, if anything - less of a problem - there's less timber in the way.
With it being a large space (chapel conversion) I thought it'd be more likely that future changes would involve re designing layouts and moving partitions - which would be a lot easier, thanks to a bit of forethought!
Horses for courses.

 

[Bodgers]

I've put partitions on top of the boards here. It's strong enough (as long as they are partitions and aren't load bearing higher up, and not on chipboard flooring) but could be a problem if re-flooring in 100 years or so (if ever). Don't suppose I will be here!
OTOH it makes removing/re-siting a partition easier as the boards need not be disturbed.
So it's swings and roundabouts.

You have obviously never had to access under the floorboards for plumbing or electrical works either, as I said there is a correct way and there is the cheap as I can make it jobbing builders way.

With the advent of stud walls, some bright spark realised that by slapping Carlite on a wall they could whack up ceiling boards and they would stick, then obviously the plasterboard companies took this on board (more sales) and produced taper edge boarding with tape joints and joint cement, all done in the interest of speed to the detriment of good building practice, no longer a good solid surface to attach anything, plasterboard patress box's and wobbly electrical sockets, building life expectancy down from 100years to today's 20/25years.

Mike

My house is 5 years old and is mostly dry lined. No wobbly sockets yet, and you just use toggle clamp fixtures for walls. Full plaster has its issues too e.g cracking etc.

 

[LFS19]

Assuming the wall is non loadbearing the first thing to do is take off the skirting, then you can see if the floorboards do run under the wall, if they do cut them off at the wall with a multi tool and see if there is any support for the wall, if not put some full depth noggins in from joist too joist using flush joist metal hangers, or screw a 50 x 50 wooden sub joist to the existing and notch the new noggins onto that, one under the wall and another to support the new floorboards, skew screw the new noggins into the existing joist to prevent movement, lots of different ways to achieve this, I am sure others will have some suggestions.

Mike

EDIT to add link: https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/en/p ... eed-prongs obviously you need to size them to the new noggins and depth of the existing joist, full width packing (folding wedge's) can be added at the bottom of the hanger to make up any difference in height.

Just had the skirting board off and it definitely does go under the wall, so I'll cut them off as suggested.
As far as support for the wall, what am I looking for exactly? Not quite sure what you mean.

Thanks!


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[MikeJhn]

Good to see you are taking notice of best building practice.

Your looking for a joist/joists under the wall, or at least a wall plate spanning the joists.

Bodgers, My house is over 800 years old and its still here, I doubt yours will be in a similar time period, don't try hanging a radiator with toggle clamp fixings, not if you want it to stay on the wall. Full plaster only cracks if the walls move under them, that means you have a problem you can see, when a wall is dry linned it hides a multitude of sins and problems created by modern cheap building practice.

IMO plasterboard should only be used as it was originally intended, on ceilings.

Mike