Hello!
We have a subfloor made of century-old pine planks in our kitchen that we are renovating. We plan to sand, stain, and lacquer it. In some places, the plank floor was "ugly" or completely missing due to various reasons: a stove had been located in one spot, concrete had been poured into the floor in an opening for a load-bearing wall, waterborne heating was installed at some point in history, etc. Additionally, the floor was very uneven. Therefore, I carefully tore up some of the floor, added new joists, and replaced the planks. We had some boards saved from similar exercises elsewhere in the apartment... but of course, it's not enough
Therefore, we need to supplement with several running meters of new, solid pine flooring, and here come the questions:
Thanks in advance!
We have a subfloor made of century-old pine planks in our kitchen that we are renovating. We plan to sand, stain, and lacquer it. In some places, the plank floor was "ugly" or completely missing due to various reasons: a stove had been located in one spot, concrete had been poured into the floor in an opening for a load-bearing wall, waterborne heating was installed at some point in history, etc. Additionally, the floor was very uneven. Therefore, I carefully tore up some of the floor, added new joists, and replaced the planks. We had some boards saved from similar exercises elsewhere in the apartment... but of course, it's not enough
Therefore, we need to supplement with several running meters of new, solid pine flooring, and here come the questions:
- The distance between the joists varies, up to about 70 cm. Will a standard 25-millimeter pine floor sag then? The existing planks are about 35 mm thick, and modern solid pine floors are dimensioned for 60 cm distances.
- Since the new planks are thinner, I need to add extra support beneath them, 10 mm I imagine. I could use strips, but what if we laid plywood panels and underlayment foam/felt paper under the entire new floor instead? Then it shouldn't sag.
- To make the new floor resemble the old one more, I’m considering laying it with small gaps, maybe 3 mm. What do you think about that? Will it squeak then?
Thanks in advance!
The old floor is probably 1 1/4" thick, but okay for 35 mm.
My advice is to order floorboards of exactly the same dimensions as the ones you have.
It won't be much more expensive to buy and much better.
Easier to lay.
My advice is to order floorboards of exactly the same dimensions as the ones you have.
It won't be much more expensive to buy and much better.
Easier to lay.
Keep in mind that the wood you buy will probably shrink a little when you have it indoors. To be on the safe side, you can let it sit indoors in the warmth for 36-48 hours to get it as dry as it will be in that room. Placing down moist wood with small gaps will become large gaps when it dries (if you're unlucky)
(if you're unlucky)Thank you for your responses!
We ended up choosing a slightly different approach. As I mentioned, we had quite a few leftover boards from the rest of the apartment. Many of these had broken tongues and some weren't tongued at all but had been used as frieze or whatever it's called.
In true Martin Timell overconfidence and inspired, among others, by this fine page, we went and bought the cheapest hand router and electric planer at Claes Ohlson, planed off broken tongues, and routed and glued in 8-millimeter strips. The fit wasn't perfect between the existing groove and the strip, but the boards' warps and my uneven routing made it have quite good friction anyway -- i.e., hopefully not too much creaking. In some cases, we cheated and glued with PL400 to fill a little. The result looks promising so far; however, there were perhaps a few more seams than one would wish for. Another lesson I learned is never to saw floorboards with a jigsaw; I should know better.
Today, the floor has been sanded and stained quite dark. I think it will look really nice; very lively. I'll see if I can post a picture once it's done.
We ended up choosing a slightly different approach. As I mentioned, we had quite a few leftover boards from the rest of the apartment. Many of these had broken tongues and some weren't tongued at all but had been used as frieze or whatever it's called.
In true Martin Timell overconfidence and inspired, among others, by this fine page, we went and bought the cheapest hand router and electric planer at Claes Ohlson, planed off broken tongues, and routed and glued in 8-millimeter strips. The fit wasn't perfect between the existing groove and the strip, but the boards' warps and my uneven routing made it have quite good friction anyway -- i.e., hopefully not too much creaking. In some cases, we cheated and glued with PL400 to fill a little. The result looks promising so far; however, there were perhaps a few more seams than one would wish for. Another lesson I learned is never to saw floorboards with a jigsaw; I should know better.
Today, the floor has been sanded and stained quite dark. I think it will look really nice; very lively. I'll see if I can post a picture once it's done.
You didn't glue both sides of the groove on both boards, did you? If so, you can bet that the joint will crack right in half when it shrinks in the winter. Speaking of jigsaws, I think it's fine to cut floors with a jigsaw if you make sure to turn the floor upside down when sawing. Almost all chips go upward. But of course, a saw blade is preferable. Then I think the floor can very well lie inside for several weeks or even months before you screw it down. Even then, it's not completely dry. I don't know for sure how it is with store-bought floors since I've only used home-sawn floors that had outdoor moisture when I brought them in. One floor was indoors for about 6 weeks before I screwed it down, and despite that, I had to knock it together again. It was admittedly quite thick, about 30cm, but even narrower boards shrink a bit over time.micke4711 said: