Original wooden floor restoration
Discussion
Hi Guys,
We're busy redecorating our hall & stair in our Victorian house and after removing the old carpet & underlay we found very old lino which had obviously been down for many decades. After removing it we found the original floor in the hall to be in really good condition so we have decided not to recarpet the bottom hall and keep the original floor. Having never done this i'm looking for a few pointers;
1, I know i need to sand thorougly after removing any nails/ making sure none sticking up. Any pointers as to good ways or ways to avoid welcome.Plan to use combination of beltsander and detail sanders for edges.
2, Have been told to seal with a basic clear varnish which is lightly rubbed down then do 2or3 coats of coloured varnish to suit colour / darkness wanted. Any pointers of good ones to use or ones to avoid? (like hard to use or takes forever to dry)
3, This is my main area i need help. I need to seal / insulate from below.
I'm thinking of something like the polystyrene blocks that get used for insulating rafters? Do you get stuff with heat reflectant on one side? We have enough room to crawl about under floor on all fours so have room to work, i'm thinking of these kind of blocks between floor joists with reflective surface for heat towards floorboards. Will this work? Do i need to leave a space between floor and insulation blocks for air circulation? Am I talking crap and need o do something completely different?
Thanks in advance, Davy.
We're busy redecorating our hall & stair in our Victorian house and after removing the old carpet & underlay we found very old lino which had obviously been down for many decades. After removing it we found the original floor in the hall to be in really good condition so we have decided not to recarpet the bottom hall and keep the original floor. Having never done this i'm looking for a few pointers;
1, I know i need to sand thorougly after removing any nails/ making sure none sticking up. Any pointers as to good ways or ways to avoid welcome.Plan to use combination of beltsander and detail sanders for edges.
2, Have been told to seal with a basic clear varnish which is lightly rubbed down then do 2or3 coats of coloured varnish to suit colour / darkness wanted. Any pointers of good ones to use or ones to avoid? (like hard to use or takes forever to dry)
3, This is my main area i need help. I need to seal / insulate from below.
I'm thinking of something like the polystyrene blocks that get used for insulating rafters? Do you get stuff with heat reflectant on one side? We have enough room to crawl about under floor on all fours so have room to work, i'm thinking of these kind of blocks between floor joists with reflective surface for heat towards floorboards. Will this work? Do i need to leave a space between floor and insulation blocks for air circulation? Am I talking crap and need o do something completely different?
Thanks in advance, Davy.
I've done a few rooms in my Victorian place....
1. remove surplus tacks nails etc., any ones holding the boards in place bang in below surface level and fill holes. clear out gaps between board if you have them with a old hacksaw blade or bit of card etc.
2. sand with belt sander, 40 grit will get 90% done then 80 grit and higher to finish depending on how long you have
orbital or mouse for round the edges (dust will end up EVERYWHERE)
3. I filled the gaps between my boards with brown silicone up to a few mm below the surface level to stop draughts!
4. varnish two coats, if you have more time do more or sand down in between (cant say I could notice the difference). I've taken a liking to some Diamond MATT clear varnish I found in B&Q, not cheap but preferable to the Diamond dark oak I used downstairs (chips off easily) and some wax I tried which seemed to do f
k all!
5. Cover with appropriate rug and enjoy the bits you can see round the edge
1. remove surplus tacks nails etc., any ones holding the boards in place bang in below surface level and fill holes. clear out gaps between board if you have them with a old hacksaw blade or bit of card etc.
2. sand with belt sander, 40 grit will get 90% done then 80 grit and higher to finish depending on how long you have
orbital or mouse for round the edges (dust will end up EVERYWHERE)3. I filled the gaps between my boards with brown silicone up to a few mm below the surface level to stop draughts!
4. varnish two coats, if you have more time do more or sand down in between (cant say I could notice the difference). I've taken a liking to some Diamond MATT clear varnish I found in B&Q, not cheap but preferable to the Diamond dark oak I used downstairs (chips off easily) and some wax I tried which seemed to do f
k all!5. Cover with appropriate rug and enjoy the bits you can see round the edge
Didnt bother insulating, but I guess you could cut some 1" foam sheets available and put that under the boards..... someone more qualified will be along shortly to put me straight! 
How big is the floor?, I got really good results with the hand belt sander, but its was slooooooooooooooow compared to the bigger drum sanders I have hired previously which are a PITA, snapped belts and "scoring" of the boards.
I'll dig out picture of the floor I just finished...
How big is the floor?, I got really good results with the hand belt sander, but its was slooooooooooooooow compared to the bigger drum sanders I have hired previously which are a PITA, snapped belts and "scoring" of the boards.
I'll dig out picture of the floor I just finished...
Penny-lope said:
Marian said:
If you want to get the best from your floor pay a professional to do it as it will look great when finished.
Just noticed you are in Scotland, if you pm me I can put you in touch with someone.
Just noticed you are in Scotland, if you pm me I can put you in touch with someone.
Do you think they would take payment in Spogs???We have a Victorian Terrace with the dining room and lounge knocked into one big room. We had a problem with damp, and in the course of getting the DPC done, found the back of the skirting boards / the ends of some floor boards were rotten.
So we uplifted the carpet, skipped it. Then decided to restore the floor.
This ended up with us (carefully) uplifting every floor board, replacing all the joists underneath (this time sitting them on a DPC). Between each joist and hard up against the underside of the floor boards we fitted 50mm of polystyrene boards cut to size. (Oh yeah, we also removed half a skip of rubble from below the floor boards, renewed all the airbricks and insulated all the central heating pipes!)
We then fitted all the original boards back down in the dining room, and fitted new boards in the lounge. These were all sanded down smooth with a kit from HSS (between Christmas and New Year!). Then the boards were stained with a Dark Jacobean Oak wood stain. Then three coats of satin varnish.
It looks brilliant and is very warm (our boiler used to run at 6-7 most of the time and it's now at 1)
Insulating under without uplifting the boards will be tricky. It depends on the depth of the void below the floor. Ours is only a couple of feet. My parents house has a 3 foot space and an access hatch in the understairs cupboard (so we insulated theirs lying on our backs on the solum)
So we uplifted the carpet, skipped it. Then decided to restore the floor.
This ended up with us (carefully) uplifting every floor board, replacing all the joists underneath (this time sitting them on a DPC). Between each joist and hard up against the underside of the floor boards we fitted 50mm of polystyrene boards cut to size. (Oh yeah, we also removed half a skip of rubble from below the floor boards, renewed all the airbricks and insulated all the central heating pipes!)
We then fitted all the original boards back down in the dining room, and fitted new boards in the lounge. These were all sanded down smooth with a kit from HSS (between Christmas and New Year!). Then the boards were stained with a Dark Jacobean Oak wood stain. Then three coats of satin varnish.
It looks brilliant and is very warm (our boiler used to run at 6-7 most of the time and it's now at 1)
Insulating under without uplifting the boards will be tricky. It depends on the depth of the void below the floor. Ours is only a couple of feet. My parents house has a 3 foot space and an access hatch in the understairs cupboard (so we insulated theirs lying on our backs on the solum)
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff