Not sure what to do with the floorboards

[teacherphil]

We live in a smallish victorian 3 bed double bay terrace and the downstairs rooms have been knocked through. As with many other parts of the house, the floorboards are in need of repair and has been bodged over the years. The floorboards seem in reasonable condition apart from where the room partition used to be where the floorboards have been replaced with a various bits of wood and some tng loftboard which has now snapped.
My wife wants carpet, but the flooring will need repairing before this can go down. I want floorboards but I'm not sure the best way to repair the area where they are broken and mismatched.
The room is about 8m x 4m and we've got less than £1000 to spend.
The floorboards are 140mm wide and 21mm deep.

Any advice on how to repair the floor and/or sort out the floorboards would be appreciated.

Phil

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[Burnerman]

Flooring of that thickness is still available - that's the important bit......the T&G should also mate with the existing stuff - but that doesn't matter.
You'll probably find the width of the boards differs but as carpets are going down, you wont see the odd slip of timber that has to be fitted to make up the difference.
Start in an easy area - lift the carpet and remove one piece of patch. The new timber cant be suspended in mid air - if there's nothing for the boards to rest on, then use some 2x1" timber screwed to the existing boards or joists for support.
Send us a new photo of the bit you intend to start at and we'll take you from there.
John

 

[teacherphil]

Many thanks for the reply John. What if I wanted to get rid of the carpet and get back to floorboards. How do you replace tng boards in the middle of a section of other floorboards?

 

[Burnerman]

Not as difficult as you think, Phil.....basically you use a jigsaw to cut along the board join - this cuts the tongue away and the board can be levered out.
Obviously you chain drill a series of small holes first (say 2.5mm) so you can get the jigsaw blade in.
John

 

[teacherphil]

And how do you then replace the floorboard without having to remove the others all the way to the wall? Or do you have to put a board with no tongue or groove in it's place? Could you give me an example of a yard/shop/website that I could buy replacement floorboards of this size?

Thanks

 

[Burnerman]

Yep thats about it, Phil.....after all, you cant see the tongue when the board is laid. If the replacement is a smaller width than original then you need to insert a thinner piece of board called a slip.
I was able to get these thicker boards from my local B&Q, but if thinner boards are all you can get, its not such a bad job to pack them up a little.
John

 

[tony1851]

There is a way of doing it and still keeping the last tongue intact (the boards might squeak if the tongue is removed).
Line up the last few boards as on the sketch. The tongues must exactly line up with the grooves, and the latter must be completely clear of dirt/shavings etc.
Put a board or boards across them and jump down smartly on them. If everything was lined up, they will go down OK.

Untitled

• tony1851
• 26 Mar 2012
• 2

 

[teacherphil]

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a go.

Phil

 

[Stivino]

One of these is a handy addition to your toolkit. They're especially good at cutting out a floorboard.
http://tinyurl.com/pvnp8um