Finishing An Oak Floor

I remember pricing an oak floor, over a year ago now, and the customer said to me not to bother pricing in for staining and oiling the floor, they'd do that themselves. I cringed, as this can really make or break a floor. It's a shame to spent a lot of money on the oak and then skimp on the last bit.

 

 Last week I laid an oak floor, so all this week I've been juggling my week around sanding, staining and oiling it. Once the glue had gone off I filled all the deep knots, then spent a morning sanding all the filler off and any planer marks from the supplier (there were plenty). I sanded it to 120 grit as this is all that's needed for flooring.
I then spent quite a while cleaning it, making sure that there was no dust what so ever in the room before I set about staining it down to a medium oak colour.
The stain involved putting it on with a brush and then removing the excess with a rag (wax on wax off) and as the room was bigger than one pot would do, I emptied both pots into a container and mixed together so there would be no difference in colour tone.

This then took a day to dry before I set about oiling it. It took around two hours to apply the first coat of hard wax oil and this then took 24 hours to go off, I did set a large fan to blow over it to decrease the drying time.
I sanded lightly back between coats, hoovered it all again and applied the second (and last) coat of hard wax oil. I fitted the skirting in there yesterday and I'm really please with the finish. The floor has a warm even tone and is smooth to the touch. More pictures to follow!

Large Oak Frame

In what must have been a moment of weakness I agreed to make a green oak frame this week for someone that needed it asap. The frame was to measure 5m by 4.3m in a H frame with mullions on the top section.

Some big bits of wood. 5 of these were over 5m long and and so heavy that I couldn't even roll them over on my own

Looking at the plan it didn't seem too bad, just lots of mortise and tenons to cut, but the job was made much harder by the size of the timber. Some of it was 200mmx300mm section and I couldn't even roll it over.
Luckily I had a large work area as by father had cleaned out the grain shed ready for harvest but hadn't started combining yet. Also I had a forklift to help move the timbers around, but it was still tricky to move them round on my own and it turned out to be a really hard weeks work with some late nights chucked in to get it finished on time.

The A4 plan I had to work off

A homemade hook to roll the beams on my own

The chain mortiser didn't come with a clamp big enough so I had to improvise

Lifting one of the smaller timbers

Checking a mortice and tenon fit

The only way to move these beams

Chiseling up a tenon

Chain mortiser makes it a little faster but they still need a lot of cleaning out

My only worry with this frame was the fact that there are 4 mortise and tenons I couldn't check to see if they fitted. This was because they were far to big for me to handle with the forklift to get them to line up (you'd need a crane). I checked them load so times so there should be no problems.
I also drilled out for the pegs in the mortise side of the timbers only, leaving the hole in the tenons to be drilled on site. This means that if there is any discrepancy with the building it's being fitted to then it can be altered slightly before they are drilled (as the building it's for is a couple of hundred miles away there is no way I can check it myself).

I'm sure carpenters have sat like this for hundreds of years whilst cleaning out mortises

This was a hard week, back breaking week, and I can really feel it this morning. But the frames finished and ready to be shipped to it's new home. Hopefully they'll send me a picture once its been erected. Lighter work next week please!

Oak Stair Gate

I fitted this oak stair gate for a customer a few weeks ago to stop their dogs from going upstairs.

 

I was really pleased with how it turned and it would be great for anyone with kids who wanted something more in keeping with a period property.

Can be made and fitted to order.

Oak Flooring

We finished laying some oak flooring in the small downstairs cloakroom this week.

 The flooring is an engineered board with solid oak on the top and bottom and pine (grain running in the other direction) in between these two layers. It was easy to lay, although I'm not a big fan of the adhesive we used as it's like trying to work with treacle! It's still all over my hammer and anything else that got near it!
Other than that the floor can be treated like any other solid oak floor, the top layer of oak is thick enough to be sanded and it will take any finish that's required. It was a top grade of oak so it contained very few knots or blemishes and looked great as we put it down.

The week before we also finished laying the floor in the kitchen, as the units are being fitted over the next couple of weeks.
I'll post more pictures of the finished floor at a later date.

Making Stairs

My blog post about replacing the handrail last week made me think about the first flight of stairs I made back in 2006 with a good friend/mentor. Looking through some old photos I found some from when we made them.

The string and newels routed out to accept the treads and risers

 These were to go in a barn conversion Andy and I had been working on and off for well over a year everything was oak and everything had to be top quality. It's unusual to get site carpenters to make stairs on site in the UK, but as we had our own little workshop there with all the tools, the customer we were working for decided it was the best way he could get the stairs he wanted without having to wait for a joiner to make them and he was pleased with all the previous work Andy and I had done for him.

Using oak meant everything had to be spot on - no bruising wood together here!

 These were made out of oak (the strings were 2" thick!) and as we'd only ever fitted stairs before we went over our workings quite a few times before we started! With stairs a full sized template is sometimes the best way to go if you've got the space.

Beginning the first glue up

 We machined all the treads on the spindle moulder, routed the strings with a purpose made jig and cut the wedges on the bandsaw with another jig to make sure they were a perfect fit.

The glue up went well, with both of us working hard to get it together fast as we were using quite a fast setting glue

All the treads glued in position

Andy cleaning the excess glue from the first flight of stairs

The stairs fitted in position

The nice chunky newel posts really go well with the feel of these stairs

This was a great project and a great test of our skills, they came out looking perfect and on time, the customer was over the moon.

Anyone else taken on a large job like this that they'd never done before?

Letter holder

I saw the oak letter holder I made whilst doing the utility room revamp again today and I was really pleased when I saw a friend had taken the time to paint the words "letters" one it. They'd stencilled on the outline in pencil then painted it freehand up to the lines.

 

Completed letter holder

 A really professional job and its really made the piece stand out.

Green Oak Frame - Part 2

The frame is in and up.

Oak frame in position

I had quite a bit of work up in the loft space and ceiling first as I had to fix a metal bracket joining two purlins that used to touch each other, somewhere along the line they didn't and for the last few years a piece of 4x2 has been holding them together with about 4 nails in. With the removal of the wall it was essential to add something to make sure they were both going to be supported by the new oak frame. 

The view from the other side

The diagonal on the frame sits directly below the centre of the purlins and the whole frame is sitting on a steel beam in the floor. The frame itself is also fixed into the stone wall using a resin fixing and threaded bar. 

Kiln dried dowels are used

The frame was assembled using motice and tenons with dowels that were draw bored together. This means that the holes for the dowels are slightly off set so the joints are pulled together tightly when they are knocked in.

The pegs that we got were kiln dried, the idea being that they won't shrink when the rest of the green oak frame does and it holds it all tightly together. In reality the pegs were a little too dry and would split as soon as I started to knock them in, one peg had to come back out as the second knock with a hammer sent a split right down the centre of it, that doesn't make for a very fun assembly!

I think stopped chamfers really soften the look of the oak and make it look more finished

All the joints went together well, a couple I would have liked a little tighter but I know with green oak they are all liable to move anyway and I'm probably being far too fussy.

Since I took these photos I have removed the props and filled all the holes in the walls and ceiling that I needed for access, with a final sanding and a coat of oil I think the frame will make an interesting strutual feature in this bedroom and will be there for many years to come.

Oak Key Organiser

The other day I finished the key holder mentioned in utility room revamp.

The finished organiser

Hammered in hooks

With blacksmithed hooks and painted black label holders above to complete the look, I'm quite pleased with the way it came out. I'm glad I made the effort of routing a grove as a border round the outside otherwise I think it would have been too plain.

Utility Room Revamp

Nice Utility room revamp finished last week (except for some key hooks and stain).
This involved replacing a old fire door with an oak ledged door and antique style hinges and latches, removing all the old units and replacing with some solid pine ones, I didn't make these but fitted them and I made the corner unit to match, as well as another cupboard door on a different unit. I persuaded the customer to go for a granite worktop as its in a high traffic area and it wasn't much more than a long lenght of chipboard worktop, but it looks a hundred times better! For this I made the template for the granite company to save the customer money and speed the process along.

door made on site to match the others

Corner unit made on site to fit the space available

New Utility units with granite worktop

Key holder, letter tray and coat hooks, all lovely oak, yet to have finish applied

New Oak Door fitted with antique style hinges (not sure why it keeps loading this way round!)

Antique brass bell sourced and mounted on a oak plinth as the finishing touch

I also made a few accessories, like the brass bell plinth outside and the key holder (hooks to be fitted), letter tray and coat hooks. I should have taken more before photos but i think it all looks quite posh now!

An Oak Bathroom

A job from last year

This is going to be a picture heavy Post!

Last year I was just going self employed again and I didn't have much work, so my mother decided it was time to have her dream bathroom. My sister and I have both left home and my brother works away a lot so Mum decided to loose a bedroom to give the large farm house the decent sized bathroom it needed.

The room before I attacked it!

The trouble was the room chosen had only small oak joist going into a chamber beam and to make matters worse the floor was 5 and a half inches out of level from one side to the other. Add to this that mum wanted an Olympic sized bath and an oak floor, the only option was to raise the floor level with a suspended floor.

No easy task, but one I enjoyed. The step in the entrance was an extra problem but it just took a bit of extra trimming round. We then got the bath and shower in it and the plumber in to do his pipe work, It was then time to lay the oak floor boards. It had been a while since I had done an oak floor but it didn't take long to get into the swing of it, I was proud of the results, all secrete nailed and tight joints.

I also created a stand for the basin out of 3x3 oak using foxed mortise and tenon construction, my little mortisier got quite hot but managed with only a bit of tidying up with a chisel. The bath boxing on the other hand was not as fun, it was huge as mum wanted a shelf created all the way round to be tiled. I spent a couple of hot afternoons on my hands and knees wedged under the bath, cursing!

Mortises for the basin stand

[Basin stand being clamped up]

A friend then tiled the walls, he took his time but made a really good job of it.

To finish I stained the floor a medium oak colour to go with the feel of the rest of the house and then gave it two coats of oil to seal it, the basin stand was given a different shade of stain to make it stand out.

Picture showing the step and basin stand (the mitre was cut by hand)Bath with tiled boxing around

Shower area

The best compliment so far was someone couldn't believe it wasn't the original floor! Mum was really pleased and its always nice to be able to go back and enjoy your work (spa bath please!).