Solid Oak Floor

Another solid Oak floor last week. Glued down to concrete, but this time using a Gekko gun and a lot less messy than with a trowel. 

Ready to go down

Cutting station set up with dust extractor

Alex with the oversized gun, my partner in crime on this floor! 

Midway clamp up, always tricky to keep it tight when gluing a floor to concrete

Wedging up the end at the end of the first day, still another room to go

First floor looking good.

Last board to clamp up. with my patented bent bit of metal and clamps set as spreaders

Track saw making ripping easy

cutting under frames so no expansion gaps can be seen in doorways

Between rooms

Second floor nearing the finish

Sanding up, orbital after the big floor sander has finished just to take off the marks left by the drum

More pictures to follow. Managed to do the last bit of sanding today so now it's ready for oiling then I can drop back and do the doors, architraves and skirtings.

Boarding Up Stairways

I've taken on an office refurb in Malvern that involves lots of stud walls and timber work. My first job was to board up a few stair wells that were no longer needed. 

A fairly straight forward job but one that needed to be done first to make the area safe to work in. 

Joist added

Way in to the cellar to be boarded up

New beam and joists added

finished boarded 

Lots more pictures from this job to come - I've got plenty to do there, sorry these aren't that interesting!

Pre Finished Oak Floor

Last week we laid a pre finished oak floor from Travis Perkins and to be honest I'm quite impressed with how it looks when it's down.

 This is the floating floor type, laid on a foam underlay with the tongue and groves all glued together. Lots of beams and doorways to go round and oak skirting and beads made out of the same stuff, at the customers request but unfortunately the longest length was only 4ft so lots of joints!

The customer seems really happy with it. My only concern would be how long this "high" finish will last compared to my usual oiled finish, but when you're having to pay for labour this pre finish makes it a lot cheaper rather than having to pay me for a couple of days to sand, stain and oil the floor. Also it means that the furniture didn't have to leave the room whilst we were laying it, we did one half then moved everything over and did the other.

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!

How To Patch A Floor

Removing or moving a wall can sometimes mean that a floor has to be repaired. This is what happened today at work.

the area that needs some new boards

The repair was to be over a small area, ideally I would have preferred to take out a longer section of flooring and replaced the boards over a larger area. But this area is going to be carpeted and the two sets of boards in the different rooms don't match up (in line or thickness) so we decided this was the best course of action.

Both sides trimmed out to finish half way on a joist



To start with I removed any nails I could before using the circular saw to cut the floor boards back so the ends finish half way on the joist, this means that the boards have something to rest on and they are supported. Make sure your saw is set only to the depth of the boards or you'll be weakening the joists!

The floor boards in the different rooms are different thicknesses meaning one side had to be packed




The one room has floor boards a slightly different thickness to the other so I had to use packers to bring it to the same level (you can just make your own out of wood, but these plastic packers are great as they come in different sizes and are ready to use).

All screws have to be pilot holed and countersunk so the boards don't split

I fixed the boards as I went and as the screws are near the edge of the boards they all had to have a pilot hole and countersink to save splitting the wood. I also made sure that all the original boards I cut were fixed down as well as I had removed some of the nails from them earlier.

The finished repair ready for carpet

A basic repair but when it has carpet on top no one will ever know I've been there!

Laying a Chipboard Floor

A bit of a different direction from the last post! Can't say I'm not varied even if it is all wood!

We finally managed to get the flooring down in the toilet area of Summerfield Park today. Feels like a complete relief, what with the copper being stolen in the past and having to raise the floor in the first place to avoid the cellar.

Anyhow we got it insulated (insulation held up with battens) and worked our way across the floor laying the boards as we went (I think it's the most pipes I've ever cut round on one floor - got through a whole pack of jigsaw blades).

All the pipe work was on the undersides of the joists so it makes you feel a little better when your nailing it down (we still play the game where you hiss like a leaking pipe when you put the first nail in! - Not good for those with a nervous disposition).

Even managed to get the layout for the studding marked out with the sole plates fixed to the new floor, which means I've got a nice Friday studding - seems like a good way to end the week.

Why vent a suspended timber floor?

I just thought I'd share this with you,

Whilst on the Summer Field park job the other day, part of the program of work is to rip out an old suspended floor which seemed a little springy under the vinyl floor.

When we started I couldn't believe we'd been walking on it for so long, it was completely rotten. Every step we took we put our foot through, and you could squeeze the water out of the flooring. But it hadn't even rained in over a month so what caused it?

Well many years ago they had tarmaced round the outside of the property, covering the air bricks. At around the same time they concreted some (not all) of the floors inside. What this did was to completely cut off the air flow that is essential for a suspended timber ground floor to breath. This caused wet rot to set in as the moisture from the ground is trapped in there - there were no damp membranes in those days - The sweating timber soon reaches and maintains the plus 20 - 25% moisture content needed for a good attack of wet rot

To fix the problem I was told to install 4 air bricks and reinstall the timber floor. But I have refused as the room is a corner of the house, so complete through flow of air would no longer be possible. I've put my foot down (through the floor) so now its going to be concrete.

This is the second floor in this house like this, I think we're lucky to only be dealing with wet rot!