# Forum Home Renovation Flooring  Restore Old Floor Boards - with a twist...

## BigCal

Hi Everyone... I'm new here... 
We bought a house earlier in the year that currently has an aweful tiled floor - the living area floor is divided into two different tiles, 1 blue tile and 1 peach tile... it really is disgusting...  so we want to do something about it... 
The original house has cypress floor boards (btw, is cypress just a different spelling of cyprus or are they different timbers?) the tiling job was bodgy to say the best and the tiles will be very easy to remove from this... 
Here comes the but... there is approx. 10 sqm of the living area that is an addition to the original structure and this has particle board under the tiles... About half the dining area is like this... Also under the wet area's in the house is compressed fibre cement, so i presume under the kitchen to some extent is compressed fibre... 
The lounge/dining and kitched are all essentially one area, and we would like to have one floor throughout if possible. We would prefer floor boards to re-tiling again.... so what are our options? 
All help/suggestions/comments more than welcome! 
Thank you
Callum  :Smilie:

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## brynk

gday bigcal 
you'll never match the existing timber even if you go out & buy the same stuff, because it will invariably have aged differently! therefore, if you decide to keep the pine & rip out the 'yellow-tongue' (which is the chip-board floor cladding) then you could use a different timber in this area & make a feature of it. 
option 2 would be to lay new board straight down over the top, or a combination of the 2 would be to rip it all up & lay new stuff down. 
it is unlikely that there will be fc-sheet in the kitchen. 
r's brynk

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## BigCal

Thanks brynk, 
I'll get under the house and check out the kitchen (ick, its currently drying out after the previous owner decided to board it all up!), I am farily certain there is fc sheet in there though... 
The problem with using a different timber is that its only a portion of the room, so half would be 1 timber and half another timber... I think I would be more likely to remove some of the existing boards and intersperse the original boards with the new boards so its kinda blended - if that makes sense 
Also if I rip out the yellow tongue (and fc-sheet if there is any)  I'm going to have to do under the kitchen cupboards arn't I? how much of a drama is that? do i have to completely remove the cupboards to do it and then put them back in, or is there a sneaky way to get around it? 
Also my main reason for not wanting to lay over the top just comes down to $$ our total floor area for the boards is around 55sqm, and the problem area is only around 10sqm... 
Thanks Again
Callum

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## Ian Wells

blending the boards is a great idea , but you can always "tone" the new ones to match with a bit of stain and patination ie,dents and scratches

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## bluemountains

Hi Bigcal. 
I took out a huge chimney in a house that had cypress floors, filled the area in with new boards, then added an extra room (also new cypress).
When finished had it all sanded and polished. Took about a year and you could not tell there was a difference unless you did a close inspection.
The odd rug to confuse the eye would help.
Cheers
Bob

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## BigCal

Thanks for the replies guys, 
Bob did you use brand new boards? Only ask because I have read there's a quite a good chance of picking up 'pre loved' boards at recycling yards... especially as the current ones here are 100mm wide boards  - aparently they were quite popular back in the day - only going off what I have read... 
My biggest concern at this stage isn't so much getting it to look uniform, its more what to do with the area thats not currently floor boards...  we are not wanting to spend lots of $$ I am willing to do it myself if its within my capabilities... removing the dining area yellow tongue and putting boards down isn't a big deal - in that I don't see there being anything out of the ordinary to deal with... but the kitchen - if it is fc-sheet and what to do under the kitchen cupboards is where I am going to struggle i think... 
Thanks again
Callum

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## bluemountains

Yes I used new boards.
Cypress becomes very brittle with age and is rarely taken up without damage. 
So rather than muck about I went with new. 
As to the kitchen. Stop putting it off and get uder the house and look.
I guess you could cut around the cupboards (reciprication saw would do a near flush job) and only replace what you have to.
There is always a way.
Cheers
Bob

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## BigCal

ok ok, i went and had a look, brynk is right, its all yellow tongue... so thats good news...   
Next thing I will need to look at is how the cupboards line up with the structural timbers (sorry can remember the correct terminology is it joists?) as the foot print of the cupboard is quite narrow and runs in the same direction as the timber under the floor boards... i guess if I am unlucky and there isn't timber right under the cupboards I would need to reinforce between the joists? before cutting around the cupboards...? 
Cheers
Callum

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## brynk

luckily your joists are running in the same direction as the long axis of the cupboard. drill a couple of holes along the sacrificial side of the cupboard before you go under the house, this will let you know where your nearest support is & where your new joists will need to go.  
bluemountains' suggestion of using a reciprocating (aka demolition saw) is the way to go! make your cut as close as you can get it to the cupboard, then support the cut edge of the remaining yellow tongue with a new joist. once you've made the cut & installed your first new joist, you can plane & sand the edge of the remaining back to the cupboard & no-one will ever know! put a second joist adjacent to this to rest your floorboards on.  
be sure to take some photos so we can all live vicariously through your successes & tribulations  :Biggrin:

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## BigCal

Excellent, Sounds like with some carefull planning I should be able to get it done... I'll have to research every step of the way as it is all new to me... 
I'm thinking I should probably view it as a 2 part project... 
1st step, lift the tiles on the yellow tongue, add any new joists required for kitchen support and lay the new floor boards... 
2nd step, lift the rest of the tiles on the existing floor boards, repair any damaged area (i'm a bit suss about what might be around the shower - if there has been any leaks in the last 25 years!...) and finally sand, polish etc  
how does that sound for a rough plan? 
It'll be a 2008 project now - which is good time for plenty more research - will drive my wife crazy... I'll take plenty of pics!!

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## BigCal

Another quick question... Any idea what I would expect to pay psqm for 100mm wide cypress boards?  
Can't find much info on timber prices on the web... 
Also, the house is 25-30 years old, so the floor boards wouldn't be tongue and groove would they?  does it make a difference if tongue and groove is mixed with non tongue and groove?

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## Larry McCully

Can i suggest something... When i have had situations that needed matching up of new boards to meet old ones , i have gone to the timber recycle yard or in the good old days we called it the demolition yard, i was able to sourse the same spiece of timber needed and used aged boards. The result was a perfect colour match without having to stain. I used old boards. It took a extra hour os so to clean up the tounge and grove, but it wasnt to hard. Yes cypress is brittle, but with carfull selecting of the new boards , i was able to get what i needed to do the job done. 
Or the other option is to install brand new boards over the entire area, including the existing timber area. You then have the option to change the look of your floor. I have seen a few jobs where the builder has put in a different spicies, but it looks dickie every time, i would not do it. it will ruin your floor, it looks like a patch job. Either get old boards and but em in os change the specie. 
If you put new boards in and stain them down to match the old ones, You will get stroppie in about 12 months time. The timber under the stain will darken down naturally and with the added stain , ooopps its all to dark, you will have a reverse of what you didnt want in the first place.

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## BigCal

Thanks Larry, you can suggest anything you want, I'm all ears at the moment!! 
Laying all new boards is probably out of the question at this point... but I am dead keen on patching the yellow tongue area's and polishing up the existing boards... 
With the brittleness of cypress is there anything out of the ordinary to look for when selecting boards? once the project is a definite go ahead i will start visiting 'recycling' yards, have plenty of under cover space here to store boards for a while...

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## Larry McCully

look for boards that have the tounge and grove in tact. If there is a little damage to the tounge or if the bottom of the grove may be damaged a little bit , then thats fine. As long as the top surface and there is about at least 80% of the tounge and grove still on it then it will work. Look for boards that have had no previous sanding. most of the boards will have nail holes, but thats ok. A little bit of timber mate putty will fix that.Make sure that they are the same width also. There is a place in sydney called IRONWOOD, they have a good selection of preused boards in very good condition.02 98181166

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## BigCal

Getting a bit further into my research... quick question - having never dealt with "lineal" meters before... am I correct in thiking that this is just a measure of the length of timber - regardless of width or depth of the timber? 
So I have 100mm cypress boards... which means 10 lineal meters to each square meter that I need... I need 8.8 square meters so that means I need 88 lineal meters?  might as well make it a round 100 lineal meters for wastage? 
Also for recycled boards, is $6 a lineal meter expensive? 
Cheers

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## silentC

> am I correct in thiking that this is just a measure of the length of timber - regardless of width or depth of the timber?

  Correct

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## BigCal

> Getting a bit further into my research... quick question - having never dealt with "lineal" meters before... am I correct in thiking that this is just a measure of the length of timber - regardless of width or depth of the timber? 
> So I have 100mm cypress boards... which means 10 lineal meters to each square meter that I need... I need 8.8 square meters so that means I need 88 lineal meters? might as well make it a round 100 lineal meters for wastage? 
> Also for recycled boards, is $6 a lineal meter expensive? 
> Cheers

  
And yet another question... what timber is needed for floor joists?
"structural pine MGP10"...? 90x45mm?

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## KeepMyDayJob

Hey BigCal and all, 
I just noticed this thread after posting my own. 
I have a really similar problem only the added twist is instead of 10sqm of yellow tongue, I have ~19sqm of concrete slab that is ~5-7mm proud of the boards. 
I too am not overly fussed about the matching, but open to any and all suggestions as to how I can even get boards down (short of removing whole slab and build new subfloor??) 
Just visited friends with boards throughout and I crave timber, not tiles. Worst case I will go to floating laminates, but the current boards seem fine. 
My post is here... http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=59623 
good luck BigCal. Let us know how it goes. 
Cheers
Paul

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## silentC

I had a very quick scan over the previous page and I'm not sure why you feel you need new joists. If you have joists already at the appropriate spacings, it's not necessary to add new ones to coincide with your cupboards, unless I've missed something peculiar to your situation.

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## BigCal

> I had a very quick scan over the previous page and I'm not sure why you feel you need new joists. If you have joists already at the appropriate spacings, it's not necessary to add new ones to coincide with your cupboards, unless I've missed something peculiar to your situation.

  2 of the rows of cupboards run in the same direction as the joists - 1 of the rows of cupboards is not such a concern as its against the wall and has a wide footprint... so I know under that one there will be 2 joists underneath... 
The other row is in the middle of the floor and has a narrow enough footprint that at best will only have 1 joist underneath it... and at worst no joists underneath... so before I go cutting around the cupboard and the cupboard falls through the floor I need to workout just where the joists are in relation to this cupboard with the narrow footprint... 
hope that made sense...

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## Larry McCully

> Getting a bit further into my research... quick question - having never dealt with "lineal" meters before... am I correct in thiking that this is just a measure of the length of timber - regardless of width or depth of the timber? 
> So I have 100mm cypress boards... which means 10 lineal meters to each square meter that I need... I need 8.8 square meters so that means I need 88 lineal meters? might as well make it a round 100 lineal meters for wastage? *Good* 
> Also for recycled boards, is $6 a lineal meter expensive?.*Recycled timber is always a little dearer than new. $6.00 is fine.But for that you want good boards.* 
> Cheers

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## BigCal

Cheers larry, I have found some others closer to home for $1.20 per lineal meter as well, might have to go check them out even if i need to spend time evaluating each piece its a big saving!

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## silentC

I see. Well as I said I didn't read it all thoroughly. So you intend to cut the flooring around the cupboard and only replace up to there. I think this is not such a good idea. If the footprint of your kitchen ever changes, you might reveal some of the old flooring. I think I would be either pulling the cupboards out and relaying the entire floor, or I would be putting the kitchen floor off until I updated the kitchen.

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## BigCal

Cheers silentC, 
I had thought of this... it is a little concerning if we did decide to change the kitchen the kitchen is quite a good layout as it is and it won't be getting re done unless we decide eventually to go with the master renovation plan - which is adding a level to the house and knocking out certain walls in the exisitng house... which at best will be some years away and if we do it this way replacing some more flooring wouldn't be such a big deal - the existing floor would need refinished anyway as walls would be gone... 
1 thing I did just think of tho (and is probably an incredibly stupid idea...) yellow tongue is 19mm thick i believe and I am pretty sure the floorboards are 12mm whats to stop me pulling out sections of yellow tongue and a time and sliding floor boards underneath and then using some sort of spacer to make up the 7mm difference?  sounds like a hell of a fidley job but could it be done?

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## silentC

How old is the kitchen? If it's a modern modular style, they're actually not all that hard to pull out, although tiled splash backs can give you trouble.  At the very least, I would consider moving the peninsula bench and running the new flooring under that. 
If you're planning to renovate the whole place one day, I suppose I would be considering leaving it all as it is until then. You certainly don't want to be replacing rectangular sections of flooring later on because it will look terrible, with new boards cut into rectangular holes in old flooring. If you're taking out walls, then I think you would want to redo the entire floor at that point anyway, otherwise, you're going to have to fill a 110mm gap. 
Food for thought anyway. Not sure what I'd do in your situation. When it comes to kitchens though, never say never  :Wink:

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## BigCal

At a guess the kitchen is probably 8 to 10 years old... it does look "modular" the kitchen we are quite happy with, we are going to paint the cupboards with the special paint - white knight i think makes it? and we would like to change the colour of the bench top... I wouldn't mind pulling out the peninsula bench, moving the pantry(currently in no mans land at the end of the peninsula bench... and putting and island bench/cupboards in where the peninsula is now... but the budget isn't going to go that far, this round of renovation is really to get rid of things that really irk us so we can live happily for 5 or more years while we have some more children... after that it'll be a re-evaluate situation, move, renovate, sell etc 
btw, if anyone has tips on cheap kitchen bench tops and or cupboards... love to hear... maybe the budget can be stretched... 
Edited to add... the more I think of moving the pantry and putting in an island bench the more i like it... bugga
Edited again, already started measuring I have perfect place to move the pantry to, and yes the kitchen is modular, little screw caps all over the place in the cupboards!!

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## silentC

I have this ongoing debate with my old man. He is a man of action, he likes to come up with a plan and act on it immediately, whereas I can take years to act. During the course of those years, I have many thoughts about the problem, look at it from different angles, judge it from experience, have a chance to think about what my wife and I like and don't like, check out what others have done. Then, after all that time, I finally make a decision, put a rough plan into place, and start work on it. The next day I change my mind.  :Smilie:

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## KeepMyDayJob

BigCal, 
We are doing a kitchen as well and converting a peninsula to island (but also moving enough to have to move piping - bummer). We have bought a kit kitchen (Kitset -Melbourne)- quite cheap and quality great. Spending a bit more on the bench tops though. 
If your kitchen generally suits you can just throw in the island and possibly just change doors (and/or end panels) on your other cupboards if it is a modular or standard size. That way you only buy the new carcasses for the island. 
Half your luck on the floor though. The cement slab we have (instead of the yellow tounge you've got) has stumped us - back to plan A and floating floors. 
Cheers
Paul

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## brynk

bigcal gday 
a good point is raised about the future. if you can afford to buy enough timber to do the areas in your entire kitchen then you would at least be guaranteed of having the material when the time comes. that aside, the best bet is to match existing floor joists' height so you'll need to make another trip down into the dungeon  :Wink:  
at a rough guess i would be looking at using f14 unseasoned hardwood 100x50 or f17 structural kiln-dried hardwood 90x45, depending on what is already there. if you can't put some nails through the top of the particle board into the top of the joist, then you'll need to restrain the joist so it can't roll over under load or through the passage of time - take a look at one of my other posts here for some ideas on retro-fitting partial-length joist(s). to keep it simple you would probably be able to span your new joists from bearer to bearer but that post will give you some other options if you need them; it is the steel angle for fixing either end of the joist that we are interested in 
once you've mounted the first joist with steel angle, join the 2nd joist to the first at 200mm centres with something long enough to go through one and well into the other - stagger these nails or screws from 1/3 top to 1/3 bottom so you don't propogate a split - do it from both sides offset by 100mm so they don't clash with each other. 
 now you also need to think about water-proofing this job or you'll be back where you started in 6 months time! how close is all this new work going to be to wet areas, ie sink, dishwasher, etcet? you will definately need to seal the cut on the yellow-tongue with a couple of coats of paint, and let it dry. you may also need to seal the end-grains of the joists if it is unseasoned to slow the drying process, and consider oiling all sides of the new boarding with any of the non-stain products discussed on these forums - the only one i have used to date is organoil woodguard on our deck & i can verify (on seasoned timber!) that it dries 'dry' without any residue on the board though you would need to leave it sit in the sun for a half a day face up so the wax in this product gets melted & can soak in properly 
    r's brynk

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## BigCal

Cheers brynk 
My joists are 96mm x 50mm, is this unusual? 
I can go from bearer to bearer with no problem... So going from bearer to bearer i need to get the joists on top of the bearer and over hang them by what 100mm? the only issue I can see with this is that the section of floor I am replacing is actually right between the 2 bearers and the floor directly above the bearers isnt getting replaced... so how do I get em up there without disturbing the floor or is there another way to go about it?  
Also, yes the floor is under the dishwasher and infront of the sink so I will have to water proof it... bugger hadn't thought of that! 
Cheers

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## BigCal

> BigCal, 
> We are doing a kitchen as well and converting a peninsula to island (but also moving enough to have to move piping - bummer). We have bought a kit kitchen (Kitset -Melbourne)- quite cheap and quality great. Spending a bit more on the bench tops though. 
> If your kitchen generally suits you can just throw in the island and possibly just change doors (and/or end panels) on your other cupboards if it is a modular or standard size. That way you only buy the new carcasses for the island. 
> Half your luck on the floor though. The cement slab we have (instead of the yellow tounge you've got) has stumped us - back to plan A and floating floors. 
> Cheers
> Paul

  
Hi Paul, think i remember reading a thread about your floor... yeh I am lucky I think, its a shame when they extended the house they didn't just do it with some boards... not like the cypress ones are hard to come by! 
Anyway with our kitchen, I can virtually pull apart the modules that are there, (will have to have a bit of a hack at the corner module) detach the pantry module from the peninsula bench re locate the pantry to its new home (where the corner module currently is) and then use the cupboards from the peninsula bench to create the island...  then i just need to sort the bench tops out, no plumbing needs to be moved - just 1 light switch...  what are you going to do for your benches?

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## brynk

gday bigcal 
96x50 was probably 4x2 & has shrunk a little over the years. you may find a trip back to the demolition yard to find some seasoned 4x2 (100x50) will probably pay dividends; that aside the 90x45 f17 will be easier to get into place  :Biggrin:  
if you do go with the rough-sawn then with enough wrangling and jimmy-the-bar on your side you should be able to slip the new joists in between the floor boards and bearers without too much drama. worst-case you may need to engage the persuad-a-tron 2000 from the end-grain and pound it all the way into position. 100mm overhang sounds good 
r's brynk

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## KeepMyDayJob

> ... what are you going to do for your benches?

  Been offline for a bit - just trashed the kitchen which had the router in it.  
The guys are installing half the benches as I type. We went CeaserStone which is a reconstituted quartz. Millions of colours and finishes and lots of brands and as it is a manafactured stone. Meant to be very tough.  
We went 20 mm with 40mm edges. They sit on an 18mm MDF substrate which I did myself, sitting on the carcass. 
Get a few quotes - I got about 5 and ranged from $4,500 to $6,500 (for exact same specs - see attached). Quality of stone mason probably pretty important (ps: guys now finished laundry/bathroom install - LOOKS GREAT!!). Should give you an idea of cost. 
If on a budget then there is a thing called surface stone - it is only 7 mm think and covers exisiting bench or substrate. Finish looks and feels exactly the same - strength would differ though (not sure if that is an issue). 
Also Bunnings are selling this stuff called Ozstone (from Flatpax kitchens)which is basically 20mm stone pre-glued to MDF. If you have a standard kitchen (i.e. 600mm wide tops, island 900mm wide, no fancy curves or cutoffs, not sure about undermount sinks[?]) it seems good value. Bunnings quoted roughly $700 - 2400x600x38, $900-$1000 for 2400x900x38. You cut it yourself using a diamond blade on grinder and a jigsaw - you join corners using cabinet connectors. For my kitchen that would have been about $2,700 cf $4,500 but we have some non-standard stuff. 
The site is: http://www.flatpax.com.au/download.asp (have a look at PDF - large file ~7meg - don't confuse their normal benches which are just laminate) 
By the way Kitset (our kitchen) are at http://www.kitset.com.au/ 
Not sure what the diff between all the kit kitchens are - most use moisture resistant chipboard for carcass and MDF for panels (doors are different again). Not meaning to offend any cabinet makers (of which I am sure a few haunt these forums), but for "value", I am not sure why you wouldn't use a company with great systems and machines to cut your cupboards and whack them together yourself (happy to hear reasons though - but a bit late for this time). 
I might post some finished pics up. Good luck with it all. 
Cheers
P

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## bpj1968

To slip new joists in if you go 90x45, they will slide in easy. just pack the gap between the bearers and new joist. If you go with 96 x 50 or therebaouts, then one end put a slight taper under it, to act as a ramp. at the other end about 200 mm cut a small notch and put a taper on that. Slide the joist in on the flat and then stand it upright and bash it in place, using the taper as a ramp. Putting a short temp joist to the side and jacking that up will also help.  Did this for under my house and worked well.
See attached thumbnail.
(No comments about the quality of the drawing) 
You might find that the old floor boards and yellow tongue are different thicknesses and may also need packing.

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## BigCal

Hi Guys, this project is about to get into gear and start happening....
I think I am going to go with the slightly smaller joists to make it easier to get them in, its not an easy place to work, i have about 4ft of room under the house and I am +6ft tall!  my question is what should I use to pack between the bearer and joist? 
Cheers to all

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## Larry McCully

I have some builders use fibro, but now days if i need to pack battens or joists, i use plastic packers . You can buy them from the bigger building supplly companies and they come in different thickness.

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## BigCal

What a day, been under the house most of the day - got 2 of the 3 new joists in place, what a mission... The third one i gave up on because there are a few pipes etc making it difficult and I was getting sore, I think i only have about 4ft of room under there... 
Quick question, something i didn't realise until i got 1 of the joists in place is that it couldn't go on the bearer because another joist finnishes on the bearer exactly where this one needs to go...  whats best to do here? hold it in place with some brackets? what type of brackets are best to use for this? 
Tomorrow I'll be pulling up the tiles on the section of floor that needs to be replaced, will get some before and after shots to post up... 
Cheers

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## BigCal

Here's some pics, firstly of the floor as it is/was and why we want to replace it, and then the last couple are of the destruction left behind when i ripped the tiles up in the area thats getting the yellow tongue replaced with recycled boards... Haven't pulled the tiles up in the kitchen area that needs the recycled boards as yet, I plan on doing that all in 1 day, getting the tiles up, yellow tongue out and the boards in... 
In the first pic you can see where i have removed tiles to get a guide for where to put the extra joist under the bench, 2nd ad 3rd pics are the uglieness of the 2 different tiles used, until we painted the walls the peach tile area had peach walls to match and the blue tile area had a concrete grey colour of wall... dunno what the previous owners were up to!! 
Thanks for everyones help so far...

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## BigCal

Getting the replacement boards delivered today from the demo yard, $160  for 120 lineal meters delivered... not de-nailed tho... 
Quick question, I don't have a saw suitable for cutting the boards to length what type is best to get?  
Cheers

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## BigCal

Hello... anyone out there.... 
That was a busy weekend, it took me 9/10ths of 2 days to lift the yellow tongue and lay the replacement boards in the dinning area... am happy with the result so far though, a couple of the boards have slightly bigger gaps than i would have liked other than that tho all is good... 
1 thing I have learnt is that I would rather be a floor layer than a demolition man, it fair sucked getting the yellow tongue out... I also pierced a water pipe in the process which I am having to get a plumber in to fix this arvo... 
Heres some pics of the destruction and the laid boards...

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## BigCal

This is just to bring this thread full circle and to a close... the floor is done woohooo! 
It took 5 weekends of solid work to, install the necesary joists under the kitchen, replace the yellow tongue with recycled boards, remove the tiles remove the back gunk left by the tiles, sand, puch nails fill holes sand, sand sand and finally polish. 
Total cost of the proect is about $1,850 that includes the replacement timber, Bona traffic finnish (not cheap!) and a doubling in my tools - for the project i had to buy the following tools:  *Power tools*
Compound mitre Saw
Reciprocating Saw
Circular Saw
1/2 sheet orbital sander
Rotary Drill  *Hand tools*
2x Nail punches - 1 for nails a finer one for staples that broke off during extraction
Crow bar
Chisel
Rough file
set square
pincers for nail removal from recycled boards
Scrapers
Heavy floor scraper
Other things i cant remember right now... 
Most of the tools above i went the cheaper options, i.e $50 for a gmc compound mitre, $69 for a ozito rotary drill... whilst they were all cheap they all did the job i needed them for... and with the amount of use they will get they will last a while i imagine... 
A large portion of expense went to hire of sanders and havingto use their sanding belts on the drum, $8 a pop we went thru 15 40grit alone and about 10 80 grit and 10 100 grit... 
Heres some pics of the finnished floor - 1 expense still to go - new skirting...

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## Larry McCully

You must be very proud of you hard work and effots. Your floor looks great from the pics. Well done. I dont think most people appreaciate in the hard work that goes into preparing a timber floor . Most people walk on them and enjoy the final result, but dont consider the hardcore process of refining a classic timber floor. Good on ya mate

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## BigCal

Cheers Larry & thanks for your suggestion earlier in this thread about using the recycled boards, colour matching was not an issue and I found a demo yard with more cypress than they knew what to do with...  First and second photo above shows the area which is half original boards and half the recycled ones. In the 2nd pic you can see the end join of boards about halfway down and slightly to the right, the board below that is the first recycled board and all the way up to the wall is recycled all the way down from there is original. If it wasnt for that join i wouldnt be able to pinpoint where the recycled boards start - so that really was a great suggestion thank you!! 
And your right - I definitely had no appreciation of what goes into a well finnished timber floor, i will never look at a timber floor the same again thats for sure!!

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## jags

Hi  Cal  
welldone  
I feel your pain i am just about finished after removing the laundry and concrete slab 9m2 and replacing it with jarrah boards to match the rest of the new room that is the kitchen  . it's a hard job but very rewarding . 
it look like you have done a great job with it  you should be very proud . 
i hope the bona traffic comes up as good as that on jarrah boards . 
P.s now i need another excuse to buy more tools

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## Larry McCully

One of the reasons we enjoy our trade is the challange and end result of refirbing a worn out floor. We see a lot of high quality work emerge from solid effot and always look back over our shoulders and remark on the wow factor. It is why traditional hardwood flooring is so popular and has gained a lot of respect in the building trade. It has now become a science. No longer the carpenter is responsable for the instalation and finishing of timber floors, But is now left up to seasoned proffesionals.

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## BigCal

Hey Jags i remember you were having an issue with your slab good to hear your getting it sorted!! thats the Bona traffic "invisible protection" on there (invisible protection really is quite invisible, the timber is a tiny tiny bit darker than when we finnished sanding but that was due to the initial primer coat of Bona Prime) - its matt - so is quite flat looking really, perhaps the sattin could be a little nicer - Matt was my choice because it should hide scuff marks a little better and with young kids and 2 dogs (dogs havent been allowed on it as yet...) we felt that was important for us... very happy with it though it looks pretty much like the picture i had in my head... 
As much as it was hard work larry i did still enjoy it, and I can easily see why people would be happy doing it as a trade, its a lot of work but as you say you're really creating a "wow" factor for clients so it would be quite rewarding!   
I just wish the hire equip was a bit better god it was a pain in the butt my wife did a lot of the drum sanding the sander had a lever to lower the drum, problem was it lowered it so only 1 edge of the drum was on the floor properly so we had to hold the lever down a little further all the time to get more drum on the floor and flatter... pain in the butt that was!! 
Jags make sure you post some pics when your done

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## brynk

gday bigcal - that floor looks ph*cen awesome an achievement to be proud of!   :Biggrin:   now if i look at the kitchen's pinus in the right light it sortof looks like cypress...

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## BigCal

Cheers Brynk, & thanks for all your help early in the piece with the advice on the subfloor etc much appreciated!! 
We are proud of it, looks even better now we have some furniture back in the place! the test of time will be interesting hopefully it lasts a while, dont really want to do it again in a hurry - altho i guess now its a much simpler process!!!

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## bnpenty

Hi Callum, 
I've just read your thread, and well done  :Smilie: . The photos look great. I'm starting a new thread 'Finishing a restored 60yo timber floor', You may like to have a quick peak, 
Nick

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