Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Dec 16, 2007 2:43 pm Hello,
I am considering installing a floating floor in my lounge room which currently has really old floorboards. I have found a floating floor in Bunnings ("Euro Home" twin click) that looks like what I want but it specifies the floor can have a maximum 3mm per metre of variance in the floor level. My floors do not meet this requirement when measuring in the direction the current boards are laid, but the variance is less when you measure across the current boards (and I believe that floating floors are lain in this direction on existing floorboards?). My question is, has anyone attempted to use this kind of flooring in similar circumstances, and what were the results? Also, if I do need to level my timber floor, how would I go about doing so? Would the best option be to rip up the floorboards and lay down large sheets of chip board flooring with any necessary chocking, or is there another option? Sanding the existing floorboards is not an option due to their age and condition, but they are structurally sound. Any advice would be appreciated. Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 2Dec 17, 2007 7:48 pm Why not put real timber flooring over the old boards? Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 4Dec 18, 2007 11:02 am They may not have enough 'meat' for another sand. Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 5Dec 18, 2007 5:19 pm The floorboards have enough meat on them to be sanded (they have never been exposed before) but there is the problem of expense and maintenance involved with staining and sanding them. They are also heavily stained (not in a good way) and it appears that the timber was selected more as a subfloor to be covered than to be exposed (the house was built in the late 50's) as there are lots of knots in the wood, strange black "burn" marks and no care appears to have been taken to how it would look. We have two dogs, lots of furniture and I dont want to constantly stress about scratching the floor. It is also out of the budget at the moment.
After thinking about it I think I am going to have to just replace the boards with tongue and groove flooring sheets and use thin MDF of something to make fine adjustments to the joists which are too low. Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 6Dec 18, 2007 6:57 pm Human Potato - sound to me like it wouldbe worth doing a test section before you opt to gothe whole hog of new boards etc etc.
Are you sure the costs weigh up. Let alone the character of your boards. Hire a belt sander, have a crack in a corner somewhere and see whate you get - or just get a local floor sander guy in and ask him what he thinks. Sounds to me your trying to cover a floor that might be OK to sand. My thoughts Steve Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 7Dec 18, 2007 9:04 pm Sounds like cypress pine - you would be amazed how well it will come up with a good sand and coated in water-based polyurethane.( Oil-based turns it orange) The black marks are maching marks and is not uncommon in floors even today. I did my mums place built in the 1940's, yes the timber was laid only as a sub-floor but wow it looks great now.
I can't believe you worryiung about scratches etc. when considering putting down cheap a Chinese-made floating floor from Bunnings - trust me then you will know about scratches. MDF doesn't come any thinner than 3mm so will not serve your purpose of levelling the floor. Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 8Dec 19, 2007 9:41 am Totally Agree Duke.
Cypress pine comes up a treat and the character of it is really nice. HP - It will also keep the house in tune with it's period, whereas if you put down a cheap and nasty floating floor - it will scratch and also be noisier than real boards. Post a pic - and then we can really see what it's like. Here's a pic of very old floor (estimated at 80 to 100 years old) that I sanded back - note the rusty nail holes etc - which I left as is for the character - if I'd put a floating floor over th top it would have looked totally out of place. Renovate in sympathy with the house is my motto. http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff311/sunkosi/Hallway.jpg I think your floors will come up fine if they are sound, don't have borers through them and are able to be sanded. Steve Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 9Dec 19, 2007 9:54 am Yes, the floors will scratch but that's part of the charm. At least that's what I'm telling myself.
I had my whole house done for $1500. About 12mx6m and hallways. Came up great. I reckon you'll be up for the same money with floating floor and you'll have to put all that lovely quad around the edges ... Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 10Dec 19, 2007 6:25 pm Thanks for all the replies guys. I will go into some more detail about the reasons I am opposed to polishing the existing floor-
i) I have read that genuine wooden floors require regular maintenance, like re-sanding, staining, polishing etc. ii) I have seen a floor that had been varnished after a few weeks of use where a pet dogs claws caused the varnish to come off in sheets and the whole job had to be done again. We have 2 very active dogs. iii) there are some water damaged floorboards in the room, which I can easily replace myself except I cant find the right size boards (not in bunnings anyway, but I must admit I didn't look very hard). They are 10mm wide and I don't know how deep. The picture above looks very impressive and I have considered that what we are currently considering may look out of place in our house. The room I am talking about is 3.5m x 4.5m. Assuming I fix the floor myself, what kind of price could I expect to have the floor sanded, varnished, polished etc? I have attached some photos from my phone (I am not sure how to do this, so they may not actually appear...) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 11Dec 19, 2007 6:57 pm Sorry, I meant the existing boards are 100mm wide Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 12Dec 19, 2007 8:23 pm You would be looking at 10-15 years life with a water-based poly depending on wear. If dogs ripped poly off in 'sheets' then it probably wasn't done properly. Trust me your dogs will destroy a floating floor in months.
Your floor doesn't look like cypress pine in the pics (no offence but the pics are fairly poor quality so hard to tell) Bunnings only stock 98mmx20mm cypress pine flooring (quite exspensive there too). It is actually available in six widths - 60,75,98,100,115 and 130mm I think. If the floor is Queensland Kauri Pine or something you may just have settle for light-coloured 100mm cypress boards for repair as Kauri Pine is no longer available Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 13Dec 20, 2007 9:02 am HP - If they varnished it - as opposed to done with a hard wearing product - then yes it would have scratched lifted.
The photo above is around 3 years of usage on polyurathane with 2 dogs and 3 adults that lived in the house all the time, on a farm tracking muddy boots etc through each day. This is the hall way / lounge area from the kitchen to bathroom, and the garage - so lots of traffic has been through here over those years. Your boards look exactly the same as my current house boards which right now are in exactly the same status - ie I've ripped up the carpet and they are yet to be coated after I've finished plastering and making a mess etc. But I expect they will come up a treat. To find more boards like it - there are 2 options - Option 1 Rip up some boards from another room that you do not want to sand back, and then redo that room with sheets of chipboard etc. To get them up you buy a really long nail punch and drive the nails down and through the boards. Hard work but I've done it for a 5 x 5m square room where I needed boards to replace others where borers were in another room. Option 2 Look up the local demolition yard. Take some printed photos with you - in colour helps - and go through their racks of timber and you'll easily match the boards. Last lot I got 6 months ago was kauri pine (Thanks Duke for the insight into what the Timber really is) I made a table out them and they cost me $2per metre and have come up a treat. As to the cost to sand it - ring a sander and ask him how much per square metre to sand good condition boards that have never been coated before and tell him it's xx M2 and he will be able to indicate relative price. If's a small job - don't waste hios time to come and look at it - just ask him roughly how much to do it - for budgeting reasons. And if you go ahead - just ring and say come do it. Steve Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 14Dec 20, 2007 6:22 pm Cool stuff getting the Kauri Pine Steve, its not easy to find even 2nd hand from what I've been told Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 15Dec 21, 2007 8:46 am Yeah I like the look and deep rich colour of it - hence I'm making a bit of furniture and other things for the friends out of it - but it's a bugger to get the old 10 layers of polyU off it with a hand belt sander .
I've also got a good source of old wine barrels that I cut up and re-make into fruit bowls etc, and they come up a a treat with food grade wax finish on them. Steve Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 16Dec 22, 2007 5:27 pm I'll take two
I made a timber doll house for my daughter, only problem was other mothers saw it - now I am a 'contract' doll house maker. I only charge for materials as its for friends and they design it themselves. .....as if I don't have enough work to do already Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 17Dec 22, 2007 6:17 pm OK guys, you have convinced us. After spending all day getting quotes for over-priced flooring options, we are going to go for a varnished pine floor. I will take Yak_Chat's advice and fix the damaged boards with boards taken from our spare room. I phoned a local floor sanding-varnishing guy and he quoted me $1100 for our 16 square metre room which to us sounds excessive seeing as previous posters have mentioned $1500 got their entire house done. Our budget is more around the $600-$700 mark so we are willing to do the work ourselves. I realise that the final result will not be to the standard that a proffessional tradesman would acheive but we really don't mind that as the house is very old and neglected and the floor already looks a heck of a lot better just with the carpets removed so we figure our sanding and varnishing can only improve matters.
Now on to the questions...You may have noticed from my previous posts that I am paranoid about the damage our dogs may do to a varnished floor. Is it true to say that a non-water based treatment will be more hard wearing? We don't mind prolonged drying times as we plan do to the work immediately before going away on holidays for a week. Also, our entire house is full of asbestos so any environmentally friendly considerations are pretty much moot. Can anyone recommend very good brands of varnish to use? We don't intend to use any stain, we are happy just to have the natural colour of the timber show through. Is the use of a buffer really necessary? We aren't looking for a mirror finish, we expect to use a satin finish (unless there is something we don't know...?). Finally, do you guys have any final tips or words of advice to first time DIY floor varnishers? Any lessons you guys have learned or regrets that you want to pass on? If this goes well we intend to do the hallway and bedrooms in future so we are looking forward to a good result! I have attached some better quality photos so u flooring gurus can get a better idea of what we are dealing with Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 18Dec 22, 2007 6:17 pm ...And how the HELL do you attach images properly.... Re: Levelling Timber floor for floating floorboards 19Dec 22, 2007 6:24 pm Hi HP, try this link http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=3466
Looking forward to seeing some pics soon.... Thanks Simon, I guess I'm no concerned with the volume of the noise rather that dead and hollow sound and feel that is associated with floating floors. But I'm not sure… 3 6114 Hi guys, I want to do some floor levelling before laying the planks and am considering doing it with self-levelling or yellow tongue PB board. I am wondering which one… 0 6529 Thanks, that's the motivation I needed to give it a try sooner rather than one day! 4 2993 |