Joining floorboards

[Marc]

Some time ago I got rid of an inside wall to join the living room and the dining room. Unfortunately the floor was cut in and so I now have a nasty gap where the wall was. I filled the gap provisionally with another Cyprus Pine flooring board but not only it is unsightly, the level between the two rooms has some 5 mm difference. This cross board is on a slope. Bummer.

I thought about what to do but can't come up with anything good.
Since the opening is not wall to wall but has some one meter each side left of wall, opening is about 2.5 meters, I though I rip off the boards in both rooms and replace them with full boards, end of story.
Yet looking a bit closer, the boards are not really aligned, so this is going to be a big mess, and I don't feel like replacing the whole floor.
I thought of reutering the ends of the boards and placing a darker hardwood board leveled on one side and with a small 5mm step on the other, and then cover the lower room with a carpet.
But the lower side is the dining room and a carpet under the dining table means I cannot throw bits of food at the cat whilst I eat nor can my grandchildren drop food 'ad libitum' when they come to visit. Bummer.

Fill in with cork? Lift the joist? Fill in with putty? What????

[echnidna]

Cork tiles in the dining room are comfortable and easy clean and they would just about eliminate the small height variation. I have seen them succesfully done without underlay

[gnu52]

Assuming the floor is laid parallel to the gap, why not remove one tongue OR groove on one side and fit an overwidth board by scribing and planing to fit. To marry the different heights either feather the new board's edge to suit or get under and drive wedges under the existing lower floor to raise it. If you do this make sure you wedge it evenly both sides of the joist with non compressible wedges and fill the gap with max bond or similar to prevent creaking. I have seen this done by house movers when rejoining the halves of a house and it has been effective. Good luck, Bill

[Marc]

Bill, unfortunatley the gap runs across the boards. However I thought I may be able to wedge up the ends of the lower boards to bring them up to the others (?)

[ian]

Relaying BOTH floors is IMO the only way to hide the fact that you've removed a wall and the boards in the two rooms don't line up. When it comes to selling the house, I'd suggest that the impact the obvious join (and difference in level) will have on the final sale price will be much, much less than the cost of relaying both floors. i.e. it's not worth relaying the floor or trying too hard to conceal the join.

I suggest you get a wide board that contrasts in some way with the floor boards and plane it so that it slopes from one room to the other.

Ian

[julianx]

Hi Marc

If you can't hide a join then make it obvious, try dressing a length of door sill, sometimes called threshold now, to fit over the gap. Way you can polish both sides, or put carpet on either side. It's not the perfect solution but it's certainly inexpensive and easy. I've done it for someone before and it looked quite effective.