Keruing Floorboards

[PAK]

Hi
I have just had two walls removed in a 1975 house.
Now the hard part is finding matching floorboards to fill the voids.
The best advice I have had is that it is Keruing (Gurjun, Yang, Apitong).
Also it is an odd size, 108mm wide and just under 20mm thick.
The nail holes do not run at equal spaces in the existing timber so I am guessing it would be increadibly hard to lift and shift without doubling up the holes.
I am in Melbourne if anyone knows where to get some that would be great?

I have tried places like Mathews, Hazelwoods, Simonds, Brittons and several flooring companies. Most don't even know it. The gentleman at the Timber Advisory Council in Blackburn pinpointed the type of timber.

Thanks in advance

Hopefull I have attached a picture of Keruing.... Cheers

[TermiMonster]

This doesn't answer your question, but what I have done in the past, where I had two timber floors of different rooms and often timbers meeting (after a wall was removed, etc) we would put in a contrasting strip of something eg for an old Tas Oak meeting a new, we used a couple of pieces of merbau. I'll see if I can find a pic to demonstrate..... Yep, found the pic, but it's not digital, and my batteries are flat,so......maybe later for the pic.
Cheers
TM

[billbeee]

Pak
We used to use Keruing a lot for structural timber frame work.
I have only ever used it once for flooring, and in that case we had to make the flooring itself. We made and fixed from memory about 10,000 lin ft of 3 x 1/2 Keruing on a loading dock floor. The owners particularly wanted Keruing as it is so hard wearing. They were a large stock and station agents, and they said it was commonly used for shearing shed floors.

It is a very strong hard wearing timber, but very, very resinous. I would never contemplate using it on anything finished, like the door jambs and window frames we were using in those days. The resin would just bleed through whatever finish that is applied.

Without seeing a sample I would comment that it is extremely unlikely that it is the stuff we used to know as Keruing. I've not seen zny of it for 15 or 20 years now.

I agree with TM, if you don't get a decent match, make a feature of it.
cheers
Bill

[Dusty]

Simply match it up with 108 by 19 mm Meranti flooring, which is not available at every corner store, but it's still out there. I have several lengths of it in the garage for those just in case moments, like the floor you have.

I notice that your in Melbourne, so I can recommend "Classic Recycled Flooring" in Dandenong/Noble Park as being someone who might have some in stock.

Forget about the idea of lining up the any nail holes when you re-lay second hand boards, you'll just have to come to terms with the fact that you will have additional holes to be filled in the sanding & finishing process.

[Dusty]

Ohh, and here's what it might look like finished.

[PAK]

I have put another pic up to give you better view of what I am doing. I got onto Recycled Classic Floors Dandenong and he does have a small qty of meranti in 108 (Thanks Dusty) and another yard has some fijian mahoghany they can get so I will be able to locate something to blend it in at least either way. I am deciding wether it is worth pulling boards up wall to wall and relaying, nail holes or not. You can see kitchen to left that is going shortly and I can move it over to fill gap and place some other board under kitchen cabinets where not seen. My neighbour had same style house and did with fill in but just looks like there was a wall there. May have to get a pro to do job but take care and lift up boards myself!
I have heard that keruing is widely used in truck floors also Billbee.

Thanks for all your suggestions TermiMonster, Billbee and Dusty. So prompt.

[Dusty]

Your going the right way about doing this floor correctly, just stagger the join across that area where the wall was. If this is done with a fair bit of care it should blend into being virtually an invisible repair.

From your picture, obviously you will need to shift your heating vent over to in front of the window and I'm thinking you will need to be doing a little bit of work where the other wall was that runs with the board direction.

Good to see that your willing to go the extra step to get it looking the best it can.

I've taken the liberty of marking out a few thoughts on a copy of your picture.

[Connollys]

Hi mate,
If you are able to bring a small piece to me at Connollys Timber & Flooring I will do my best to find you what you need to complete your project.
We are at 148 Gaffney St Coburg. My name is Craig and my contact number is 1300 85 50 31. Cheers.
www.connollys.com.au