Restore Old Floor Boards - with a twist...

[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?

[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

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

[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

[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.

[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

[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.

[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

[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...

[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

[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...

[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...

[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

[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!!

[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

[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.