What To Do About Hall Flooring?!

mleonard79

Hi Everyone,

We got a new central heating system fitted a couple of weeks ago and since the old carpet that had been down in the hall for 15 years had to come up for the work to be done we just decided to dump it. We've been slowly getting the hardboard up and have had to hammer in a lot of the nails that were holding it in as the heads broke off them. Now that the hardboard is up we've had a good look at the floorboards - there are several of them with quite large gaps in them that don't look repairable. Is there any way these can be replaced without replacing the whole floor? I would prefer to keep the authentic floorboards as this is an old flat with high ceilings and I think it looks better.

Before I'd seen it I was thinking of getting a sanding machine and just sanding it down and varnishing it but there's no way I can do this with the really bad boards. I'm also unsure how to go about that as I'm no DIY expert! Should we try to get a joiner to fix this or should I be looking for people who specialise in flooring? If it's not fixable then I assume I'd have to get flooring laid - what should I be looking for it that's the case? To be honest the floorboards are driving me mad because of the nails and jaggy bits and I really need to get this done quickly. I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks.

Regards

Michelle

plumb1_2

Yes it can be patched up, get a joiner to take a look.
As for sanding it:eek: you will have to remove all those nails you wacked in;)

mercurystar999

Or knock the nails in further

mleonard79

Yes I was worrying about the nails and the sanding problem!! I was worried it wouldn't be possible to sand it becuase of them?? I tried so hard to get them all out as they were sticking up but I think they were so old that the heads just snapped off quite a lot of them and there was no way of getting them out and I couldn't leave them sticking up so hammered them in as far as possible!! Not sure I can hammer them in any further and I've no idea how you could get them out.

mercurystar999

As long as they are below the surface of the floor board you should be ok. If the floor boards need to come up after, you wouldn't need to actually get at the nails as you wood get a bolster or crow bar in between the floorboards and lift them that way. Are the nails you used flat head, if so you would need to change them to round so they can be hammered in far enough.

You will only be taking a few mm if that off the top of the board, to be able to get a nice finish.

plumb1_2

mercurystar999 wrote:

Are the nails you used flat head, if so you would need to change them to round so they can be hammered in far enough.

how do you change a flat head to a round head(losthead)

alice's_mum

You say your in a flat - are you above anyone - if you are there may be a clause in the lease that says you can't have bare floor boards due to the noise in the flat below - same will go for laminate.

mleonard79

Hi mercurystar999,

I'm not sure if they're flat head or round head nails - not really very well-informed when it comes to anything DIY!! They just look like bog standard nails with a small circular head that easily seems to break off as soon as you take a hammer to them! Thanks for the help.

Regards

Michelle

mleonard79

Hi alice's mum,

I could understand people leasing a flat not being allowed to have just floorboards but we own the house so there shouldn't be any problems like that. We are the top floor flat in a close with a ground floor and two higher floors. Most houses in this close have wooden floors in some of the rooms and I already have just the original floorboards in one of the bedrooms.

Regards

Michelle

needaspirin

If you want to sand down the boards the nails will rip the sander. You must get a pin punch that is just bigger than the nail shank and hammer them below the surface. This goes for any intact nails too.

mercurystar999

Take the floor up and hammer them back through and then use round head ones.