What To Do About Hall Flooring?!

mleonard79

Hmmmm this sanding thing is starting to sound a bit complicated for me!! I think I may be best getting someone in to do it - my downstair's neighbour hired a sanding machine for £50 and did her hall herself but her floorboards were in great condition already so it wasn't too difficult.

So it seems that I'm going to need a joiner to try to repair or replace all the bad boards and then some kind of flooring specialist to restore/resurface/sand it?? Is that about right? It's starting to sound expensive :mad: Needs doing though as we're having to wear shoes in the house the whole time as the hall just can't be walked on the way it is without hurting the feet!! Any ideas how much, roughly, this could cost? Thanks.

Regards

Michelle

mleonard79

Just bumping this up in case anyone else who can help hasn't seen it! Thanks.

never_enough

You don't necessarily need a joiner to replace the boards. I did mine & I wasn't very good at diy at the time. Well I like to think I've improved since then anyway! :rolleyes: The first place I did had differant width boards in a few of the rooms but I managed to get replacements from Travis Perkins cost about £15. I had to use wood dye for a couple of them as the TP wood was new pine & my boards were darker. I just did it very slowly, built up the colour until it was right before I put them in. I also moved some old boards from inside huge built in cupboards & used the new stuff in there to minimise the new boards in obvious places. You just need to make sure any replacement bits are supported by joists at both ends.
As with most diy the most time goes into your prep. You need to bang in every nail, otherwise you'll continually rip the sander sheets which will cost you a fortune. I spent a whole day on this, made me very grumpy. I had a thing to help bang them in. Cant remember what it was called (no, not a hammer...) just like a thick metal nail, about 3" long. You hold it above the nail then bang with a hammer. It puts the nails deeper without damaging the wood with hammer whacks. Ask at a diy store, cost about £1. The other useful thing was a floorboard saw (where do they come up with the names eh? )
I also always use matt varnish as I think it gives a good finish. You can get one that you can walk on in under an hour. Vital for a hall. I have used yacht varnish on dark wood in a bathroom which gave an amazing (very shiney)finish, but you can't walk on it for at least 24 hours.
The first place I did I'd been quoted £1500 to do the whole flat. With replacements boards, hire of sander & edging sander plus sanding sheets & all the varnish it came in under £200. Mind you that was about seven years ago & it did take me a whole week to do. Worth it though & have done it several times since.

jennifernil

If there is a lot of work needing done on the original floor and you need to pay someone to do it then it might be as cheap to lay something you could put down yourself, or get a new carpet put in.

What sort of size is the hall? I would get some quotes for various alternatives. Laminate is one, or how about some real wood flooring. Not cheap but really nice. About £30 per sq m. depending on the type and thickness.

You may well find a new carpet is the most economical solution.

woodbutcher_2

It's called a nail punch and they come with differing size points for different nail sizes.

never_enough

woodbutcher wrote:

It's called a nail punch and they come with differing size points for different nail sizes.

Thanks for that, it's been driving me mad that I couldn't remember what it was called! :T

irnbru_2

mleonard79 wrote:

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.

Not sure of your logic there unless tenants are noiser than OOs?

Anyways, having done some work in a tenament flat in Glasgow I can testify to the lack of soundproofing between properties. Stripped or laminate flooring is very noisy to the people below. This is an old report but sort of covers the issues.

mleonard79 wrote:

would prefer to keep the authentic floorboards as this is an old flat with high ceilings and I think it looks better.

I would phone some of the sawmills and see if they stock the floor boards. Once they're stripped and stained you shouldn't notice the difference.

There are a few threads on this board which descirbe how to go about filling the gaps between them.

Finally, if you do lift any of them check and see if there is any soundproofing material below.

susieb1967

I found in my last house, which was fairly old, that coloron medium oak stain, stains new pine to look like old pine pretty well. obviously test it on yours first, but i have recommended it before to a few friends and they have also been pleased with the result.

TallTree

If you want to replace the boards then you could do what I did and take them up from somewhere else in the house that you will definitely have carpet in (bedroom?) and replace these ones with new so that the colour/grain difference would not matter.
I did the sanding myself, with a big drum floor sander, but found it very difficult to use (especially in our hallway). When I did our dining room I hired a smaller belt sander, it took a bit longer but the results were fantastic.

mleonard79

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Just to update - We got a joiner to have a look at the floor and he says there's no way the original boards can be sanded or repaired to be good enough so we've decided to go with getting real wood flooring instead. He's said he will fit it for us for £100. I've looked at B&Q and a couple of carpet shops to see it but it's very expensive in B&Q. It's now just a case of finding a good quality variety at a decent price so any suggestions on what I should be looking out for on the quality front and where I perhaps should be looking gratefully received. Thanks.

Regards

Michelle