Author Topic: wood flooring (Read 15043 times)

timeone · « **on:** June 26, 2011, 05:08:22 PM »

Im sure some of you guys will be interested in a recent project of mine.
Im not really a lover of diy but i like a challenge so when me and the wife were talking about replacing our lounge carpet she suggested wood flooring Im not a lover of laminate floors so told he so what about a real wood floor
So it happened I bought a load of parquet wood floor blocks about 60 sq yards so know there would be plenty to do my project ? some 35sq yds the blocks were pitch pine and had been removed for a 150 yo house the original flooring they looked in good condition but varied abit in sizes due to wear.
The blocks were also 34mm thick that was far to thick for our needs so fist step was working out we needed 2000 blocks to do our lounge i wondered if i could cut the block in half so making them about 15mm thick, this was a possibility but first i had to remove the tar that was still stuck on the blocks i rigged up what i thought was a quick way holding each block in the vice on my workmate and using a chisel scrap like mad the tar was pretty brittle so came of pretty easy once id do 50 odd block i checked the time it took over 1 hour crick this was going to be a long job. i decided to cut a few blocks in half to see how they looked so i cut 10 or so they were equal as the blocks tapered i found the top half was wider than the bottom so the edge needed trimming then i realised the tops were not all square as the wear the blocks had over the years some were worn quite a lot so i soon realised the only flat edge was the bottom where i had removed the tar so i set the saw up to first cut the tops then cut them in half then make the width the same size, well i got this done and ended up with perfect blocks yippee.
so this meant i could use less blocks but lots of saw cuts
1000 blocks later and 4000 odd saw cuts i had finished them
After a good chat with a mate who lays floors he gave me some good advice about the glue to use it needed to be strong yet flexible and told me the best stuff was a carpet glue he used it was certainly a lot cheaper than some of the stuff the floor people recommend so he gave me a sample to test and i done a trial run left it a few weeks and he was right strong as anything you could see the glue was still moveable almost like chewing gum

anyway these are the pics of the finished floor ive got to seal it and varnish it but im well pleased took me 2 days to lay it and another day to sand it twice,

the test

raynerd · « **Reply #1 on:** June 26, 2011, 05:38:07 PM »

I`ve laid laminate floor and that was a PITA without much cutting....I

to your efforts here with the work that has gone into this real floor!!

Chris

doubleboost · « **Reply #2 on:** June 26, 2011, 06:00:57 PM »

Propper job

John

DaveH · « **Reply #3 on:** June 26, 2011, 06:05:43 PM »

timeone,

That looks very nice, you did a very good job

DaveH

andyf · « **Reply #4 on:** June 26, 2011, 06:24:01 PM »

Great job, timeone!

My Dad started a similar project in the '60s, when the bank where he worked was being revamped. Shipped home thousands of oak parquet blocks, most of which had seen little wear having been under counters, cupboards etc, scraped the pitch off every one and stacked them up in the garage. For the next 25 years, we had to be careful in there, for fear of being buried under an wooden avalanche. The idea was to parquet the lounge, but he never could work out how to deal with the 1" change in level in the doorway, and he eventually sold the lot to some itinerant gipsy for a song.
The same guy also bought (or stole) the eight foot length of 4" x 1/2" brass bar that was in the garage. Grrh!

Andy

timeone · « **Reply #5 on:** June 26, 2011, 06:45:35 PM »

Glad you guys like my project i did wonder if any would. seems thers a lot of interest in wood floors.
Forgot to mention the dust
3 1/2 bin bags full of saw dust cutting the blocks on a £50 saw i bought of ebay

3 carrier bags full from sanding, the little dust bag on the sander could be filled in 10 minutes

I did worry about the £34 belt sander from bq but it was more than upto the job the main problem was the belts clogging up went through about 25 of them in different grades
Ive done a test on the varnish today bought some cut price sadlin stuff from our local shop drys in about 1 hour kind of a satin finish which i like as didnt want it glossy, so fingers crossed itl work out my plan is to use a small foam roller rather than brush.

Ive still got thousands of blocks left so may decide to do the hallway and bathroom once ive done the lounge, and sell the rest might even get my inital money back which would be nice

dsquire · « **Reply #6 on:** June 26, 2011, 10:15:29 PM »

Timeone

You have made a great job of your flooring job there Timeone. The fact that it is recycled plus the fact that you did it yourself is double nice. I would be proud to have a floor like that, you should as well.

Cheers

Don

PekkaNF · « **Reply #7 on:** June 26, 2011, 11:21:39 PM »

Wow, that is one big project.

Glad you finished it.

Pekka

Bernd · « **Reply #8 on:** June 27, 2011, 08:30:28 AM »

Nice job. I won't use the wood in the bathroom. Moisture would heave up the blocks.

Bernd

AdeV · « **Reply #9 on:** June 27, 2011, 09:16:50 AM »

Nice work timeone - I must admit, I'm a sucker for a good parquet floor...

My house has original parquet all the way through the ground floor; the biggest problem is, since fitting central heating,the exposed hall floor has shrunk a bit, so now all the blocks wobble about. Great for hearing people (and cats) moving around downstairs, not so funny when you trip over the one that sticks up & throw your drink away...

Can you tell me: What is under your new parquet floor (looks like pitch?, but I assume it isn't), and what's the brand/type of glue you used? I need to sort mine out, and I really don't fancy faffing around with pitch...

timeone · « **Reply #10 on:** June 27, 2011, 09:39:30 AM »

The glue is a multi purpose glue made by FLOORWISE F555 cost about £35 for 15ltrs but it goes along way ive done a good 30 sq mtrs and only used just over half of the tub.
its pretty thick like thick yougart you can spread it with a serated spreader or i just brushed it on, its ideal for slightly uneven surface as you just add more or use less

I just bruahed an area on the floor then the backs of the blocks left them for 20mins then laid them, tapping them down. if i found one a bit hollow sound when tapping id lift it and put more glue in. working with it wet the blcks tended to move before setting so was told best leave them for 20mins-30mins before you lay that way they are tacky and bond without moving.
I had an area id put the glue down but didnt have enough blcoks ready to lay so i left it till the following day it was still tacky so didnt need any more as i said it doesnt harden at all a bit like chewing gum.

AdeV · « **Reply #11 on:** June 27, 2011, 04:46:34 PM »

Ta muchly

Does your friend think that glue would adhere to pitch? That's the stuff that's under my floor, and I'm fairly sure that it's just sand under that (no concrete slabs in 1922!), so it'd be handy not to disturb the under layer too much.

TIA!

timeone · « **Reply #12 on:** June 28, 2011, 03:52:56 PM »

Ade
I reckon it will for sure,
ive done a test at home for you so give me a few days and ill tell you the result

Ive glued 2 blocks togeter theat have tar on them. so we will see

timeone · « **Reply #13 on:** July 04, 2011, 05:50:28 PM »

Done the test and gave the glue plenty of time to go off and it works fine it took a lot of effort to even move the 2 glued blocks so id say yes it glues to tar well
hope that helps

my floor ive managed to get 2 coats of varnish on and pleased with it so far depending on how it looks over the next few weeks ill decide whether to put on any more
I found the easiest way to apply was a small foam roller,
The first pic shows the difference, the varnish has a tint of beech colour

job done as they say

AdeV · « **Reply #14 on:** July 04, 2011, 07:16:06 PM »

Quote from: timeone on July 04, 2011, 05:50:28 PM

Done the test and gave the glue plenty of time to go off and it works fine it took a lot of effort to even move the 2 glued blocks so id say yes it glues to tar well
hope that helps

Thank you very much for taking the time out to do that test; I appreciate it very much! Now it seems I can add another task to the seemingly endless list... fix the floor!

It will be interesting to see how yours reacts to the central heating; you might find the blocks shrink a bit over time; unless, that is, they're already thoroughly dry from the place they came from.

Must admit, that varnish really does make the difference. I forget what we used on our floor, but it came up a really lovely golden colour which has darkened appreciably over the years. Other than the shrinking block problem, I reckon my floor would come up looking just like yours with just a bit of a polish with a floor buffer (or lots of elbow grease but, in all honesty, I'm clean out of elbow grease).

DMIOM · « **Reply #15 on:** July 05, 2011, 02:48:12 AM »

Quote from: timeone on July 04, 2011, 05:50:28 PM

......depending on how it looks over the next few weeks ill decide whether to put on any more ....... job done as they say

Well, almost - now you've got to populate it - THIS is what a MadModder's parquet floor should look like !

Dave

timeone · « **Reply #16 on:** July 05, 2011, 03:03:54 AM »

Her in doors would love that. She had waited the last 3 years with no carpet just bear floor we had an extension built and i thought it would be a good time to knock the chimney wall down and make the lounge bigger by 5 ft also added the patio door to give us more light.
was the best thing we done as we couldnt afford to move we had a small 2 bedroomed bunglow with tiny kitchen and lounge and no dining room
we added an extension on the back to make a bigger kitchen and dining room, made the lounge bigger made the old kitchen into a 3rd bedroom and fitted double glazing, a complete new kitchen for a total of less than 30k so we were well pleased with the result

DavidA · « **Reply #17 on:** July 06, 2011, 01:23:18 PM »

Creynard,

...I`ve laid laminate floor and that was a PITA without much cutting....

An even bigger pain is finding out that you need to get to the wiring beneath the floorboards (upstairs) and that someone has laid interlocking laminate over the whole floor.

Dave

Jasonb · « **Reply #18 on:** July 06, 2011, 02:21:45 PM »

If you are just spot fixing a few loose blocks then the solvent based gripfil works well as it softenes the pitch and bonds well. Just been doing some alterations in one of my clients housed and refixed loose and missing ones that way.

Its unlikely your blocks will swell much but its usual to leave about a 10mm gap all round to allow for seasonal expansion and contraction, ideally this is hidden under the skirting that is removed before laying the floor.

Jason

timeone · « **Reply #19 on:** July 06, 2011, 04:28:44 PM »

The gap around the edge was what i done too You can get cork strips to go in them so looks ok

I did find a good idea for wood filler,
unless you buy bulk its pretty expensive i thought wouldnt it be nice if it was cheap like normal white powder stuff then i though why not mix in some fine sanding dust as i had loads of it so i tried and it works the white turns into yellow fills good and sands down a treat. not that i needed much but was worth the try

kvom · « **Reply #20 on:** July 06, 2011, 06:57:52 PM »

I have done a bit of flooring in my house: hardwood in the living/dining rooms, laminate upstairs in the shop, and tile for 3 rooms. We did floating floors for the wood and laminate (i.e., interlocking pieces over padding), so it was tedious but not that hard. We had to remove/replace all the baseboards and shoe molding. For the tile (laundry room, master bath, office) the results are nice but a PITA to do, esp. if your back is not as good as it used to be.

A few days ago we had our refrigerator blow the water valve and flood the kitchen, where the floor is oak parquet glued onto the concrete slab (poor practice from 19 years ago). I just got an estimate for repair of over $5000. Luckily my homeowners insurance should cover all but the deductible.

Your job looks great, esp. if you can take up and replace individual pieces in case of need.

Chris O · « **Reply #21 on:** August 24, 2012, 04:19:13 AM »

Hello, I am new so sorry if I have done the wrong procedure and should have started a new topic. I am a woman (but that doesn't make me a bad person lol) but quite good at DIY - considering. Congrats on splitting the parquet flooring and doing a lovely job. Could you please tell me how you split the blocks in half? When you say "...... so i set the saw up to first cut the tops then cut them in half then make the width the same size, well i got this done and ended up with perfect blocks yippee" what kind of saw was it etc.? I have a load of secondhand parquet, some of which I have already used but would love to be able to split it like you did. Can you or anyone give me some advice please. Much appreciated. Chris O

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Author Topic: wood flooring (Read 15043 times)