Associate
- Joined
- 8 Oct 2004
- Posts
- 2,283
Hi folks,
I recently bought a house, a mid-terraced 30s semi, and we needed to replace the existing floorboards in the living room and hallway because many of them were in a very bad condition and we wanted to put insulation down, and it was cheaper to have a whole new lot put down anyway rather than repairing the old stuff.
We used a very, very good builder who was recommended to me and he and his team did an amazing job on the house as a whole, but we're not happy with the floor and I'm after a little clarification from people in the know.
Here are the issues:
1) Basically, it's regular old tradesman's softwood pine floor boards, laid on top of new insulation on top of the wood joists. He put the lot down using screws, not nails, (we asked him, with his recommendation, to use "invisible nails" but apparently after ordering them he discovered they weren't usable with the boards he ordered... not sure why? Too thin maybe?), with screws down every 2/3 of a foot or so down the length of each plank, into each joist. There are TONNES of screws, therefore. They are all down deep enough not to be a problem but they look a bit rubbish.
2) There were gaps between the boards on day 1. He told us this was fine, and expected, and that he'd laid them down with a pound coin in between each board. So this was done deliberately. He told me the gaps and boards in general would "settle" within a month or two, but there has been no change, at least nothing positive. You can actually see, in daylight, the shining silver insulation beneath the boards, between the gaps, really quite obviously. And there's the issue of the kids spilling drinks (or worse..) down the gaps.
3) The gaps vary along each plank - some are wide and taper away and some are quite wide all the way down. Very random. The widest gap, I'd say, is about 1.5 pound coins wide.
4) Some of the boards are actually not level with the adjacent ones, so there are some minor trip hazards (mainly an issue for the kids).
5) The whole floor was apparently sanded twice and varnished once. We had bought, on his recommendation, enough varnish for 3 coats, but he apparently ran out of time for this (fair enough, it was a mad rush to xmas). To me it looks and feels unfinished, so we're looking to add another 1-2 coats.
Is anything from the above list not sounding right? Are these gaps "expected"? What about the levelling issue?
And one query - if we were to leave the whole lot as-is, which we might do if the cost is going to be huge to fix it, can we simply apply a couple of fresh coats of varnish on top of them without re-sanding first? Or must we re-sand?
I just don't understand why there are gaps at all. I'm looking right now at a wood floor in my office and there are zero gaps. I understand that in summer these boards can shrink, but why would you purposely lay them initially with gaps, then? Wouldn't that mean that they'd get even worse?
Really confused about the whole situation.
Thanks in advance! Any advice really welcome.
I recently bought a house, a mid-terraced 30s semi, and we needed to replace the existing floorboards in the living room and hallway because many of them were in a very bad condition and we wanted to put insulation down, and it was cheaper to have a whole new lot put down anyway rather than repairing the old stuff.
We used a very, very good builder who was recommended to me and he and his team did an amazing job on the house as a whole, but we're not happy with the floor and I'm after a little clarification from people in the know.
Here are the issues:
1) Basically, it's regular old tradesman's softwood pine floor boards, laid on top of new insulation on top of the wood joists. He put the lot down using screws, not nails, (we asked him, with his recommendation, to use "invisible nails" but apparently after ordering them he discovered they weren't usable with the boards he ordered... not sure why? Too thin maybe?), with screws down every 2/3 of a foot or so down the length of each plank, into each joist. There are TONNES of screws, therefore. They are all down deep enough not to be a problem but they look a bit rubbish.
2) There were gaps between the boards on day 1. He told us this was fine, and expected, and that he'd laid them down with a pound coin in between each board. So this was done deliberately. He told me the gaps and boards in general would "settle" within a month or two, but there has been no change, at least nothing positive. You can actually see, in daylight, the shining silver insulation beneath the boards, between the gaps, really quite obviously. And there's the issue of the kids spilling drinks (or worse..) down the gaps.
3) The gaps vary along each plank - some are wide and taper away and some are quite wide all the way down. Very random. The widest gap, I'd say, is about 1.5 pound coins wide.
4) Some of the boards are actually not level with the adjacent ones, so there are some minor trip hazards (mainly an issue for the kids).
5) The whole floor was apparently sanded twice and varnished once. We had bought, on his recommendation, enough varnish for 3 coats, but he apparently ran out of time for this (fair enough, it was a mad rush to xmas). To me it looks and feels unfinished, so we're looking to add another 1-2 coats.
Is anything from the above list not sounding right? Are these gaps "expected"? What about the levelling issue?
And one query - if we were to leave the whole lot as-is, which we might do if the cost is going to be huge to fix it, can we simply apply a couple of fresh coats of varnish on top of them without re-sanding first? Or must we re-sand?
I just don't understand why there are gaps at all. I'm looking right now at a wood floor in my office and there are zero gaps. I understand that in summer these boards can shrink, but why would you purposely lay them initially with gaps, then? Wouldn't that mean that they'd get even worse?
Really confused about the whole situation.
Thanks in advance! Any advice really welcome.
.