Lifting very old floorboards

Nutty_Death said:
Here's some pictures part way through doing this at my old house https://photos.app.goo.gl/NuZwHqgkr892QvSbA

In the corridor pictures you can just about see how I've doubled up wedges in some sections.

Most pictures show post chisel, which is where all the splinters have come from. Some picture show tile boxes on top of wedges whilst they dry.
I then used a big floor sander to get an even finish on the whole floor.
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Wonderful. this is really helpful, thank you.
What's the white stuff in one of the pictures?
Also, picture of the finished product?
 
Quartz said:
I thought the point of the slivers in this case was to block the holes. By having the slithers below board level then covered you highlight the boards. Think of tiles and grout.
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I guess you could try that but it would be tricky to get them below the surface. For me the slivers essentially give you a solid wood surface. This is done by hammering the wedge in as far as it goes then taking what's left off the top.

Also I think part of the issue is that the gaps are so large and inconsistent that it's not really a nice feature anymore.
 
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Nutty_Death said:
I guess you could try that but it would be tricky to get them below the surface. For me the slivers essentially give you a solid wood surface. This is done by hammering the wedge in as far as it goes then taking what's left off the top.

Also I think part of the issue is that the gaps are so large and inconsistent that it's not really a nice feature anymore.
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Ok. Here's where I am!

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bif3f8soxcl2lc6/IMG_5990.MOV?dl=0
 
Looks like hard work but from the few patches where you've got it almost flush, it's starting to look good.
If it was me with those little gaps I'd try the sawdust approach next to a sliver in a small section.

From memory I did the chiseling by hand without a hammer just taking bits off at a time. Trying to be careful not to split the wood and splinter it below the surface. Also make sure you have the angled side down.

Looks like you've got a lot of work ahead of you :o I did say it's back breaking. I ended up shuffling around on a pillow as it gets painful being on the floor.
 
Nice socks.

As you've got... Just... Miles and miles to do, I'd suggest a plane. Rough off as much as you can with the chisel but the plane will let you safely shave right down to the wood surface. Get a reasonable block plane (e.g. Stanley low angle block plane, £20 or so) and it should a) come sharp-ish out the box and b) let you adjust for a fine cut, and not end up gouging the floorboards.

You'll get a lot of use out of the plane for small shaping and tidying jobs e.g. table edges, trimming doors that stick.

Honestly you're overthinking the level of how small a gap to fill. Either set a minimum size to say is worth filling like 1mm, or just do what you can with slivers. If you want to fill remaining gaps do it en masse not manually, big sanding block and glue, just sand and glob.
 
LuckyBenski said:
Nice socks.

As you've got... Just... Miles and miles to do, I'd suggest a plane. Rough off as much as you can with the chisel but the plane will let you safely shave right down to the wood surface. Get a reasonable block plane (e.g. Stanley low angle block plane, £20 or so) and it should a) come sharp-ish out the box and b) let you adjust for a fine cut, and not end up gouging the floorboards.

You'll get a lot of use out of the plane for small shaping and tidying jobs e.g. table edges, trimming doors that stick.

Honestly you're overthinking the level of how small a gap to fill. Either set a minimum size to say is worth filling like 1mm, or just do what you can with slivers. If you want to fill remaining gaps do it en masse not manually, big sanding block and glue, just sand and glob.
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You said plane. Got plane. Check out my plane.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x94qp24xrusg4al/IMG_6350.MOV?dl=0
 
I'm not sure a plane is the right tool for such a large area. I think you want a floor sander. If you get some very fine grit sanding sheets you should get a very nice finish.
 
More comedy gold :D
Floors coming together well. I'd normally recommend hiring a floor sander because that's what I've used before.
First at 45degrees to remove a decent amount off the surface and then go with the grain. However your space doesn't look that large and lots of corners which the floor sander can't do.
Also if you managed to take a chunk out with a plane I'd worry that you may sand a groove in the floor as you have to be careful about stopping / changing direction.

The big corner sanders from my experience are beasts to move around and keep under control.
 
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James Peach said:
You said plane. Got plane. Check out my plane.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x94qp24xrusg4al/IMG_6350.MOV?dl=0
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I did shed a little tear seeing that electric planeR ... But it was quite entertaining to watch you in 1.5x speed.

Electric planer is a bit too aggressive for trimming flush, it's really more for removing material/thickness evenly and very quickly. If you use a hand plane (e.g. block plane, smoothing plane) you'll have more control and a finer cut. It will really just take off the tall slivers and not remove board material.

You're getting there though! I'm sure there must be a way to get cheaper pine slivers.
 
I found a blog where someone recommends just buying a belt sander and detailer.

  • Do you have quite a few rooms to do?
  • Do you have kids or other commitments that make it harder to devote significant chunks of time to DIY? Is it easier to break projects down into small chunks and do a couple of hours at a time whenever you can fit the work in?
  • Are your floors uneven? Our plank floors are all slightly different heights, and we found the hired belt sander only sanded an inch at a time on each side, even though the belt was nearly a foot wide.
Then you should seriously consider buying your own sander.

We initially hired a floor sander from HSS Hire, but it just didn’t work on our uneven floors. It also worked out insanely expensive – the hire charge was fairly reasonable, but we spent almost double that on sandpaper. Due to the design of the big floor sanders, the belts rip extremely easily and we got through LOADS.

So we did a ton of research and eventually bought a Makita belt sander and a DeWalt detail sander. You can read more about why we chose the Makita here. We buy sandpaper for each sander on Amazon for significantly less than HSS Hire charged us. And we can use the sanders for as long or as little as we like, with no time pressure to get the job done by the end of the hire period. To give a cost estimate, we paid around £200 to do the first pass only of two rooms. We then paid around £300 for the two sanders plus approximately £20 in sandpaper per room to finish these rooms (two more coats), do a third room, and then the entire three storey staircase. So it’s worked out much, much cheaper for us to buy our own equipment.
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Yes. I’m going to switch to that. But only prob is that I bought a green bosch multitool and it has proprietary blades which are very expensive.

But buying an electric planer was fun!
 
James Peach said:
Yes. I’m going to switch to that. But only prob is that I bought a green bosch multitool and it has proprietary blades which are very expensive.

But buying an electric planer was fun!
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You can get adaptors for other brands.
 
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