Start by taking careful measurements of the existing boards. But first, you need to arm yourself with as much information about the existing floorboards as possible.
For the best match, I rely on an architectural salvage yard. Wood will look different depending on where it was grown, when it was harvested, and how it was milled. If we didn’t have that luxury, the next choice would have been to start shopping around for a match.ĭon’t expect to get a good match just by driving to the local supplier to pick up some new wood of the same species.
Invisible floors in dreamplan full#
The second floor of the house had been gutted by a previous owner and the old flooring had been left behind, so we had a full stack of original floorboards to choose from. In the case of this project, we got lucky. When it comes to finding replacement boards that will blend with the rest of the floor, you have a few options. Also, in homes without subfloors, the planks run underneath the interior walls instead of butting against them, which means far more hassle when it comes to removing and replacing each piece. increments, not to mention being careful not to fall through the floor while I’m working on large repairs. Without a subfloor, I have to use lengths in 16-in. If there is a subfloor, I can use the replacement boards more efficiently, staggering the joints wherever I need. In my area of Florida this is common to the oldest homes (1890s and earlier) or homes in the low-end working-class neighborhoods built from the 1900s to the 1940s. Consistently-spaced joints are usually an indication that there’s no subfloor under the hardwood floor it’s fastened directly to the framing. The second thing I look for is whether the joints of the floorboards are randomly spaced, or set consistently at 16-in. I can usually identify the species by examining the grain of the planks, and I know some people who can determine the species by the smell of the sawdust or weight of the boards. When in doubt, remove a couple of boards and bring them to the salvage yard for help in finding a match. In truth, experience is the best teacher. There are online guides to identifying wood species, but this part of the job is a hard thing to teach.
Here in Florida, old homes I come across usually have heart-pine, red-oak, white-oak flooring, or occasionally Douglas fir. When I get called to look at a floor-repair job, the first thing I look at is the species of the wood.
The best sign of success for a restoration carpenter is for nobody to know you were ever there. It’s a time-consuming job-one that takes skill and patience-but the payoff is another 100 years or more of use without resorting to an unfortunate solution: covering up the old floor with carpet, vinyl, or another layer of wood. My goal is to find replacement boards that match the existing floor, and integrate them for a natural appearance. The most typical reasons we replace boards are due to termite or water damage, pet stains that almost blacken the boards to a point sanding won’t fix, and when customers are making changes to the floorplan that involve the removal of interior walls. Other than refinishing hardwood floors, the most common repair my restoration company gets called to do is floorboard replacement.
Invisible floors in dreamplan for free#
Here is a large portion of the article available for free only to The Craftsman Blog family. My company is featured in the April/May 2014 edition of Fine Homebuilding Magazine for the unique way we repair historic hardwood floors.
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