DIY SOS - Laying floorboards on joists - Tips/Advice

Thanks for the suggestions I have made better progress with a change to my crowbar technique which is helping.

The wood to the right of the fireplace had the groove revealed and the tongue against another piece of wood and I used my multi tool to cut the nails on the groove side which still resulted in me losing the tongue. So I stopped that but thinking about it now the rest of the wood has the tongue on display and that is angled so if I cut that it may make the floorboard easier & quicker to remove as well as keeping the floorboard intact.
 
This is what I am up against 😂
View attachment 1261208
On the bright side those would never squeak :)

I still call that groove side the groove where the secret nails are ;)

lifting hardwood boards is a bit easier as you get a bit more lift before they break. I have found the only way is gentle levering where of alongside the nails are. Two levers can help too - one each side of the secret nails. Once those are moving work along those along the length of the board and don’t head to the face nails too soon. Get the beard up along it’s length and then work the levers back towards the face nails.

I’ve always had a proportion that broke so if you want to save the boards more time and maybe another pair of hands also levering may help. There may be a trick to it other than above but I never found it :)
 
On the bright side those would never squeak :)

I still call that groove side the groove where the secret nails are ;)

lifting hardwood boards is a bit easier as you get a bit more lift before they break. I have found the only way is gentle levering where of alongside the nails are. Two levers can help too - one each side of the secret nails. Once those are moving work along those along the length of the board and don’t head to the face nails too soon. Get the beard up along it’s length and then work the levers back towards the face nails.

I’ve always had a proportion that broke so if you want to save the boards more time and maybe another pair of hands also levering may help. There may be a trick to it other than above but I never found it :)

is that just you it calls it the groove side. I googled it to make sure it says the single bit that sticks out is the tongue. But hey-go as long as we are talking about the same thing it does not matter.

anyone this is me done for the day:
546495E3-6B8E-42C8-B90A-CE8290226AD6.jpeg
C7640829-D527-404E-B226-B425B0A00FCE.jpeg


left the last 2 boards as it was 11pm and thought if I lift that board and burst a pipe at this time of night as tired as I am, I will not be happy. The other board I need to cut at the door with multi tool which, according to my wife, is to noisy for 11pm at night...

So along with those 2 boards I still need to remove the nails for about 2/3 of the boards lifted and this is what I think is useable. Just out of shot there are about half a dozen boards with nails i them that are unusable along with a number of small crappy boards that are already at front door awaiting a trip to the tip:

940095C5-8509-4C24-926F-7B4FEC3E1B76.jpeg


So I think I managed to salvage about 2/3 of the overall floor.... hopefully it will be enough for the 2nd bedroom plus additional patch work that will no doubt be needed for the landing and hallway downstairs.
 
is that just you it calls it the groove side. I googled it to make sure it says the single bit that sticks out is the tongue. But hey-go as long as we are talking about the same thing it does not matter.

anyone this is me done for the day:
View attachment 1261374View attachment 1261375

left the last 2 boards as it was 11pm and thought if I lift that board and burst a pipe at this time of night as tired as I am, I will not be happy. The other board I need to cut at the door with multi tool which, according to my wife, is to noisy for 11pm at night...

So along with those 2 boards I still need to remove the nails for about 2/3 of the boards lifted and this is what I think is useable. Just out of shot there are about half a dozen boards with nails i them that are unusable along with a number of small crappy boards that are already at front door awaiting a trip to the tip:

View attachment 1261376

So I think I managed to salvage about 2/3 of the overall floor.... hopefully it will be enough for the 2nd bedroom plus additional patch work that will no doubt be needed for the landing and hallway downstairs.


Never seen that little space under the boards before (new builds and ancients yes) All the places I've had to rip boards up have had up to chest height between the boards and the floor underneath.

Is that particular to the area?

ps You've done well removing that lot.
 
It’s weird in our house there is a false floor at half the height of the joists that is then filled both rubble that is hard set... it’s very odd. If you see where I have dug out the Hearth, I think, that is the real depth before all the filling happened.

my bathroom floor was the same when I lifted those boards.
 
It’s weird in our house there is a false floor at half the height of the joists that is then filled both rubble that is hard set... it’s very odd. If you see where I have dug out the Hearth, I think, that is the real depth before all the filling happened.

my bathroom floor was the same when I lifted those boards.


Perhaps there has been work over the years and that has been placed under the floor.

Ours (similar period) has around 1.5m under the joists and then that floor is concrete.
 
It’s weird in our house there is a false floor at half the height of the joists that is then filled both rubble that is hard set... it’s very odd. If you see where I have dug out the Hearth, I think, that is the real depth before all the filling happened.

my bathroom floor was the same when I lifted those boards.

Having lifted the floor boards before in my sons room I was informed that the 'rubble' is ash deadning. Its a crude form of sound proofing. Currently doing another of our upstairs room and you can see where it has been removed before for electrics and central heating pipes. When we had work done in our sons room they removed it and replaced it with a small gravel suspended on boards between the joists.

20200216_135754[1825].jpg
 
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Hey guys I was looking at floor clamps and the clamps one of you kind people suggested while they look good they are expensive.

I have therefore got 3 options:
1) Buy them and suck it up on the cost front.

2) Rent them for a weekend / week.

3) Buy a cheaper option like these:

Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on option 3 vs option 1 or 2?
 
Hey guys I was looking at floor clamps and the clamps one of you kind people suggested while they look good they are expensive.

I have therefore got 3 options:
1) Buy them and suck it up on the cost front.

2) Rent them for a weekend / week.

3) Buy a cheaper option like these:

Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on option 3 vs option 1 or 2?

Similar to what I suggested (3) but can say they might be a bit of a pain if you have to use a lot of force due to the clamps not being very deep.
If you have spare feet, that will help keep them down and avoid them tearing chunks out of your boards.
 
I havent read all the posts but looking at the pics it seems your well under way.

Are you planning to insulate below the floor boards.

Interestingly I ripped up all my old T&G floor boards, insulated between the joists, then lay 18mm OSB board. I then lay T&G flooring over the top of the OSB board.
 
, then lay 18mm OSB board. I then lay T&G flooring over the top of the OSB board.
I was going to suggest that but for many there isn’t enough space under doors etc. raising the skirting boards is easy as they are off anyway but sorting doors out is a pain. Very doable of course - jambs etc relatively easy as well but taking every door off and trimming 18mm off, making good and rehanging seems too much effort.

maybe not so hard in single rooms as long as transition to other floors outside the room is ok at different heights.....
 
Hi I have no intention of laying any OSB as it is too much hassle and would raise the floor higher than all other floors upstairs (with the bathroom floor being the exception).

However I might consider insulation between the floorboards. Is there much benefit to doing that on an upstairs floor?
 
One other question.

I have a shed load of Rockwool up in my loft (still in packaging).what I have is varied between 100mm &150mm thickness but it has multiple layers to it.

Can I use Rockwool under the floor?

Not sure if it has to be the boards I see everyone using or if Rockwool is equally good enough.
 
One other question.

I have a shed load of Rockwool up in my loft (still in packaging).what I have is varied between 100mm &150mm thickness but it has multiple layers to it.

Can I use Rockwool under the floor?

Not sure if it has to be the boards I see everyone using or if Rockwool is equally good enough.
Don’t see why not - it can be used in cavities in walls. Just check if covering electric cables is ok but otherwise it is insulation and you already have it :)
 
Ok guys I have some more questions about making sure I have my floorboards running straight.

I have been looking at different people doing similar stuff on youtube and I follow this guy but never seen this video until today:



If you skip to 6:40 on the video he explains how they use a chalk line (which I think someone has suggested on here before) and measuring out from the wall at 2 points at 400mm to get a staight edge reference.

Now I have watched this 30sec sequence a number of times and only now I think the theory makes sense. can anyone here confirm the below shows I have understood what he is saying correctly.

- measure 2 points of the wall on joists at opposite ends to of the room to each other at 400mm.

- place first floorboard tight against the wall.

- using the chalk line, measure if the distance between the chalk line and the board is the same along the length of the board.

- if not the same adjust board so distance to chalk line is the consistent.

Does that make sense and have I understood him correctly?

Thanks
Col
 
Basically he has repeated everything i suggested to you what to do :laugh:

this maybe the case but I am still not sure how this method works. Inbetween other DIY duties this weekend I have been googling this and trying to find info on it is not easy.
 

Thanks for the link I am still confused.
I am still watching the video and trying to figure out how that chalk line worked.

They measure 400mm from the wall at each end. - why 400mm?

His flooring boards are 220mm - does this factor into this measurements?

Sigh.... I wish this came naturally :D
 
They measure 400mm from the wall at each end. - why 400mm?
I don’t tend to watch videos So I’m not sure why 400mm either. I watched that though and I think all they did was measure 400mm from the wall twice giving a chalk line 400mm form the wall and parallel with it? That didn’t seem to be to deal with getting the boards “straight” - merely parallel with one wall?

The link I gave is simple enough maths but requires chalk lines being snapped 6-10mm off a wall and on top of a row of boards. I would imagine the distance from the wall can be modified but it isn’t the same as that clip in your video. In my link the idea is you have a parallel chalk line 6mm away from each wall so they aren’t parallel if the two walls aren’t parallel. You measure the distance at each end so you get a difference. Maths says what half that is at one end and with the first row of birds up against the wall snap a chalk line on top of the row at those calculated distances so the one end is the board and the other has a bit cut off. Now cut each board as per that chalk line and lay the row 6mm away from the wall. Now that straight edge is “straight” as in at right angles to looking from the end of the room. When you get tk the other wall those boards will need to be cut “opposite” to the first row but that is done by measuring the gap and cutting as required. The opposite last board will be whole as well.

I said modify since you have joists to and you can argue if you need the 6mm gap or not.

400mm would be square to joists that are 400mm spaced (in his video) so maybe that just looks nice as a distance? Seriously I can’t quite follow it either :)
 

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