Renovating a Queenslander: Hardwood floors

Monday 21 July 2014

Hardwood floors

When we first bought the house we knew that there were hardwood tongue and groove (T&G) floorboards, however, they were covered by layers of vinyl and carpet (including vinyl tacted over carpet) so it was hard to gauge what condition the timber floorboards were in. The only way to gauge the condition and type of timber was looking at the floorboards from beneath the house.

While the timber looked to be in a relatively good condition it was near impossible to tell what species of timber they were until the floor coverings were lifted and samples were taken up, planed and taken to a timber supplier for identification. While we suspected the floors were Queensland Spotted Gum, it turned out that they were actually a mix of hardwoods - Spotted Gum, Black Butt and Ironbark. Interestingly, two of the rooms had Ironbark floorboards only, while the rest of the house was a blend of the three. Clearly the floorboards were intended to be covered and it was lovely that we would be the first owners in some eighty plus years to see them sanded and polished.

The floorboards were not without issues however. There were quite a few damaged boards in the old kitchen and the old verandah boards were a different width, direction and height to the T&G floorboards in the main house. While trying to preserve as much as possible, we had to be practical. Particularly as the Master bedroom was now half the old verandah and half the main house so boards on differing levels was not going to work. We therefore lifted up the salvageable boards from the kitchen and used this to finish the master bedroom, dressing room and hallway entry (which had also been part of the original verandah) so that the boards all flowed in one direction and were all the same height. We ran short of a few boards in the master bedroom but rather than use new boards for the whole room, we found a local reclamation supplier (Keber's in Murwillumbah) who were able to supply matching second hand boards to finish off the room.

Now that we had an open plan living, kitchen and dining area, we also had to decide where the old and new boards would meet keeping in mind that new in stock timbers, are a different width to the old timbers (slightly narrower) and that the old boards have shrunk and warped a little which meant wider gaps. The logical place was to keep the old boards in the kitchen and pantry and start the new boards at the entry to the kitchen (the join is under the kitchen) bench and the end of the hallway. On the advice of the builder and timber supplier we go new Qld Spotted Gum floorboards which had enough variation to best match the original floors, whilst also matching the Qld Spotted Gum decking boards. We got raw samples, put water on them to try to replicate the darkening of the timber during the polishing stage, and hoped for the best. Picking a floorboard based on one sample is not ideal as the variation in colour and grain between batches can be significant. Our timber supplier had done a great job with the decking boards, however, so we were relatively confident it would all work out!

The floor sander came and spent a few days cleaning the boards up, punching nail holes and getting the boards ready for several coats of polish before having to dash of to his wedding and honeymoon! Alas, he didn't get time to finish the boards before his wedding, so we're waiting upon his return and the installation of the cabinetry before we can finish off the boards. Final photos are still to come.