500 to 850 yr old timber floor - full conservation and restoration in real time

[Toby Newell]

The madness begins.

Set up your mobile workshop.

Clean the area.

Mark the jigsaw pieces.

Start to remove fixings.

 

[stuart45]

Good idea having your name on your tools.

 

[Toby Newell]

condition? I guess there may be a few loose boards...

Amusing.

When you think, that looks a little like pitch pine... (which only grows in NW America)

And then you realise.

Maybe not.

Because the floor was probably laid before Columbus 'discovered' America...

After half a millenia oak turns into chocolate, at least the heartwoid does.

The sapwood turns into crema coloured crunchie bar

Good idea having your name on your tools.

I rarely work on site with others, if I can help it! More of a tradition. Mind you, it is a discontinued Estwing weight forward 20oz framing hammer, would be sad if it walked.

 

[Toby Newell]

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[Toby Newell]

For all those people who are scared of sanding and say you should only wash or brush boards....

NO amount of hours of washing, brushing and rubbing will all the solvents in the world will do this...

Do you prefer dusty and black? or silky smooth chocolate?

I would argue the beauty is ilargely existential n the age and quality of the timber and its history.

Any aesthetic improvement just heightens that in a wonderful feedback loop.

The height difference between the unsanded and aanded part is less than 0.3mm, you cannot see or feel it.

The wood, suspected 570yr old oak, is unfinished by the way.

The mirror finish is bare untreated wood.

After about 25 seconds with a P80 grit ceramic alumina / zirconia the oak wriggles and says 'ooo, that tickles' the abrasive still sands the iron nails, but the oak just grinds the abrasive and burnishes, there is virtually no sawdust. Don't ask me how that works and I studied materials science.

I guess it's magic.

 

[RBailey]

Good idea having your name on your tools.

Habit for me too.
I have also taken to marking the purchase date in the battery area of my cordless tools as I'm not sure some of them are lasting as they should.
(Probably due to my choice of brand but that's a personal price point decision.)

 

[Toby Newell]

aaaaaand now it REALLY starts.

The real reason why no sane person does this type of work.

BUILDERS. aka humans, aka lazy as F useless, selfish *****.

FYI builders, here are a few pointers.

1. Instead of hamnering six round wire nails into friable sapwood, splitting the board for no reason and still leaving it unfixed, there has been a new invention, its called a SCREW. If you were dilligent and knew you were working on a listed 600yr old property you might even invest in some pellets...

2. The extractor vent doesn't have holes in it to increase its power to weight ratio, they are meant for... SCREWS! It is not a friction fit... Also... attaching the ducting to the vent cover increases the efficiency and if you insist on making holes in the ducting as you install it there is a later invebtion, its called TAPE.

3. You know, the stuff you used on the light cables above the shower room with the bare conductor hanging out.

4. If you are replacing 6x6 inch oak beams in a property that already has a deflection of more than a foot accross a 4 metre span I would of preffered 2x 3x6 inch C24 coach bolted over your 2x 2x5 inch C16 turbo gold screwed...

5. Lastly, and by no means least! You obviously didn't want to build boxing for your pipes, or add another joist or buy any platerboard, I mean it was only a new bathrom / boiler install, a mere 5 figure sum.

BUT.

A. Expandable polyurethane foam does not have identical properties as lime plaster.

B. Technically and legally (I've checked) old lathe and plaster ceilings are not approved structural members to support floors.

Yes, I know by the time a small child jumps up and down and says 'look Mummeeeee...' as they magically reapoear in the kitxhen below will likey only happen months or years after you have left the job, got paid and gone down the pub, but still.

This is the first 20%, hopefully the morons were confined to one corner.

The interesting thing is, look at that board, sanding, filling, glueing, strengthening, colouring, refixing, finishing, a lot of work right?

All less annoying, less time consuming and less expensive than finding solutions to the idiotic previous actions of basically lazy humans. I fail to believe people are that stupid, rather they are laxy and they don't care.

It's not your fault if you are stupid, I obviously am as this is my job.

But at least I am not lazy and uncaring.

Nice lunchbreak this has been. Deep breath, back to it...

 

[Toby Newell]

me and my reverse racism! there was me thinking it was Dave and Lance, the British builders when all along it actually was those pesky Poles... kudos, at least they have pride, even if it is misplaced.

 

[Toby Newell]

in the interests of cosmic balance, here are some marks 560 years earlier by some good old British builders, I wonder if Mireks bathroom will still be standing in another 570 years? possibly not...

terrible chopping to the summer beam but still standing! good job guys.

 

[Toby Newell]

The Victorian meeces seemed to have had a nice time, comfy linen sheets, engraved copper button, sorry platter, heart embossed lead seal and Cadburys hot chocolate...

 

[Toby Newell]

Time for the big boys, Uncle Sorby and Mr Hildick...

 

[Toby Newell]

see other threads for more pics.... the latest... some of the jigsaw is going back in, with a bit of cutting, planing, levelling and infilling, screwing and glueing, and when I say a little, I mean a lot...

totally rock solid floor now, which will help reduce rhe proprioception issues to merely the one foot height runout

and yes, I am differentially levelling the timber infills accross their lengrh and width.

You think I do this for fun?

 

[Cassie]

I’m following this thread with deep admiration and not a little envy. Your workmanship is spectacular as is your dedication. I really enjoy your posts!

 

[Toby Newell]

Lol. If you substitute the word 'spectacular' with 'dilligent' I will accept that, thank you.

It really is simply an iterative process of thousands of little steps. It is quite mentally challenging, which is why most sane people would not attempt it. But you know, if you can maintain your level of effort and focus you do get to produce something of a high quality that is relatively unique.

Unfortunately it only becomes satisfying towards the very end, often by which time you just want it to stop. I think as many DIYers on here have shown, with diligence and patience you can create something great with relatively little skill.

Alrhough only modest skills are required currently there are no shortcuts, as they say, the elevator to success is out of order, you are going to have to take the stairs and this is a very tall building.

 

[Cassie]

Modest skills? You do yourself an injustice!

 

[Toby Newell]

Not really. I am actually quite a skilled colourist and finisher, but still quite a way until I start that! 90% of the job is repair and in that respect I would say my skills are less than or barely equal to quite a mediocre carpenter. It's just that my application is close to 100% almost 100% of the time. It's actually quite surprising what you can achieve with modest skills, as I said, with maximum effort.

I think what most people do not realise is that for most contractors if they are working at 40 to 50% of their maximum capacity, then they think they are doing a 'good' job, (for them!)

You will immediately notice if they are working to a higher capacity. If they also have a modicum of skill and experience, then this is very noticeable.

This is why, on average, with a little research, practice and maximum effort and patience the average DIYer can produce results simular and in most cases, much better than the average professional. I see it all the time.

I see far more woefull work from contractors than I do from my customers, who admittedly are often very dedicated. Obviously I see a shocking amount of ridiculously poor butchery from previous DIYers who were lazy! But that's my main point I try and get accross with my adviice.

Most home owners can do an equal or better job than they can pay for.

 

[Toby Newell]

I was starting to enjoy... deep breath...

fixing hard, cracked, half a milenia old wood jigsaw pieces, onto a turtles back, with no fixings because the turtles' nerves are just under the surface.

level? nope. Client wants lowest step at the threshold and floors this old look like a golf course rather than a nice euclidian slope or even compound convex or concave shape. The worst area for this in the entire floor happens to be directly over the most cables, of course it does and yes, I did adjust the joists underneath as much as I could.

#so we are actually tapering shims now are we?

silver lining, at least I have hair left to pull out

 

[Toby Newell]

But if you sand you are going to destroy all the patination...

Ok.

Quercus robur, English white oak, born probably sometime between 1000 -1200 AD.

It's chocolate all the way down...

 

[Toby Newell]

Good idea having your name on your tools.

It is if you are working with other trades and it's on a legendary discontinued 21oz Estwing weight forward framing hammer. £300 on ebay if you can find NOS.

 

[Toby Newell]

Filling...