Historical floorboard botch

[malcolm]

I've had some floorboards up to do some wiring and found something really odd. The bottom of some of the floorboards have been cut out to make them sit lower on the joists presumably to level them to adjacent floorboards.



It's a funny old room. That side of the house has the most complete surviving early structure anywhere in the house and it baffles me. Toby's comments would date 230mm floorboards to the 1700s. The ceiling underneath has about 1 inch of straw and lime plaster which will be early. The joists are mostly thin and tall and fairly straight cut but there are some big old oak beams repurposed from elsewhere with mortice holes now sitting horizontally that the electricians found useful.



I think this side of the house must have been built at a different time to the other side which was first noted in 1646. It has 2 floors and the other side had 2 lower height floors and an attic and the window levels were different. It has a chimney in long thin bricks which might suggest late 1600s or early 1700s, but the timber frame ran through the chimney brickwork making me think the chimney was added later. Perhaps that's just how they built it when they added that side of the house.

Any thoughts anyone has about a date range for the floor would be interesting before I cover everything up.

 

[Toby Newell]

Not much to go on. Mid to late 1700s at a rough guess. Notching was very common and particularly infuriating if they have been put back out of sync or if you have to repurpose them.

 

[Kearn]

Possibly a real mix there, the tall thin joists look quite new in the grand scheme of things… however, the larger beam, which I would have called a spine beam, except it runs parallel to the thin joists rather than perpendicular, supporting them? My guess on that one is that the mortices aren’t previous joist pockets, but it’s a beam which once had a partition under it, spun 90deg, so that mortice hole would have had a post inserted under, and the round holes for staves to take wattle…

 

[Toby Newell]

Possibly a real mix there, the tall thin joists look quite new in the grand scheme of things… however, the larger beam, which I would have called a spine beam, except it runs parallel to the thin joists rather than perpendicular, supporting them? My guess on that one is that the mortices aren’t previous joist pockets, but it’s a beam which once had a partition under it, spun 90deg, so that mortice hole would have had a post inserted under, and the round holes for staves to take wattle…

View attachment 11514

The middle beam looks 1700s or early 1800s, possibly earlier, yes, thin joist are rough sawn pine 1900 onwards look quite new, possible mid C.19th. Looks like elm from here.

Rural homes do not follow rules of urban houses, in general board widths for rural houses are larger than towns and have much more variation, so boards might be 1800s. I normally need to sand clean to see colour, grain width and patination.

 

[malcolm]

The rest of the floors upstairs (mostly mid-1800s) were raised by 18 inches in 1920. This floor wasn't raised (there are a couple of steps down into the bedroom) but probably that's when the joists were fitted. The ceilings from 1920 are ordinary lime and lath but the ceiling below this floor is one inch thick straw and lime on lath. Doesn't make sense for it to be from 1920 but I don't know how they could have saved a ceiling when replacing the joists.

The big beam has the bottom edges rounded so could have once been a spine beam. But it's not jointed into the wall. There are regular stave holes running horizontally along the length of the beam so possibly a wall beam turned sideways.

Here's a photo from 1906 before the new facade. My house is the white one. The bedroom is on the side nearest the camera. I've been trying to work out build phases and the window heights are different each side of the house so it probably wasn't built all at once. The construction is all timber frame and wattle and daub and the wall between the two sides is an internal wall without a plinth. There's not much of the original structure remaining on the side furthest from the camera, just parts of the facade left behind the new facade.