New renovater

[Janecw8]

Hi all, I am new here and not 100% sure I am on the correct board, but I am about to start renovating my 1920's semi, I 100% want to keep all the existing original features.

Unfortunately the floor has sank(?) from the survey it doesnt seem to be subsidence but there are varying height gaps 5mm - 40mm between the 9" skirting and original oak parquet.

I need to lift the flooring, replace any joists and re-level. I obviously want to reinstall the original skirting and parquet. It is a large job circa 60m2 floor space. Does anyone have any experience doing this? any gudance? words of advice, tips, warnings? ... I really dont want to wade in a ruin either the floor or skirting

Thanks in advance

 

[Cubist]

Hello and Welcome,

A few of us, myself included, have tackled similar jobs and the members here possess a broad range of knowledge and skills concerning how best to go about almost every kind of renovation/restoration project. I am assuming that the floor(s) that your are concerned with a wooden plank suspended floors. These may or may not be the ones on the ground floor and you will need to provide us with more information and perhaps some photos before we can offer much in the way of meaningful guidance. To begin with though you will need to somehow gain access to the voids beneath the floors as this will be essential to allow examination of the root cause(s) of the floors descent and assess the condition of the supporting structures and framework. The parquet could be a problem in that regard insofar that you may need to lift a considerable numbers to reveal the subfloor to which these have been applied.

The sooner you can get back to us with some additional information the sooner we will be able to help get you started.

Cheers,
Cubist

 

[Janecw8]

@Cubist thanks so much for the reply. I dont think Ive made myself very clear, sorry.

I honestly dont know what the parquet is lay on, and the subfloor rectification I will need to get someone one in to fix, although once i know what is under there i will no doubt be back to check if the fix is appropriate for an older house.

I was really looking for any advice on removing the skirting and parquet myself so I can try to cause as little damage as possible so it can be reinstated after the floor has been leveled (I have heard horror stories of others allowing tradesmen to do this and the damage being significant).

From googling, it seems i will need to remove the parquet blocks and relay in exactly the same position and locations, but i am not sure , if correct how do you keep track, I was thinking photos and stickers?

With the skirting obviously check for nails screws and prise it off slowly but are there any other tips that could help reduce the possibility of damage

I realise its not a particularly old house but I really do like the older features and would like to mainaing and repair them wherever possible

 

[fernicarry]

Can't help with the parquet but I find the best way to remove joinery is to find all the fixings and cut through with a multitool. Even gently prising and levering usually results in casualties. Old rusty nails can be very stubborn and old wood very prone to splitting.

You can find the fixings by sliding something thin in behind the skirting board like a scraper or even the multi-tool blade itself. Make sure to check around all 4 edges, there could be nails fired diagonally into it the bottom edge to hold it against the sub-floor (maybe not a problem for you considering the gaps you are seeing) and where it meets adjacent elements like door and window architraves. Whoever fixed it in place will have wanted it to stay put.

If its a two part skirting (a plain base board with a separate decorative moulding) there will be nails between the two parts, again scraper and multitool along the joint between them. And pray that no one has been anywhere near it with grab adhesive...

You're right not to trust this to trades-people, they will reduce it to match wood every time whilst cheerfully assuring you its the only way. Start with the least obvious bits until you get the hang of it because you need pretty much a 100% success rate to be able to put it back the way it was. Once you get the bits off its better to punch any protruding nail heads in rather than out to avoid splitting the front.

 

[Stevers]

Even if original joinery splits or is otherwise damaged during removal, it can often be glued back together and be better than before. A bit of filler also goes a long way towards putting things back the way they should be before paint.

 

[paulc]

Can't help with the parquet but I find the best way to remove joinery is to find all the fixings and cut through with a multitool. Even gently prising and levering usually results in casualties. Old rusty nails can be very stubborn and old wood very prone to splitting.

Have tried to remove skirting without damage here (late 1920s build). Much of it was held in place with 3" and 4" cut nails, sometimes as many as three in each spot. In the middle of a 6" board, I don't think there are any multitool blades long enough to get down the back to cut through the nails. Fortunately, being a simple torus profile, it isn't too difficult to find a router cutter to make some new lengths.
Picture rails are also fixed using 3" cut nails, and being a shorter profile, it is possible to chop through the nails - I didn't, and ended up trashing most of the moldings. Replicating the profile was a little more challenging as it involved several router bits and multiple passes through the table.

If you are going to the effort of lifting the entire floor, it is well worth putting some insulation between the joists. Even 25mm of woodfibre or cork will make quite a difference. Just be careful not to compromise air flow, particularly over any dwarf walls.

 

[Cubist]

Apologies, I thought you were primarily concerned with the floors level rather than preserving the parquet.

I'll come back to that later but in my experience the best approach to removing skirting boards. with the least possible damage, is to start by a doorway into the room concerned. Removing the vertical architrave mouldings around the door frame provides access to the back edge of the skirting board which in turn allows use of a pry-bar or a claw-hammer to begin carefully 'teasing' the skirting away from the wall. The wood of the skirting will flex as you do this and wedges can be introduced between the skirting and the wall as you progressively increase the length of the opening along the wall and increase the width of the gap. The nails previously used to fix the skirting will either pull out with the board itself or the head will pull through the board and remain in the wall for later removal. Before starting these tasks its wise to use a Stanley Knife to cut the plaster just behind the uppermost edge of the skirting, and the architrave, as years of paint build up may pull the plaster away from the wall as the woodwork is removed. Be careful too to avoid resting the heel of a pry-bar or claw-hammer against the plaster as any pressure on the plaster will obviously damage it. Whilst prying the skirting from the wall do not be too adventurous. Whist the timber may still possess some flex there is a danger that it can fracture along natural fault lines in the grain and where nails are located. As far as tools are concerned you will need a smallish pry-bar, a claw-hammer, a few wedges and a pair of pincers.

Parquet can be a real PITA both to remove in good condition and hugely more difficult to re-lay if you intend to re-use them. The reasons for the latter is that the parquet is typically fixed to the sub-floor with a bituminous adhesive which can resist all but the most determined efforts to remove the blocks without some damage AND the fact that the perimeter walls of any room are seldom true and square to each other - which is why some people find it essential to carefully map the location and orientation of every block they remove. In truth its only necessary to map the location and orientation of the blocks that meet a perimeter wall or other obstacle such as a fireplace hearth, There is what I hope is an apocryphal tale of a carpenter berating his apprentice for cleaning off all his location labels after failing to give him proper instruction. To avoid this misadventure a strong sticky back plastic and indelible ink markers are perhaps the best approach. In terms of lifting the parquet; once the skirting is out of the way it's worth trying to lift a block or two using the edge of a thin steel plasterers trowel or float. If the blocks are reasonably loosely fixed in the adhesive they should lift fairly easily without too much effort. However, if they prove to be stubborn, a decorators heat gun played carefully over the surface of the block and/or along its exposed lower edge may be the next best approach to loosen the adhesive to allow the blocks removal. (But be mindful of any sticky back plastic labels - they will shrivel and separate from the blocks). Once the blocks have been removed the rear faces will need to be cleaned to remove any lumpy adhesive residue remaining and any fragments of the sub-floor material that may have pulled free during lifting.

One other thought; some areas of the parquet may have been subjected to much heavier/frequent foot traffic over the years and the amount of wood material lost to this erosion can be quite surprising. If you are determined to re-use the parquet you would be wise to map and label the blocks used in such high traffic areas to avoid creating a trip hazard and/or a major sanding exercise to re-estabish a common level.

Oh, and one other thought; firmly tap the heel of your shoe on the floor. If it sounds hollow you have a wooden suspended sub-floor. If theres no reverberation than its most likely a solid floor but.... given the 5-40mm drops you're seeing its most likely a wooden sub-floor.