Repairing Old Floorboards - Any suggestions

[montyjohn]

Hello, old Georgian house with some great floorboards, and some not so great floor boards that need some attention.

I'm starting to mull over my options on how to improve the flooring.
A lot of the boards will be lifted as the house has very old wiring and a lack of decent plumbing.
I've also got some rotten joists to repair so many boards will be coming up.

So far I've had mixed results lifting these boards.

A lot already have splits, and the cut nails are a pig to remove from the joists.
If you pry hard enough, in many cases, the nail will pull through the board before the joist gives it it's freedom.

I've tried using a claw bar but it just knackers the board, and you can't really make a hole big enough to then get the nail out, and even if you could, there's barely any head to pull on. After removing boards, when trying to get the nails out with a crowbar they often snap before pulling out.

Other issues I have is at some point some reprobate has run a circular saw through a bunch of boards.
I've also got some historic rot resulting in a few 1inch gaps. Seems stable now.

I'm thinking about buying a load of reclaimed boards, and getting some thickness plaining tools and a circular saw table (I want all this stuff anyway and just need the excuse) and cutting down boards that I need to replace the really bad ones.
I suspect I need to replace about 10% of the boards, hopefully some of the origionals can be used to replace smaller boards so keepign more of the origional ones.

I will then sand (I'll hire the stuff),
fill any small gaps (not decided what yet, wood slivers, rope, Osmo Interior Gap Sealer?)
Then some sort of hard wax oil?

My main concern is do I have a cats chance in hell of matching these baords?
After sanding, and wax oil (or whatever else is recommneded) will the difference be hidden?

Pics below of general condition (some areas are much worse, some better):

1 inch gap and a split board.


Reasonable condition here


Reprobate did his work here


Angle cuts are all old cuts to help lift the boards I think. Origioannly they would have been full length.


Devil cut nail - One that actually came out in one piece

 

[fernicarry]

If you still have boards to lift then the best chance of saving them is to multitool through the nails rather than trying to pull them. My boards are T&G secret nailed and trying to lever up the board just results in it turning to matchwood. Its slow and hard on blades, mind.

So far as matching existing boards, well that very much depends on what you can source. You need the same species and the same age to have any chance of a match. I'd suggest taking boards from other rooms first if possible as those are going to be closest. Anything you have to machine to profile is going to stand out IMO as being too pristine (not withstanding the fact that you wish to acquire the machinery, that's perfectly understandable and I would hate to stand in your way...).

Last room I did had a few rows of modern replacement boards due to the joist ends having being repaired. They were not as wide, a lot lighter in colour and quite different in grain. After sanding everything back to bare I masked off and treated the new boards separately to the original boards. They got several more coats of stain and an extra coat of shellac. This brought the colour of the new boards close to that of the old ones but the grain and absorbency mean they still looks a bit different. Its not perfect but I don't think a casual observer will notice.

Refinishing floorboards is quite a difficult thing to do as its hard to predict in advance what it will look like unless you have some amount of experience (much more than I have). Its not like painting a wall where the colour sooner or later converges on what it says on the tin and then you can stop.

You could also take the view that your boards tell a story and leave them much as they are. Even with those dreadful cuts you can see that the grain continues across them and personally I'd rather have that than see a board that doesn't belong.