Thread: restoring cypress pine timber floor or replace it?

Joseph,
welcome aboard! If the floor is sound you won't need to replace any timber. If it isn't you will need to replace timber, even if you stay with carpet. Sanding and sealing the imber won't affect the structure at all. If ther floor boards are gappy then yes, it will be a bit draftier. Also the carpet would give some slight insulation value. Cost wise I have no idea, buth there's a couple of pro floor sanders on the forum that may give some indicative pricing.

Mick

Hi Joseph,

I'm in the same situation as you and am leaning to removing the carpet and laying down some new floorboards at right-angles to the existing ones. Figure this would serve three purposes - give me a bit more insulation, give me a much better look as I can choose the timber and don't have to try and jazz up the ugly existing floorboards which were picked to be covered by carpet, and it will restore the height of the floor so we don't have huge gaps under the doors. Don't know if this is a good idea in terms of proper do's and don'ts but it is my idea (and for Python fans my name's not Anne Elk!). The only problem I can forsee is not having floor beam thingys to nail into, but I figure the old floorboards will give enough purchase if I slightly skew the nails - just have to watch the old noggin when I'm under the house.

Cheers,
Adam

we lived in a house on the darling downs that used to be closed in underneath but when we opend it up and the cold westerly blew in winter the carpet lifted up and the house got realy cold.

we riped up the carpet and found caps up to 1/4" between the boards we simply installed a floting floor in stringy bark toung and gove.

it worked out fairly cheap as we used regular t&g and not the designated floating floor stuf. its practicly the same.

We are in the process at the moment of redoing a cypress floor in the house we are doing up. It hasn't had carpet on it (or if it has it was a while ago), but it has been butchered about a bit in the process of moving walls, doors, etc. We've filled the gaps with offcuts, and used new cypress boards in one room where we are converting a verandah to a room. As long as the boards are sound you can lift the carpet and then sand (after removing any stubborn carpet tacks) and refinish. You can do it yourself but might be easier to get it done professionally (we've just had it done in another place - didn't take long).

Whoever is telling you that you need to replace it all is touting for business I'd reckon!

thanks for the info guys! the house is situated in greystanes...just wondering whether you can recommend someone to sand and polish the floor?

your help is highly appreciated

you?

Originally Posted by weisyboy

you?

I am not handy man...

hi mate , welcome to the nut house...!




a guy i know put a prefinished floating floor over his old boards, it turned out really good, looked better than the old crappy ones with all the holes and didn't really cost much more than a professional floor sand a polish (albeit, he did do it himself...)

just depends on your boards, if there really nice go for the sand and polish, if there crappy go for the floating option...

Hi,
I'm very new to this forum and probably even newer to woodworking.
I am also about to polish some cypress floorboards back and get a polyurathane coating put on. the rest of the house was already done and there was just the one room that wasn't.
The main problem I can see is that only half of the boards are cypress (about 50 yrs old) the other half I'm going to need to replace as they are old crappy pallete boards. As I will be getting the floor sanded back, will I need to replace them with re-claimed ones ($6 a metre) or would new ones ($4 a metre) come up the same once treated?

the other question I guess is how hard is it to diy the polyurathane? I'm happy to give the whole thing a go myself but suspect this may be a bit tricky. Because it's such a small rooom as well, the only people I have found to do it charge a minumum, the cheapest being $400.

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Simon

Hi buddy...

firstly you will unlikely get anywhere near the same look using new boards compared to recycled ones, the old ones just have all that character and are usually old growth wood, new boards are usually plantation and look like crap. best bet would be to get some samples and a little pot of poly and do some test before you invest.

as for the finish, if you don't have much experience and what a top notch job, then get a pro to do it, if you can't afford a contractor then put the job on hold till you can, there is nothing worse than a good floor being stuffed by an amateur.

on the other hand, if your not after a high end finish and prefer it a little matt and rustic, then you can easily use a oil based finish, feast watson make something called floorseal, and they have some other products too, the more oil based the finish is the easier it will be for an average joe to apply, tung oil for instance is just so easy, but needs recoating once in a while...

some of the other guys should have some suggestions too, also ask at your local paint retailer or bunnings for advice, tell them your inexperienced and need a finish that you can manage yourself, it might only cost under $100 for a 4 litre tin of something, there is a big saving doing it yourself, that's for sure.

La H

The hardest part is the floor sanding. I pulled up the carpet on our thirty year old house. Upstairs was cypress pine and carpeted. Fortunately when we had the place built I stipulated I wanted to stain the floors, one day, so the floor was reasonable. otherwise we may have got a dodgy floor as was the want in those days.

I had a friend who had more experience then me help. the hardest part was knocking in all the old nails. Their must have been a million of them. Get a good quality nail punch, as you will appreciate it in the end. We hired a floor sander for the week end, which my friend operated.

We could only get so close to the skirting boards so had to do the gap with an orbital sander. It is a good idea to send your partner away shopping or something especially when the floor sander is operating unless you have a good dusty, although I do not know how well that works in a house.

When the sanding is done, you have then got to vacuum the dust residue on the floor then wash it down with some spirits to get it really clean. Then you will go mad filling in all the nail holes with putty andn your thumbs will be sore for a week, not to mention your back.

The easiest part is the staining and putting the poly on the floor. Because there is special floor mop applicators this is the easiest part. Make sure it does not go on to thick and we put three coats on.

ps I do not mean to alarm you, but if I can do it so could you. However, downstairs which was concrete we got some professionals in and they put in a floating floor. The floor sanding seemed easier and faster then ours and the sealing was quite simple although I queried why the poly was thinned down as much.

wow, that's great info guys. thanks. I think I have found someone who only has a $400 minimum for the polishing. The room is only 3x3 so I'm paying a bit extra, but I'm a bit nervous about my level of experience with the diy so I think laying the floorboards myself will be enough for this project ) (Any tips about that anyone can think of would be great, although it seems pretty straight forward)

Again, thanks for your speedy help. What a great forum.

Simon