Thread: Restumping & Replacing Floor

I have just finished replacing the last peice of borer infested baltic. In the rooms that have been carpeted, I installed yellow tongue and int eh polished board areas, I have fitted the final T&G hardwood secret nailed directly to the joists.
From a purley economic persective, 19mm baords were cheaper and easier to install than yellow toungue then 12mm boards on top.

If you decide to go chipboard then another board on top...dont forget having to change heights of all doors.

Hi Jimc,

Thanks for your thoughts.

When you replaced the floor did you replace 100% of the boards and if so, how did you go with the existing walls - were these built over the old boards?

Where the existing walls, stair risers etc where located on existing boards...it was a PITA. Had to remove approx 600mm of boards at a time and replace with new boards persuaded with a bloody big rubber mallet, crow bar and big jemmy bar.

In the sections where it was impossible to do this, I removed as much with a chisel as possible and hit the new boards in as far as possible....and where that did not work, i installed new joists over that section and fixed new flooring to that and left the wall.....only non load bearding ones!

Lucky for me my old flooring was the same thickness as the old.

Good luck

Originally Posted by Hawk01

Hi all,

Just starting out on a total renovation of an 80 year old weatherboard place. The place requires a total restumping and a new floor. Pre purchase pest inspection found borers in about 40% of the existing floor; advice was to replace the entire floor. I would agree as I will be doing a complete reno and I guess you want to get the subfloor smick.

My question relates to the replacement floor. The end result we would like is a hardwood timber floor (I've had baltic pine and Tassie Oak in other houses and found it too soft). Should I be replacing the floor with the final hardwood product? Or should I being intending to lay the final hardwood product over a subfloor - say chipboard? I guess there are pro's and con's to both approaches, but would greatly appreciate your advice/suggestions.

hawke, why dont you get a floor sander in and get him to level only the existing floor and install over the top your choise of species, if you are concerned about height, then their are a range of species avail from distributors in a overlay. IT is a 11mm or 13mm solid t/g . you can install it the same method as 19mm, secret nail or surface nail. Sand and coat in the same manner and there you go, a new floor, they areonly marginally thinner on the top and much thinner on the bottom, They are great for reno jobs like yours

Hi Larry,

My main issue is that the existing floor needs to be removed (borers). I'm not sure that your suggestion works for that situation?

Originally Posted by Hawk01

Hi Larry,

My main issue is that the existing floor needs to be removed (borers). I'm not sure that your suggestion works for that situation?

I'm worried about the type of borers you Blokes get that can damage a fllor beyond salvaltion like yours':eek: .
Larrys' idea is sound in 90% of foreseeable situations, I'm doing it myself on a 90 year old hoop pine floor ( I hate hoop) 19mm solid T&G straight over the top of it after sanding true & flat first.

in a home that old it is almost certain that the borer is long gone - try and find a reputable pest inspector and get it checked, would be my recommendation, with a view to doing the overlay deal. This is useless if you need to rip the floor up to get under it for restumping, of course.

either way have fun

Hi seriph1,

Had Archicentre pest inspection through and they said 40% of the boards had borers and should be replaced. Is this poor advice? Was intending to therefore rip up the boards, restump and then relay a new floor. I was after advice on whether I should be laying the new floor as the final hardwood product only, or laying a yellow tongue followed by the final hardwood product as an overlay. Pro's & Con's?

Cheers guys.

Sounds like they presented that you had EXISTING borer. In that case, I to owould recommend removal - I just havent seen borer in Balitc Pine for many years..... plenty of evidence as to where it had been - just none still munching away. That's not to say it couldnt be the case of course. If you rip the floor up then you can replace it with solid timber floorboards - WHELAN'S Warehouse in Port melbourne had some superb stuff last time I was there. Or you can lay a subfloor then put an overlay on top, but that seems like doubling the effort required to achieve the same basic result.

Hi seriph1,

Yeah sounds like the way to go, replace the entire floor with the final hardwood product. Another point I would like advice on, if replacing the floor because of existing borer, and wanting to get rid of 100% of the boards (don't want the nasty critters in the new gear), how do you go about getting rid of the sections of board that lay below existing walls?

Cheers.