Floorboards on floorboards?

Wyldwood

Have the upstairs bedroom floors varnished for the last few years and love the look of them, however, they are a bit draughty as they weren't put down tightly together (30 year old house).
I intensely dislike laminate and hardwood floors upstairs seems like overkill so my question is can you lay new floorboards at right angles over the originals and just nail them down or is there a reason why not?

Bonzo Delaney

Wyldwood wrote: »

Have the upstairs bedroom floors varnished for the last few years and love the look of them, however, they are a bit drafty as they weren't put down tightly together (30 year old house).
I intensely dislike laminate and hardwood floors upstairs seems like overkill so my question is can you lay new floorboards at right angles over the originals and just nail them down or is there a reason why not?

No reason why not just you won't get fixing in to the joists and be weary of where the pipe work is ,a lot of those 30 yr old houses had the pipes notched in to the top of the joists.
You could secret nail them using a porta nailer. And put down floor underlay and tape the joints stop the draught.

timfromtang

Wyldwood wrote: »

Have the upstairs bedroom floors varnished for the last few years and love the look of them, however, they are a bit draughty as they weren't put down tightly together (30 year old house).
I intensely dislike laminate and hardwood floors upstairs seems like overkill so my question is can you lay new floorboards at right angles over the originals and just nail them down or is there a reason why not?

I'd suggest that there may be a good reason why not........
dependent on how stable the humidity inside your house over the seasons

put simply since wood changes dimension with humidity and does not expand and contract (negligibly) along its length, but only across its width, nailing a new floor at right angles may introduce stresses in your floor causing buckling etc

a further observation is that if your intent is to close the gaps, surely laying the boards parallel to the originals but overlapping the joints would be more effective.

tim

recipio

Its not that they were not properly put down, its that they have contracted over the years. Of course. they were never intended to be exposed, lino and carpet were the order of the day.
Could you not find an acceptable and cheap laminate that would raise the floor by a small 10 mm or so ?

Wyldwood

thank you all for replies. I guess it's a non-runner so. If the original boards shrank and created gaps then this is likely to happen again to new boards.
Back to the drawing board but definitely no laminate, it's pure plastic pretending to be something else.

recipio

The main problem is outlined in post #3. If you create a 'grid' of T+G floorboards you will get possible splitting of the new boards due to seasonal movement.
The other problem is that T+G boards are 3/4" thick so you would probably have doors jamming etc.
Some people make slips of wood and glue them into the gaps but its a tedious business. Lastly, I've seen one room that had black caulking run into the gaps ( it wipes clean with thinners ) giving a kind of 'ships deck' look. Anything is possible.:rolleyes:

Markcheese

Brother in law did the wood slip - wedge thingy - very tedious -
I like the idea of caulk in a contrasting colour - sounds very cool -
But probably the best would be to take off the skirting (maybe the archatrave too) lift the boards and relay them tightly . Maybe put a bead of sealant on the tongue too -

Double Barrel

Just a few thoughts.

Refasten the subfloor to the joists with screws and set protruding fasteners into the subfloor. Vacuume or sweep the old floor thoroughly. Lay rosin paper over the old floor overlapping the edges by 6”.

Laminated rosin paper, felt paper or construction paper acts as a moisture retarder and may be used to reduce movement caused by changes in subfloor moisture. Therefore it may reduce cupping and warping. It may also reduce sound transfer, and to prevent noise caused by minor irregularities and debris. It will make installing the new flooring easier.

My preference would be to lay the new flooring at 90 degrees to the floor joist.

It is important that the fastners be long enough to reach the floor joist by at least 1/2” so the use of 50mm L-nails in a powernailer or longer if hand nailing.

Good luck.

Bonzo Delaney

recipio wrote: »

The main problem is outlined in post #3. If you create a 'grid' of T+G floorboards you will get possible splitting of the new boards due to seasonal movement.
The other problem is that T+G boards are 3/4" thick so you would probably have doors jamming etc.
Some people make slips of wood and glue them into the gaps but its a tedious business. Lastly, I've seen one room that had black caulking run into the gaps ( it wipes clean with thinners ) giving a kind of 'ships deck' look. Anything is possible.:rolleyes:

That's a nice / interesting idea with the black caulk
I understand where Tim from tang is coming from with the movement of boards depending on humidity. But would it really be that significant considering the boards would be only nailed down not glued so there would still be movement in allowance in each board. They probably would shrink a bit over time unless the boards were cut, left stacked and turned in the heated room for a month or so. Also the membrane would stop any draught coming through even if they did shrink.
I'd imagine they'd be more prone to splitting if they were laid parallel to the original floor.

lgk

If you're going to cover up the old boards anyway, why not just lift them and replace? Did that in my place and took the opportunity to add in some insulation to reduce noise transfer.