DIY Advice: From carpet to floorboards

[matt]

Woman has decided this needs to be done in the living/dining room. So Man plans to do the following. No experience of such work, so hoping that anyone who does can point out any potential issues or preferred solutions.....

1. Move 3 tonnes of furniture and throw out carpet
2. Bang in nails that are sticking up from boards
3. Hire a sander and edger, and sand and edge
4. Hoover
5. Cover boards in this Ronseal Perfect Finish Diamond Hard Floor Varnish | Floor Care Products | Ronseal or similar
6. Fill gaps with this Floorboard Filler and Gap Insulation or similar
7. Move 3 tonnes of furniture back in

Job done.

Cheers

 

[mikeyjh]

1 'pitfall' to consider is the quality and consistency of your floorboards -For instance any structural work done in that area, such as a wall being knocked through will probably mean you don't have full coverage of original boards.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Somewhere between 2 and 3 you might want to tape up dustsheets over every doorway in the house...

 

[Stat Brother]

Bizarrely enough that's about it.
Unless you are really lucky, the knocking in nails part will be the worse job, will take ages, but absolutely ha to be done, thoroughly.

 

[Stat Brother]

Oh yeah:-
8. spend 6 months cleaning up saw dust from around the house.

 

[Gordon Bennett]

The sawdust will get everywhere.

Also, be prepared for the acoustics to change and depending on whether the room is adjacent to any neighbours be prepared for them to complain that they can now hear everything that goes on in the room!

 

[macky]

mmake the nail head are sunk because the sanding sheets cost a fortune
you might also want to mop
do yourself a favour and buy some plastic dusheets tape these to the door surround

 

[macky]

mmake the nail head are sunk because the sanding sheets cost a fortune
you might also want to mop
do yourself a favour and buy some plastic dustsheets tape these to the door surround

in fact remove nails where you can
and dont forget to fill the gaps or you wil be sorry
more to it than people think

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

My only advice is that all DIY projects are best left in the hands of professionals.

 

[Cromwell Road Gull]

Get Teddy Maybank in

 

[Garage_Doors]

Use the sawdust from the sanding mixed with PVA to a thick paste and use this as a filler then the colour match will be perfect.

Also when filling in between the cracks, don’t just fill the top 2mm but work in it so the filler depth it equal to the board thickness otherwise it will very soon fall out.

 

[Garage_Doors]

Oh yeah:-
8. spend 6 months cleaning up saw dust from around the house.

Use a a filtered bag.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Woman has decided this needs to be done in the living/dining room. So Man plans to do the following. No experience of such work, so hoping that anyone who does can point out any potential issues or preferred solutions.....

1. Move 3 tonnes of furniture and throw out carpet Have you got a cast iron sofa or what !!
2. Bang in nails that are sticking up from boards Check for Pipes !!
3. Hire a sander and edger, and sand and edge sounds simple, however its back breaking work, be patiant !!
4. Hoover this is where the wife comes into her own !!
5. Cover boards in this Ronseal Perfect Finish Diamond Hard Floor Varnish | Floor Care Products | Ronseal or similar every six months, as it wears off quicker than it says on the tin !!
6. Fill gaps with this Floorboard Filler and Gap Insulation or similar floor filler WILL fall through when walking on floorboards due to movement
7. Move 3 tonnes of furniture back in buy blow up furniture
8. Buy concrete paint for where the fire place was or a large rug.
Job done.

Cheers

seriously, Roll your carpet up first and try to save (just in case) check your floorboards first mate. You may find the previous owner has had work done ie extension etc and floorboards have been replaced with inferior quality ones or worse still concrete or screed. Also you may have to buy scotia as the gaps round the skirting from the floor maybe bigger and scotia will look better than filling as you can stain the same colour if you get unfinished. Good luck

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Buy some knee pads for back scuttling, costly but at least you wont get carpet burns.

 

[macky]

and oh yeah send the wife away for the weekend while you do it
otherwise she wil drive you f***ing nuts

 

[tedebear]

I would suggest pulling up the corner of the carpet to check how much of a gap between each floorboard. Ours were so far apart that any creature from Atlantis would have crawled in. Ask the wife if she like having breakfast with house spiders and see what she says. Based on her response - then chose the appropriate direction. (We put carpet back down upstairs and replaced it completely downstairs)!

 

[Mtoto]

When our first child was about to be born, my wife decided she wanted a new fridge. Fair enough.
When the second one was imminent, she decided she wanted all the carpet out and the floors sanded throughout a four-storey house. I have more flashbacks to that than I do to the actual birth (and I got someone in to do the actual sanding). You can dust-sheet all you like but it still gets everywhere.

Well worth it in the end though.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Use the sawdust from the sanding mixed with PVA to a thick paste and use this as a filler then the colour match will be perfect.

Also when filling in between the cracks, don’t just fill the top 2mm but work in it so the filler depth it equal to the board thickness otherwise it will very soon fall out.

Saw this as a tip from Sarah Beeny when she was advising the couple with a falling down house just yards from the station a couple of weeks ago on Channel 4.

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Having stripped & varnished the floorboards throughout a house (several years ago), I'd say DIY:-

Don't Involve Yourself.

 

[Winker]

When varnishing, make sure you work towards the door, not away from it!!!