Nice floorboards

[r_c]

I am not a builder and know little about it. I would like to lay down new floorboards (replacing lots of chipboard that needs to come up) that I can leave exposed, but I am not sure what my options are.

I can see floorboards at Wikes, but they seem to be pine. And I see similar floorboards elsewhere. But they seem soft and not so hard wearing. I could get these and then purchase engineered wood, or something similar to put over the pine floorboards. But I was wondering if I could just by 'nice' floorboards and leave it at that. (The space in between the joists have been insulated.) But when I search for floorboards I find lots of floorboards which are intended to be put down above an existing floor.

Am I able to buy nice/oak floorboards that go directly onto the joists? Where?

 

[Doggit]

Any good wood yard will be able to supply oak floorboards, but I'm not sure how long you need to leave them to acclimatize, and dry out so that they don't shrink too much - they expand and shrink across their width. You'd need a secret nailer so that there are no head in the floorboards, and you need to strap each one up as they go down so they are tight up against each other.

You may find it cheaper to put down a pine floor, and then an engineered floor on top, with either secret nailing, or a glued floating floor.

 

[r_c]

You'd need a secret nailer so that there are no head in the floorboards

What do you mean by head? (And thank you for your reply!)

 

[Tigercubrider]

You could use the existing chipboard or replace it, then add engineered wood over the top?

Secret nailing is used so that any fixing is invisible as the next bit of wood covers the nail head.

 

[Doggit]

The problem with staying with the existing chipboard, is that you don't know what's underneath it in the areas that aren't being replaced, so you need to use short nails or risk going through something, and in addition, they're not going to grip so well; but you could stick with the chipboard, and put down a floating floor on top of it.

 

[Gossamer]

Try a architectural reclamation yard. Old floorboards tend to be pine which is a softwood and they last ages, >100yrs in Victorian houses.

 

[Doggit]

Old pine grew much slower than todays pine does, so it's a lot harder. Not a bad idea to look in to.

 

[r_c]

Thank you all for your answers and suggestions.

 

[drpepe]

Try a architectural reclamation yard. Old floorboards tend to be pine which is a softwood and they last ages, >100yrs in Victorian houses.

Yeah this^

We replaced chipboard with newly-cut floorboards (cut from victorian joists) , then used osmo oil to treat them - they look fantastic, not too perfect like new boards from wickes etc