Replacing 170 Year-old Floorboards - Planer/Thicknesser?

phykell

phykell

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Hi,

I need to replace some badly damaged floorboards in two of my bedrooms. The house is 170 years old and the boards are original. I would like to scour the reclamation yards to find something appropriate but that would take too long, the sizes are probably impossible to match exactly and most reclamation stock seems to be of poor quality - obvious damage and warping, etc.

I bought some boards from a timber yard but the sizing is confusing so I ended up with boards which are the correct width for one room but the wrong thickness.

Here are the sizes I’m looking for:

Thickness / Width
18mm / 195mm
18mm / 200mm
19mm / 300mm
19mm / 295mm
19mm / 195mm

As you can see, some of them are very wide and the sizes aren’t consistent across the floor other than the thickness i.e. each room may have boards with varying widths but they are all the same thickness.

1) Is there anywhere I’d be able to get these or do I need to have them cut to size?

2) If they need to be cut am I best off buying a planer/thicknesses (I already have some boards I could use if I could plane them to an 18mm thickness) and will a cheap one handle at least the smaller floorboards? Any recommendations?

Thanks :)
 
To start with you are very unlikely to buy those sizes of the shelf. You could contact the timber yard you bought the from they will know a joinery shop that can make them the right size for you. This would be cheaper than buying you own planer. Fred.
 
Find a proper timber yard (not a builders merchant)- they'll have all the gear to machine down timber to whatever dimensions you require.
18mm boards are quite thin for the age (similar job here, the originals are between 23 and 28mm thick, only 3 faces machined, the underside was left rough-sawn and planed with an axe or similar to sit level on the random-height joists).
 
They sound like they would look great polished. Over the years I have come across boards that sort of size. I’m on the south coast and I don’t know of a timber yard that would have the planer you need. Now a days builders/ timber merchants are just trade shops not manufacturers. So you need a machining work shop. Theses type of places don’t tend to need to advertise so you are unlikely to find them on your own. The guy I use can handle anything up to 600 wide. So well within your needs. Hope you find someone. Fred.
 
Thanks for the replies :)

I did take in a couple of boards to a timber yard but came out with 20mm thickness as they were the closest. I considered a planer thicknesses as there’s lots to do in the house including repair of several parquet floors and the Titan TTB579PLN (cheap at £160) seems ideal considering the amount I may end up using it. I definitely see the issue with buying one of the vastly more expensive models though and I didn’t even know such a thing existed before last week!

I will revisit the timber yard and see what they can do about machining down what I’ve already bought. I’m just hoping they can do it as I’m now surprised they didn’t offer when I was last there.
 
Fred61 said:
They sound like they would look great polished. Over the years I have come across boards that sort of size. I’m on the south coast and I don’t know of a timber yard that would have the planer you need. Now a days builders/ timber merchants are just trade shops not manufacturers. So you need a machining work shop. Theses type of places don’t tend to need to advertise so you are unlikely to find them on your own. The guy I use can handle anything up to 600 wide. So well within your needs. Hope you find someone. Fred.
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Thanks - I’ll keep that in mind. The repairs may only be temporary as we may have some extension work done yet depending on how things go but agreed, I would like to have them refinished and polished as opposed to carpet or overlaying with a wooden floor.
 
You will find issues with the overall quality of the cheaper thicknesers. They have a tendency to leave a step in the finished surface at the start and finish of each length this is fine if you are cutting to size but can be a real problem if you need the full length. This is cused buy the larger build tolerance in the cheaper machines. I have two a cheapie one for the basic stuff and a Mikita for the nice stuff. But I use them regularly for work so worth it. Try calling around first for a contact may well save you some time. Fred.
 
Do you have any parts of the house where the floorboards are not exposed, so you could lift some and place in the exposed areas?
 
By the way, a bit of warping isn't a massive problem on floorboards, you can use many lashups (wedge and straight edge, multiple clamps, water and hot air) to get them straight and flat on the joists & once you've screwed or spiked them down they'll learn their new shape. If the reclaims are cheap enough then buy them.
 
I just looked at the B&Q web site and they're quoting £16 for an 18mm 194mm 2m board. I can't do any manual work at the moment so I'm looking at costs and what jobs need doing - it's just that the more I hear about what a planer/thicknesser can do, the more I think it may prove useful. It's just typical that I also need a new combi-drill but I will wait for the best deals around new year before buying any more tools. I'm going to visit another reclamation yard at the weekend though so still optimistic I'll find something suitable, especially for the 12" wide boards but realistically, I'll probably need to use plyboard for that room and laminate over it for now.
 
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