Summary: Learn how to draught-proofing the floor, secure loose or creaking floorboards, raise a floorboard, remove square-edged boards, remove tongue-and-groove boards and replace a damaged tongue-and-groove board.
There are a number of problems people have with wooden floors that can be quickly remedied. But when working on floorboards you must be aware at all times that pipes and electric cables could run under the floor.
If your floorboards do not fit tight against each other or have warped over the years, cold draughts can come up through the gaps. To remedy this:
Cut strips of floorboard to fit the gaps and apply wood adhesive to both sides.
Many of your electrical and plumbing projects will involve having to take up floorboards to access cables and pipes or you may wish to replace a broken floorboard. There are two methods depending on your floor type: square-edge boards or tongue-and-groove boards.
To test to see which you have, try slotting a thin blade between the boards. If the blade slips unhindered between the boards, you have square-edged boards, as the interlocking structure of tongue-and-groove boards will prevent you inserting the blade between them. For removing chipboard floors, follow the same process as for tongue-and-groove boards.
To remove square-edged boards:
To remove a damaged section rather than the whole board:
Using a crowbar, lever up one end of the board.
Cut across the board with a jigsaw to create a leverage point.
Raise the board, using strips of wood to jack it up.
Where there is no joist available to fix to, nail a piece of batten to the side of the joist to extend it and fix the new board to this.
For tongue-and-groove boards, you will need to saw through the tongues.
As tongue-and-groove boards interlock you cannot simply fit in a new board. But this problem is easily overcome.
Shaving off the tongue allows you to insert the new board.
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