First Flooring in Great Hall

The first section of hardwood flooring has gone down in the Great Hall, so a definite moment for celebration.

first "new" flooring in the Great Hall (photo taken yesterday evening)

The "new" flooring is 2 3⁄8-inch wide x ¾-inch deep oak-strip flooring. Not quite the monumental 4-inch wide x 1-inch deep oak planks of the original floor, but the closest I could get using reclaimed materials. I have heard many horror stories of new oak floors warping a few months after being laid, as the timber dries out in-situ. Modern oak is never properly dried and even kiln-dried timber will warp. 

Thankfully, this will not be the fate of the new Great Hall floor as it had a previous life in Culzean House at 36 Renfield Street in Glasgow. Culzean House was built in 1924 and the flooring was removed during a 21st century refit to create modern high-end office accommodation.

Culzean House, 36 Renfield Street, Glasgow

I checked throught my emails to see when exactly I bought the flooring. This was on the 29th November 2013 (!!!!), when I obtained 200 square metres for around £20 a square metre from Hargreaves Flooring near Falkirk. They say you should acclimatise flooring for up to 10 days in the location it is going to be laid. I clearly wasn't going to take any chances and the flooring has now been acclimatising for over 10 years. :-)

I had originally intended this flooring for the dining room and the drawing room (each 68 square metres) but the difficulty of sourcing separate 4" wide oak flooring for the Great Hall (91 square metres) became apparent and just using what you have in stock makes a lot of sense.

Gregor suggested planing the top off the boards in advance before laying them, as otherwise they would need considerable sanding in-situ. There are layers of carpet backing and glue on many of the boards. This is definitely the right decision to minimise effort, although the boards will still require a light final sand in-situ. Using a floor sander is heavy and stressful work, and the sandpaper often just rips, and an uneven surface can result if particular areas need heavy sanding.

We are laying the reclaimed flooring on a plywood subfloor. The tongues of reclaimed T&G flooring are often missing, and the plywood lends support to stop the boards slipping down between the joists.

Gregor initally thought the wood might be beech. I had a bit of a diva strop of "...but I bought oak". However, after planing Gregor did declare the wood to be oak. Interestigly enough, Gregor spotted three different types of flooring in the batch (different mouldings and stamps visible from the underside), but on the facing side these should be indistinguishable.

We are planning to oil/wax the floor - basically doing as little as possible to show off the beauty of the wood and, of course, to protect it. I am somewhat concerned that the wood is too light as it is and may need a stain, but Gregor believes that the wax will darken it down. Anyhow, experimentation lies ahead.

Over 20 years ago (surely not!) I helped some friends build a new oak floor in their living room. It still looks amazing, and if anything has improved with age - and miraculously, try as I might, I cannot even see any dints. Naturally, I asked a few days ago what oil/wax product was used, and they found this in their paint cupboard:

possible product for oiling/waxing the floor

And miracle of miracles, my friends have never needed to apply another coat! Anyhow, I will update the blog with flooring progress.