DIY questions - many and various!

[Prunie]

I have not long moved into a Victorian house and don't really have that much DIY nous. (I am good at painting but not a lot else.) Some of you I know are really fab at it but I go into B+Q and the sheer variety of things terrifies me (plus we are always buying slightly the wrong thing).

1st Q: How do you go about finding out the best way of doing a job? Is there a DIY message board or anything?

2nd Q: We have original floorboards - they look like pine to me, but have been varnished to an oak colour. I don't want to strip them, they're lovely. But they need caulking, and I wondered how to do that. Plus a few of the boards have split slightly at the edges - how does one repair this?

3rd Q: How do you maintain varnished floorboards? Can they be waxed?

Hi

You sound like you're in the same position my DH and I were in 2 years ago. Luckily DH have some DIY knowledge but not that much. I would recommend a really good DIY book (Waterstones quite often have huge DIY manuals at half price this time of year, that is how we got ours) and googling where necessary. You can sometimes get more specialist books at the library. Using this method my DH has repaired our central heating 5 or 6 times, saving a fortune.

Your floorboards probably are pine unless your house is quite swish. There has been a big discussion in the Guardian recently about the best way to seal gaps between floarboards - small slithers of a similar wood forced in between the gaps seems the best short term measure, but the only long term solution is to take up the floorboards one by one and relay them closer together. Most of the other methods fall through the gaps sooner or later.

I would think repairing the damaged floorboards would depend on the extent of the damage. You could glue strips of wood onto small splits if the structure underneath was still sound, but matching the varnish could be a nightmare. You may have to replace some boards, which you will find in your local salvage yard. Modern boards won't match as well and they won't be seasoned or necessarily the same dimensions, especially if you have very long boards as these are hard to come by these days.

If your floor is varnished then it won't need waxing, just vacuuming frequently and a slightly damp mop every now and again. You will have to revarnish at some point depending on when the job was last done.

Sorry for the essay, hope it helps

Huge help, thanks.
I suspected as much with the floorboards (groan).
Ta