Floorboards

[Plumm]

We've just moved into a new house and would like to paint or varnish the floorboards. There are carpets down at the moment but we've pulled them up and the boards look like they're in pretty good condition - they've just got lumps of paint on where (presumably) the previous owners painted the walls and it splashed on the floor.

What do we need to do to prep the boards? Sanding, probably, to get rid of the paint blotches and some kind of sealant or something to stop too much cold coming up through the board?

We are just about to embark on this too so I've been researching!

From what I've been told, you have to bang in all the nails really well, then sand the floor (not by hand obviously!) then you either wax or varnish depending on how you want it to look.

There are various ways of dealing with drafts depending on how wide the gaps are. One method is to make a paste of the sawdust and PVA glue, stain it to match the colour of the floor, and then put it in the cracks, but this is fiddly and eventually wears out. Really large gaps need filling with thin bits of wood - again this is quite fiddly.

Otherwise if you have access to the underside of the joists (like via a cellar maybe) you can put insulation directly under the floorboards between the joists in which case the gaps don't need filling.

If the boards are close fitting then you are lucky!

I'm about to order carpets to cover mine, because they make the room really cold. No matter how well you fill the gaps, draughts come up.

But if you are determined to go ahead, my advice would be to get a professional to do it.

It's messy, sore on your arms, and you'll spend more on sandpaper than you could possibly imagine, and you'll probably have to hire the sander for longer than you thought too.

Good luck!

I was just thinking about painting some floorboards. Do you HAVE to sand them first?

We hired a sander (about £30 ish for half a day and it came with the sandpaper sheets included as well as a mini sander for the edges). It was hard work, and dusty but definitely doable. After we sanded we hoovered the floor to get rid of all the dust and put about 4 coats of diamond hard clear varnish on leaving it as long as possible between coats. Yes it can be a bit draughty in winter but not too bad, and nothing beats the look of real wood floorboards. HTH

After having just hired a carpet cleaner to clean our last remaining carpet and seeing the filth that came out of it I would say floorboards are the only way to go.

We used a wax oil on our old 30s boards and they look good.

Hire the sander for the weekend, along with loads of dust masks, crates of beer and the pizza delivery number handy.

You may need to hire the edger one too.

Thanks everyone. I'm 31 weeks pg so will definitely hire someone to do the sanding! I'll let you know how we get on.

We sanded our floorboards 10 years ago.Yes wooden floors are more practical with kids than carpets.However our house is permanantly icy in winter due to large underfloor air vents [0ld 1904 house and living up a windy hill].Even if the cracks are filled the floor is still freezing.We are currently refurbishing and builder has suggested engineered wood flooring in one room [with a howling gale whistling round your feet].The flooring i've orderd is oiled oak which looks like floorboards - and i got it at a really good price from a local builders merchants .[about 300 pounds for 10 ms squared].A good quality carpet would probably be arround the same cost.