Floorboards are back baby, yeah!  Remember I told you they had taken all the existing floorboards to the workshop to be restored?  Well, some of them didn’t survive being removed.  This floor is over 100 years old, and is tongue and groove, so when the boards were lifted, some of the tongues and/or grooves broke.  There were also some boards which had been cut over the years to allow access underneath for things like wiring or gas pipes, so it’s not a huge surprise that they weren’t suitable to be re-laid.

The guys have done an amazing job restoring the boards.  They spent hours pulling out all the staples and nails that had been put in over the years, and then they were sanded down.  Some of the planks were trimmed so new tongues and grooves could be cut.  All in all, it means when the floor is re-laid, it will be sturdy and not squeaky or bouncy.

Our builder has also managed to find some reclaimed wooden floorboards to complete the rest of the floor.  They won’t look exactly the same as the existing ones, but that’s ok.  We talked about using a stain when finishing the floor to make the two sides look more uniform, but I prefer having two distinct sides.  It tells the story of the journey this room has been on.

In the photo below you can see one floorboard left along the left hand wall.  This shows the colour the wood had turned into, and it’s an amazing contrast when you look at the freshly sanded and restored boards.  Don’t worry, this board will still get sanded down, but they’ll do it in situ rather than lifting it up.