bare floorboards?

[Nefertari]

The previous owners of this house put a disgusting pink coloured carpet in the bathroom I hate bathroom carpet at the best of times. I want to remove it but don't want to put down tiling yet as as some point I will be changing the bathroom suite.

I've had a peek under the carpet and is just floorboards. what treatment would I have to do to them if I wanted just this as my flooring?

[LittleBrownFrog]

sand/varnish or sand/paint. We had painted floorboards in the bathroom / boys' room for a while. How big is the bathroom? Ours is tiny, so I just used a belt sander on it & then filled the gaps with paper mache.

[tiameg]

When we first moved in we had central heating fitted - they flooded the house by doing it badly...all carpets ruined.
I had a guy in with a floor sander but I spent 2 weeks solid doing the stairs/bathroom down myself (very fiddly) we have sanded boards now in every room in the house. I didn't stain it as I wanted it quite light and the varnish has some colour in it anyways (which I'm told darkens anyway over time) so just depends how dark you want it. On the stairs and small areas, I used a small iron shaped sander. I did have the guy in for a few days with a massive sander to do all large areas though. We filled gaps between boards with something called caulk. Any builders yard should have it. Bit like dark Polyfilla but cheaper :)

Have to say, it was a huge effort but I love it. Well worth the effort and it's cut my house work time down by hrs a week. I can sweep the whole house down and mop it in 15 mins flat now.

[manda]

I had floorboards in my house in the UK... we filled the gaps between the boards with twine, stained and then varnished over the lot.

[LittleBrownFrog]

I agree about the sweeping - so much easier to whizz round with the broom than to get the vacuum out. Almost the whole downstairs has hard floors of one sort or another & I love it

[Nefertari]

thanks for the replies, that's really useful. I've got a little 'mouse' sander so I could do that myself. It's not a massive bathroom, say about 9'x9'

i've also got some decorators caulk - albeit the white one but could always go and get a darker one.

Thank you

[Orfy]

It depends on the condition of them.

If you are going to sand/treat them then you need to check they are all securely held in place and that the heads of any fixings are below the surface. A hammer and punch will help if they are not.

[tiameg]

thanks for the replies, that's really useful. I've got a little 'mouse' sander so I could do that myself. It's not a massive bathroom, say about 9'x9'

i've also got some decorators caulk - albeit the white one but could always go and get a darker one.

Thank you

Don't waste it! Get a spoonful of coffee and an bit of hot water and stir that it - instant wood colour! :)

[tiameg]

It depends on the condition of them.

If you are going to sand/treat them then you need to check they are all securely held in place and that the heads of any fixings are below the surface. A hammer and punch will help if they are not.

Agreed- I spent about 14 hrs doing this right through the house. It's quite amazing just how many there are to get rid of!

[Orfy]

Nothing worse than a raised nail for ripping sanding belts/sheets and flesh!

[Nefertari]

Lots of good advice there, thank you all.

The pink carpet has had its chips now. 7am yesterday morning I decided I couldn't stand it a minute longer so it became history.

can't decide whether to bin it or use to cover the compost heap or over a spare bit of ground to kill the weeds underneath.

[Mrs B]

oohhh cover the weeds with your carpet, save you some hard word work ... although that leaves you with a stinky piece of carpet to get rid of in the future.

O/T is this the egg storage you wanted?

http://broadwaybantams.co.uk/Books.aspx

[tiameg]

Lots of good advice there, thank you all.

The pink carpet has had its chips now. 7am yesterday morning I decided I couldn't stand it a minute longer so it became history.

can't decide whether to bin it or use to cover the compost heap or over a spare bit of ground to kill the weeds underneath.

If it's bright pink, I'd not have it on my compost (dye running perhaps) but to surprese weeds - ideal :)

[luckilotti]

i recall on a Sarah Beeny programme that featured wood floors, she said to save the sawdust, mix with PVA (i feel sure it was PVA?) and then use to fill between the boards as its using the waste product and is just as effective as the fillers you can buy.

We are doing our house up at the mo and in our back room, we wanted to use our wooden floors but upon taking up the full carpet, we cant as the large room used to be 2 rooms and you can clearly tell from the floor! We are hoping we can try it however in the front living room... finger crossed!

[silverback]

i recall on a Sarah Beeny programme that featured wood floors, she said to save the sawdust, mix with PVA (i feel sure it was PVA?) and then use to fill between the boards as its using the waste product and is just as effective as the fillers you can buy.

That's correct, you can mix the PVA adhesive with the sawdust you collect from the sanding as a filler. The only thing I would be careful of, is if you have to take up the floorboards in the future, being basically glued together, they can split when you prise them up!..