120 year old remodel – Reuse floor question
mark_ragnar
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
We are remodeling our 120 year old house, and I would like to run this idea past someone with experience. We have the original long leaf pine wood floors. Originally it was installed perpendicular to the joist with no sub floor. I would like to pull the floor up, put down a sub floor and then plane and reinstall the long leaf. I don’t think there will be any problem with this.What do you think?
Replies
This raises a few questions. Is the house balloon framed? If so, the flooring may run beyond the wall surfaces.
Are you talking about a room or the entire house? Again this flooring could be under or through interior partitions.
In addition to understanding how the flooring supports loads above, you probably want to consider lateral loads as well, (meaning install the new subfloor as the flooring comes up)
Some of the flooring will be wasted in the transition, so keep this in your planning.
The old flooring boards may hide nails. and your planer will thank you for extra care in getting them and any rocks out of the boards.
Some related discussion from a while ago:
https://www.finehomebuilding.com/forum/finding-nails-in-salvaged-lumber
Yes you should care about the floor that has been used in the home.
Thank you guys for the responses. Yes, the house is balloon framed. The exterior and interior wall framing extend below the floor to the joists. The floor does run past wall surface, but being as this is a complete renovation (as in to the 2x4 and back), the wall surface has been or is being removed.
Understood on the lateral load. I plan to lay down the subfloor as we go pulling up the floor. I will distantly pull the nails. the majority seam to be through the tongue on the side, but I have carbide in my planer, so the inserts are easy to rotate or replace.
I forgot to mention that one of the main reasons that I would like to add a subfloor is that I can scribe around the framing that penetrates the floor to close off the wall cavities from the crawl space bellow. I am tired of rats having free run in the walls of the house.
It sounds like you have a good grasp on the situation. I would offer that while you're at it, you might consider solid blocking on top of the subfloor, between studs. This will deter vermin, cold air and provide better nailing for base and shoe. And of course it's good fire blocking too.
And, of course, you will seal and insulate while you have this all open.
(he said in his best Obie-wan "these are not the droids you are looking for" voice)
I'm in a similarly old balloon frame house and have been doing similar degrees of demolition & rehab for the last 14 years.... I have been furring the 2x4 studs in to get 5-1/2" thickness and more insulation. I think I missed a major opportunity to stiffen the house up when I didn't lay diagonal 2x4's over the exposed exterior framing. There is no diagonal bracing let in to the studs like I have seen in some of the old graphics for balloon framing. Perhaps this is why my tape joints have been breaking open in the finished areas. Ah well, at least I'm insulated now.
In my humble opinion, more important than air infiltration is fire protection. I'd seal the subfloor and blocking with fire resistant foam.
(He says in his best Fire Marshall Bill voice) Lemme show ya somethin
Foam insulation in your walls is worth the cost!
And in floor heating is beyond price!
(She says in no particular voice at all.)
Removing all the nails could be a challenge, and I wouldn't wish that on anybody to do manually. There are pneumatic nail removers, but I don't know how well they'd work on cut nails, if that's what you have. If they are cut and you can remove them in good shape, you might be able to sell them or use in another project, as they're fairly expensive.