Cross Section Of Kitchen Floor

[gregpark]

Take a marking pen and determine where your spaced out butt joints will be and cut them first. To remove the tongue and groove board, set a skill saw to depth and and make two length cuts. Pull the loose center piece out and then you can carefully remove the T&G sides out without breaking adjacent boards

[jyl]

I have a table saw and dado stack, so I can rip boards to size and mill whatever I need. A friend told me where the deconstructed old-growth wood can be bought. Fir floors were pretty standard here back then, and they’ve demolished a lot of 1890-1920s houses after the deconstruction rule started.

There is a timing problem. I need to get this kitchen functional - temporary counters, etc - before my wife gets home in two weeks. The problem with DIY is it takes months for me to do what pro crews do in a week. So what to do about the floor while I’m working on the patching and so on, before I’m ready to sand, stain (?), and finish. I’d prefer no-one spill soy sauce or red wine on the raw unsealed wood. I’m thinking I should get big rubber mats to cover the floor temporarily.

[jyl]

Jeff, I do love the PaintShaver, even though I should associate it with pain. It’s such a useful tool. Floor is 1” thick. Or was, before the PaintShaver took off whatever - 1/16? More? Some of the darker shades is where I left a film of cut back, I figured it will sand off. In a perfect world I always want to leave just a film of paint or whatever I’m stripping off, like if I were stripping a window frame I’d do that, but in practice I’m more crude.

[gregpark]

When you get to the point of applying finish you will have 4 days of no traffic and 2 more for cure before heavy usage (various coats need dry time between). Right now you're no where near that stage so maybe get the new boards in and putty filled and let her have her kitchen for awhile. Finding old Fir is a good thing, it will match much better. Might as well get enough to eliminate that plywood patch under the fridge too. When you want to sand you'll be ordering take out for a week. I always schedule this type of job around the owners vacation.

[jyl]

Greg, thanks!

Curious, any vague rough ballpark of how much floor restorers might charge to get all this demo and restoration done by pros? About 180 sf of floor.

I’ve decided to start figuring what DIY projects are worth doing and which are stupid doing. I mean, at some age the “I need the exercise” argument starts wearing thin.

Like, I got a bunch of quotes for the exterior stripping and painting project and know that was worth doing (because the only painters who are stripping lead paint to bare wood are the high-buck ones, a neighbor with a similar size/age house spent over $60K with such a company ten years ago and I can only imagine what they charge now). The money I spent to have a pro plumber move two copper lines using Sharkbites was totally not worth it. The money I spent to have an electrician replace my main panel was kind of worth it. Etc.

[look 171]

At the end of the day, what's your time worth and the time spent having to justify that to your family members or your supreme commander when she gets home. My suggestion is to scab the floor together and someone come out to sand and finish it. Take a break and get to work on those cabinets. That will take you couple weeks just to finish them. There's a lot of spraying and fine sanding to be done there.

Don't sweat the old growth lumber too much. any vertical grain Doug fir will do because of the narrow strip you will noticed the grain will run the same direction and its pretty tight grain.

[gregpark]

I would charge around $4500. which would include finish, wood (all materials). There's a lot of labor involved. The time involved is one of the reasons I encouraged you to consider LVT. It's much more of a DIY job then sanding and finishing wood. Plus
you'd be done in 2 days. Actually, the kitchen would be usable as your installing it. Another thing I like about LVT is that it's truly water proof. In a typical kitchen you have a sink, an ice maker and a dishwasher. In the next 15 years one of those systems is going to flood your floor and there goes your work on the wood. With LVT you mop it up and air it out. The better quality stuff looks so real now I've had people get on their knees and swear it's real wood. I can put any floor in my house of course, and I installed plastic planks. But I love rustic old wood refinished and if you take your time it may be the focal point of your kitchen. Keep up the good work!

[jyl]

There is a good sheet metal supply shop near me. Normally you go there for ductwork and so on. They’ll make custom stuff. They made the ducting for my kitchen venthood. I’m going to have them make me some galvanized pans with drains, I can dump such floods into the basement (unfinished, floor drain) or even to the outside (via hose).

I hate plumbing. I know two people who’ve had their houses flooded by a large leak that started when they were away on vacation. In both cases they had no basement floor drain, their basements filled up. One lost their ground floor and part of their second floor, they lived in an Embassy Suites for nine months while the house was being repaired, One lost a lifetime collection of rare books. Culprit was a copper pipe in upstairs bathroom that a plumber pinched and soldered because he was too lazy to properly cap it. The other one his neighbor noticed
something was amiss so he merely lost part of his ground floor. I was the neighbor on the other side, remember getting rousted in the middle of the night for that.

If indoor plumbing won’t so useful, I wouldn’t have any.

[gregpark]

I've had drain pans made up for dishwashers and refrigerators for customers before. I always recommend replacing the shut off valve to the ice maker if it's one of those $2 mini gate valves. Those POS have kept me in business for 50 years ha ha

BTW, its great you have a source of reclaimed Fir, wish I had one. Newly milled never matches up in color to old and I have to mess with stain to make it look sort of right. You can't fake old wood as good as mother nature

[jyl]

Not floor related but jeez look at how they notched every stud on the sink wall. Like huge notches, some for no apparent reason. We’re going to reinforce that while the wall is open to do the electrical (every single switch and outlet has to be moved up and sideways, and plumbing added for a second sink, so the drywall came off.

The weird thing is some of those notches aren’t even cleanly cut, it’s like they brought out the giant beaver teeth and gnawed at the studs.

[jyl]

Left side of window, what’s with that diagonal cut and why didn’t they take the drain pipe straight down and make the connection in the unfinished basement.



Right side of window, no idea why this notch exists and did someone start to sister it but ran out of wood?

Not totally sure what is holding the header up.

[gregpark]

Yeah, you might consider tearing out the rest of the drywall and sistering all those studs.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by gregpark

I've had drain pans made up for dishwashers and refrigerators for customers before. I always recommend replacing the shut off valve to the ice maker if it's one of those $2 mini gate valves. Those POS have kept me in business for 50 years ha ha

BTW, its great you have a source of reclaimed Fir, wish I had one. Newly milled never matches up in color to old and I have to mess with stain to make it look sort of right. You can't fake old wood as good as mother nature

Send a trailer up to Portland, we have a rule that older houses have to be deconstructed so there are several places that salvage original lumber.

[gregpark]

That's a law? In Oregon of all places? wow, surprising.
I could probably source aged lumber an hour or so away but new milled is straighter and easier to deal with anyhow. I have tricks to make it match up pretty good

[jyl]

Picked up fir flooring at a reclaimed & salvage place today. They didn’t have any original fir floorboards, because the moment they get any, it is bought up. Apparently demand for the original stuff is way way more than the supply.

So they started milling tongue and groove fir flooring from the reclaimed lumber they pull from deconstructed old houses. They can only make them 3” wide, not the most common 3 1/2”, but demand is big anyway. An architectural firm almost cleaned them out recently, bought 1,000 sf and wanted the most distressed looking boards, the more nail holes the better. Anyway, the stuff was $7/sf so my little haul was $75.

Wait, you say, that’s too narrow! Actually I measured my floorboards and they are 2 1/4” wide. So narrower than typical. I’ll rip these down on the table saw.

I don’t know if it will match. It is old lumber, but newly milled. Well, it’s got enough nail holes to look authentic.

[herr_oberst]

Well there you go! Your instinct to work with the original clear fir floor is correct, and your kitchen will be right up to date!

Try experimenting with some vinegar solutions. I have a big tub of copper shavings around here from the key machine when I worked at the hardware store. Maybe copper in solution will turn the fresh cut grey...

The usual catalyst is steel wool...

http://gadgetsandgrain.com/2019/08/02/how-to-oxidize-age-wood-in-a-matter-of-minutes/

[jyl]

Coming back to the floor after getting sidetracked with the rest of the kitchen.

Work in progress state of the kitchen is
this






This is the rough plan

[jyl]

The “160” is wrong, is “192”

[jyl]

The part of the floor I’ve done looks generally like this

I have to go back and fill larger dents, plug screw holes, etc. But I got tired of walking on construction paper, so decided to sand and finish the floor, then work on the problem spots.

[jyl]

Main things left to do (notes for self)
- Floor
- More LED lightbars
- Drainboard top for the dishwasher
- Island, will be custom, built by same shop who did the cabs
- Rotate pot rack and patch, paint ceiling
- Paint rest of kitchen
- Baseboard, crown moldings, trim
- Move/add a few more outlets
- Finish with the pullouts in cabs and sink bases
- A surround for the above-hood area
- Drain pan for fridge
- Broom, vacuum, etc storage by fridge, something that slides out
- That open wall above sink will get either a picture or some solution to hang pots and such
- Stainless shelf above range

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