Bedroom Two
Flooring

Flooring

New modern flooring will be laid, consisting of structural particleboard sheet subfloors with 14 mm solid overlay boards over the top. The overlay board width will match the old but the species will probably be different. As far as I can determine the original flooring is Tallowwood, which has a Janka hardness rating of around 8.6. The new flooring will have a similar or higher rating.

Removing the old boards

Levelling and other fixups

Two of the original 2 x 6 inch joists were too twisted to keep and a third joist against the window wall was about an inch less deep and so under spec for the span so was replaced as well. But then finding it difficult to level with the new joists in place I decided to replace another three joists that had sagged slightly. The six new joists are engineered LVL (laminated veneer lumber) 150 x 58 mm F17 (the same dimensions as the old solid hardwood) and are specified for single spanning the 3.6 metre width of the room (at 450 mm spacing). The joists around the fireplace were kept but additional support added and leveled.

Green Glue tape was applied to the top of all joists and trimmers before the particleboard sheets were laid down. As well as not being as permanent as construction adhesive, the tape system made this one-man operation a lot easier.

Sub floor insulation and sheeting

New solid timber overlay

After acclimatizing for approximately three years stacked in the old classroom next door while other messy jobs were completed (new crown cornice, painting etc), it's now time to install the timber overlay. These planks are 130mm wide to match the original T&G flooring and are 14mm thick solid Sydney Blue Gum. The installation will be full trowel glued and secret nailed using 32mm flooring cleats. The glue is necessary because of the width and will also provide a vapour barrier and acoustic attenuation. The completed floor will be a 34mm total thickness lamination on top of stiffened joists and so should provide a nice solid feel under foot.

The sheeting was sanded all over with 60 grit paper using a small orbital sander to abraid the surface and remove mostly fine paint mist that had settled from the spaying of walls and ceiling. This is essential for the glue to bond properly. It took several hours to do the first two rooms and created a lot of very fine dust, so a mask was essential.

I started putting down the overlay at the wall adjoining bedroom one because the floor continues through the joining doorway, which makes for a good point to continue into that next room. Because the tongue of the planks must face away from the starting wall to allow secret nailing I'll need to reverse direction into bedroom one, and so the first plank there will go groove to groove and having that occur in the doorway is convenient.