Spring 22 ORC Week Five: Fixing the Floor
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Week five of the One Room Challenge is here and I’m so excited to share the progress I’ve made! I never could have guessed I’d still be working on the floor by the fifth week, but I knew going into this challenge any number of things could have been wrong with it. I had to have some flexibility with my timeline and shift the rest of my projects back, but I knew it would be worth it to be able to fix the floor the right way.
Fixing the Subfloor
Last week I shared the problem I found with this section of the floor. A previous homeowner had cut through the floorboards, accidentally going through some of the subfloor as well. Those planks weren’t supported on both ends anymore, making them bend under pressure. There was a weirdly sweet smell when I cut through the remaining boards, and when I removed them, I made an…interesting discovery. Under the floor was a TON of beeswax from old beehives! Fortunately there weren’t any bees in sight, but just goes to show, you never know what you’ll find in an old house.
To create a stable base for the new flooring, I cut out the loose planks and replaced them with new boards. I’ll fill in the gaps and lay down new rosin paper before installing the new hardwood planks.
The grey areas on the old subfloor is an adhesive that was used to hold down the hardwood planks. It was only used in this area, though. The rest of the floor has rosin paper under it.
Replacing the Hardwood
I spent Saturday driving around to various lumber suppliers and Home Depots, trying to find a match to my floor sample. It was a lot more challenging than I’d expected. The hardwood flooring options were stained and sealed already, and planks of raw hickory were expensive for this small of an area. I knew I had to figure out something fast, and my best option at that point seemed like the raw hickory planks. They were 1/4 inch too wide and 1/8 inch too tall, though, so I’d have to cut and sand them down. I wasn’t thrilled, but I was willing to do whatever it took to make it work.
The next day I was upstairs marking the floor with a pencil when I opened the closet door and had a lightbulb moment!💡 I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of this already, but the hardwood floor continues into the closet. The exact number of boards I needed were right there in front of me.
I now have all of the boards ready to install and I’m almost finished cutting the new edges. Hopefully staggering the pattern a bit will help the new boards blend in better.
I’ll be back next week with more room updates :)
