Cleaning reclaimed parquet tiles mahogany and Oak and tools required

We have sourced the Oak parquet for the front room and Mahogany parquet for the Captain's cabin,

slightly extravagent? the reason is not of extravagence but more due to moisture and rot, hardwoods are used in boat building for obvious reasons Teak and Mahogany are more oily therefore less porous the same with the strength of the Oak structure.

However they are very fitting the boat as previously stated is made of beautiful old Oak, the deck is either Teak or mahogany, the kitchen is now reformed from the old Teak, we are transforming Tino once more into a houseboat fitting of her design build and structure.

Now to the job in hand, boring,  arduous, awkward all words that can describe cleaning old bitumen from parquet floor tiles.

As we have never done this before it took a little while to come up with the right tools for the job.

What we came up with, one of our handy multi purpose tools,  an ordinary floor scraper and new blade, a long thin flat stanley blade connected to a base with a handle, get them everywhere, screwfix are cheap, a wire bush and a little wooden hammer with the small rounded edge, almost a toy hammer for tacs.

The floor we have bought is quite dirty, looks like it was in a hallway and laid on an uneven floor, some of the tiles have hardly any bitumen and are easily scraped, the floor scraper is at the right angle to get a start, others have thick bitumen which is easily cracked with a few taps of the hammer. the tile is scraped wire brushed and put in a pile, one thing has become apparent, the better the level of the floor the better the longevity of it staying in one piece, the floor is out of a large stately home, it was replaced as tiles had raised, to our advantage in the long run but a lesson to learn. the tiles have never been sanded since their original application, the floor has to be dead level to achieve the best results.

I have found it easier to just sit on the floor and work from there tools around me, hoover up the dust every say ten tiles so you don't get a build up and just get on with it, the end result is important to keep in mind, it is quite a job mentally staying focused, it will look good...............

Only 600 to go........

Messy job as you can see

Apparently I looked like a chimney sweep after ....

How to drill and tap old cast iron balusters from an old cast iron spiral staircase

You may remember from a previous post regarding the spiral staircase we bought at an agricultural auction of all places, we have measured the height from the hall way floor, 82", the treads are 9" in height, we will therefore need nine treads to create our spiral, little tip that will save alot of time, you lay the last tread first, therefore to put the staircase and move it into position is not an option, make a template of one of the treads, copy this how ever many treads you need, this way you can make the staircase on the floor to work out the exact angle of the last tread.

We have cleaned and treated the treads and balusters, now the balusters have the old rust bolts still attached, I have been told to find an engineering company to drill and tap so new threads can to be screwed in to secure the balusters to the treads.

The first company I approached seemed uninterested however they did point me in the right direction, I popped into a hydraulics company that make alot of 24v hydraulic systems.

Dave the owner had a look at the balusters, I told him about the boat, the project what we are trying to do, create a family home on the river that can eventually be moved to various places, the final result being to buy our own plot of land and moor Tino up for good and use the land as a garden, turns out he is a boater and owns a thirty foot cruiser.

He stopped what he was doing and gave me a metal work lesson, he simply sawed of the old bolts ground it down drilled out the rest of the old bolt, tapped the new thread screwed in a new piece, turned it around and done the same for the railing pin, when he finished he got all the bits together put them in a bag, cut down a length of thread, passed them to me and said "Merry Christmas, give me a call if you have any problems",  amazing goes to show there are still alot of good people out there willing to help each other, I walked out with a smile warm in the comfort that when you are doing things for the right reason in life,  good things happen.

Thank you Dave and Merry Christmas to you.

Reclaimed solid Oak parquet flooring

We have now sourced the final piece of the puzzle regarding the floors, as you walk into the front room there is currently a mock Oak laminate floor, the supporting structure is made up of four by two joists and runners, with a ply board top, the plan being to rip up the laminate, wherever needed we will replace any part of the structure we feel needs replacing or levelling before we lay the reclaimed oak parquet foor.

A little tip we picked up before we hot wax oil, seal the sanded and buffed floor with a thin layer of Libron floor sealer, this will slow down the saturation of the hot wax oil giving a more even spread and finish of the wax, the hot wax oil soaks into the wood quickly different parts of the wood will be drier than others, we have gone for a matt finish downstairs and a satin finish in the front room to bounce more light around.

Sourcing the products used to fill and hot wax oil a solid reclaimed Mahogany strip floor

After paying our due diligence to the sanding of the floor and signing up to the "how to sand a floor" website it is now time to source the relevant products required to get the floor back to it's former glory.

We are in two minds wether to lacquer the floor or hardwax oil it,  due to the fact we are working on a wooden boat we want the floor to look as natural as possible, ideally a natural matt finish that brings out the natural beauty of the wood.

Wether we are lacquering or using hardwax oil we will be filling the floor, Ben at how to sand a floor swears by Repsol 7500 filler, after a quick search on google we have found a supplier, The direct flooring Centre who have everything we require and luckily enough for us are local which gives us the perfect opportunity to get some advice face to face. After a long chat on the phone with at first one of the boy;s from the firm then the owner I am on my way to pick up the filler and everything else we require.

When I arrive I am greeted with a wealth of information, Tony the owner is a master craftsman who has worked on some pretty impressive and well known buildings and airports around the world.

After years working on building sites and renovating buildings to English Heritage's standards he at first set up Heritage flooring to supply solid Oak flooring and subsequently set up the Direct Flooring Centre to supply the products to the trade and home user.

After speaking to Tony for half an hour he impresses on me the importance of the process involved in getting the right finish, this is no rush job as with the caulking it is a timely process that will pay dividends in the long run, the floor must be sanded with a 60 grit an 80 grit a 100 grit, dispose of the dust, we will need the dust from the 120 grit to mix with the filler. The floor is then filled, we mix the dust from the120 and filler to the right consistency we want it runny so it can get into the gaps, milky not too thick.

We then fill in 2 metre sections let it settle then buffer the excess, the empathis is on settle not set, it will dry hard and quick the more excess we can remove at this point the less work required to remove it the long run.

Once the whole floor is filled we then buffer once again we start with a 60 grit then 80 grit up to 120.

Tony recommended a matt hot wax oil for the finish, we will start the sanding taking pictures along the way, Tony has given us some very good tips for getting the best finish from the oil which will be in a separate post.

Muddy Puddles by Finley Yardley

The reason for this project and blog, my little boy Finley William Yardley, to build us a family home and so he knows and believes as he grows older that everything in life is possible, if you put your mind to it and So he knows how much his Dad loves him and has done from the moment I saw his little head pop out.

 A little video of my little boy enjoying the simple things in life.... puddles.

How to Sand a reclaimed solid hard wood floor

We have laid the mahogany strip flooring reclaimed from a school in South London, we use a secret nail hardwood floor gun hired from HSS hire, you basically line the planks out before securing, to  create the least amount of cuts and joins, we managed to hide alot of the joins and smaller pieces where the beds will sit, with the gun you line the planks in position, you then align the nail gun to the plank and hit it with the mallet twice, the nail gun sends a nail through the strip and into ply at a 30 degree angle, the first three planks were secured with tongue and groove screws.

Deciding what lacquer once again turned us to youtube where we found a channel  

"how to sand a floor" professionally what equipment to use, sanders, grades of paper and the process, which brand filler, lacquer and primer. 

We watched the various videos and subscribed to the channel. Very informative.

Subscribe to the website simple email and name which gives you access to section, " What products I use"

We have sourced the recommended primer lacquer and filler we will make a start Monday morning.

We have a belt, rotary and corner sander.

We will take pictures along the way.

Reclaimed solid Mahogany strip and parquet flooring

The parquet above in bags for the wheelhouse.

We have sourced 25m of mahogany strip flooring, tongue and groove which we have destapled, we are ready to lay it, we repaired the gully under original floor, raised the height by 7" in total, 2"rise 4x2 battening and3/4" wpb ply and the strip flooring on top, we took our levels when the tide was in, impossible when the tide is out unless your boat sits level, a tall order from nature. 

The 7" rise will  allow for airflow, you may remember our original post regarding the state of the gully, moisture was trapped under the floor there was no airflow so the concrete had started to disintegrate.

We made a strong concrete mix with pea shingel and a rapid hardner to fill the holes and we made a cement screed for the topcoat.

To seal the concrete we used another Smith and co product a very simple water proofing solution that you simply mix with water, using a stiff broom you work the solution into the concrete, this is usually used for auto workshops and garages in America so perfect for what we want.

 

All is well

Due to a complete technical failure we have been unable to update the blog,  however work has not stopped.

The boat has now been completely sanded, treated with CPES caulked filled and painted black, we will go into full detail of all the products we have used and those we discovered along the way.

We have started work on the inside and have made considerable progress, you may remember the old concrete gully in the bedrooms, that has been rebuilt, the gully and metal rumnners were covered in a water proof seal the new frame work and floors have gone in in the bedrooms as well as the damp proofing.

We have sourced a strip mahogany floor for the bedrooms, a mahogany parquet floor for the captains cabin and laid the solid oak strip floor that was previously in the first bedroomin the front room.

The hallway floor is being double skinned with 12mm & 18mm ply and will be finished with the 6mm chequer plate previously on the outside decks, the bathroom will just have the 12mm ply this will allow us to create a clean level between the hallway and bathroom/wet room.