On an earlier version of The Heritage Portal the following question was posted: "I need to repair the wooden flooring in my historic home. Any recommendations?" Adrian de Villiers, Chief Architect at the Department of Public Works replied with the following priceless advice.
When one's talking 'old wooden floors', there are two types of wooden floors. There is the parquet block floor which is laid in hot tar onto a solid substrate like a cement screed. Then there is the suspended wooden floor at Aunty Julie's house, which is found in earlier buildings than those with 'parquet'.
Suspended floors have a void below them which is naturally ventilated. The tongue and groove planks are supported by a system of beams called 'sleepers' and joists that rest on the sleepers. The planks are often nailed to the joists with blind-nailing (meaning the nails are hidden) or just as often, they are nailed from the top vertically into the joist below (meaning you can see the nail head flush with the floor surface).
I imagine the floor you're referring to is a suspended floor (with most likely, tongue and groove boarding). When it comes to fixing a floor like this, a lot depends on the type of repairs that are needed. For instance... Do you just want to refinish the floor?... or are there structural problems which require replacement of boards or joists? A floor in a bad condition can be repaired only to have the same problems cropping up a few months later. That is... if...
