Talking to Charles in Ohio about flooring. What’s going on at your Money Pit?
CHARLES: We have the parquet flooring and I was wondering if you knew where I could pieces to replace the old parquet flooring.
TOM: Hmm. If you can find a new – some new parquet that looks similar to the old, that’s probably the only way you’re going to be able to find some replacement pieces, by breaking those up. If not, I think the easiest way to do it – if I was a contractor working on your house I’d probably cut the pieces myself. I’d probably buy the hardwood of the same type and I’d probably replace them. Are you having just some pieces here and there that are coming out or is it entire tiles?
CHARLES: Well, it’s just in one corner where the refrigerator had – the icemaker …
TOM: Right.
CHARLES: … had sprung a leak.
TOM: OK.
CHARLES: And it got on the floor behind the refrigerator.
TOM: OK.
CHARLES: And they’re little six-inch squares is what they were when we put them in.
TOM: OK. And have your guests been looking behind the refrigerator lately, Charles?
CHARLES: No. (all chuckle) I just know it’s there.
TOM: Alright, so it’s bugging you. Well, I wouldn’t worry too terribly much about it, being in that very unseen area. But if you really wanted to fix it what I probably would do is if I couldn’t find the exact pattern that you have right now is I would probably have a flooring contractor cut me some new pieces that looked very similar in shape to the old one.
CHARLES: OK.
TOM: Sometimes it’s easier to do that. For example, I had an old floor to repair in my house not too long ago that was made of Douglas fir and it was tongue-in-groove but it was two-and-a-quarter inches wide and that’s an unusual width for a Douglas fir floor. Normally it’s about three inches wide. So I bought three-inch boards and cut them down to the two-and-a-quarter to make it work. So sometimes with these old floors you’ve got to get creative and sort of mill your own pieces to make it fit what the old house had.
CHARLES: OK. Well, I appreciate your help there because, like I say, I’ve been trying to – I’ve even thought about putting – you know, cutting out a little bit bigger than what it was and putting laminate in there.
TOM: Well, I mean you certainly could do that but, you know, if you want to preserve the old parquet floor you’re going to have to kind of rebuild it in place.
Charles, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply