LESLIE: Jack in Texas needs some help with the flooring in his 150-year-old farmhouse. Tell us about the project.
JACK: Well, in our bedroom, there’s the original wood floor; an old, pine floor. Each board runs the entire length of the room right next to the outside wall and it’s under our headboard, so we don’t see it. But there’s a place about two or three inches back from the wall that’s just rotted out and with termite damage. And I really don’t think I can replace those boards and just wondering how I could best maybe fill those, just to seal up the holes that are there.
TOM: Well, there’s no reason that you can’t mill your own replacements for those, Jack. I’ve got a – not a 150-year-old house but one that’s over 100. Had a similar situation where we had areas of the floor that were worn out. The floorboards, of course, were not available at the local lumber yard or home center.
So what we did is we milled some to the shape of the old floors and then we did a standard floor – hardwood floor replacement technique where you take out the bad boards and then you sort of put the new ones in in a pattern, so that the new boards are sort of intersplined with the old boards. It’s not a straight cut; it’s sort of an overlapping pattern.
Now, when you’re done, what you’ll see is that the new boards will be very bright and shiny and probably a different color but, over time, as the light gets to them and the oxidation sets in, it will all sort of melt into the same glow.
JACK: Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate your help.
TOM: You’re welcome, Jack. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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