Thread: Floorboards running opposite directions

Hi All,

With my renovations I am pulling out a few walls to open the house up a bit. One problem I am now facing is the joining of rooms where the floorboards are running perpendicular. I assume it will look strange if half way through a room the boards changed direction.

I will obviously need to get someone in to fill in the gaps in the boards where the old walls once were, so would it be worth getting them to pull up all the boards from the affected rooms and relay them the opposite direction? Can this be done? Or am I better off buying new boards and replacing the old stuff?

Has anyone else run into a similar problem? what was your solution?

Thanks

If the boards are running different directions then the joists and bearers will also be running different directions so a complete subfloor rebuild would be required, as a second thought are the floorboards laid over a yellow-tongue base ?

You will need to have a look at the construction before you can think about what is possible.

Regards Dave

Thanks Dave. I feel stupid for not even thinking about the subfloor construction. Unfortunately there is no yellow tongue base below, so this may be something I have to accept.

I'll have a look under the house and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for your help!

This problem can be sorted easily enough with a bit of work, of course.

Last year I did a similar type job where an extension had been put on and the builder used narrower boards and ran them in the opposite direction. We pulled the offending boards out, followed by creating new joists in between the existing ones, which gave the sub-floor a torsion box look and feel, then proceeded to lay second-hand boards to match the existing in the rest of the place.

This link HERE shows the job as it unfolded.