New flooring with old molding and doorframes

18 years ago

I had to install new wood floor in my 1885 Victorian. The original floor was some kind of hard tile, very schoolhouse like, probrobley since the house was built to be a church Parrish. Anyway, the molding is not removable and is very elaborate and I am worried about gaps between the edge of the flooring and the molding. This did not prove a problem along the walls, since I just installed a matching shoe molding to cover the gap, but the doorways are especially decorative and rounded with lots of bevels. Due to steel reinforcements in the wood, there is only so far these could be undercut to allow the flooring underneath. There are some gaps in doorways and I am not sure how to cover these rounded doorway frames with molding or how to cover the gaps of the flooring. I've got some ideas, but I think they might be kind of Mickey mouse and not work out that great. Any suggestions?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (3)

kitchenobsessed
18 years ago
I may be misunderstanding what you are saying. My house is about 45-50 years younger than yours. I recently had some baseboards and window casing restored. My contractor found original baseboards and door casings in two closets. He was able to remove them in good enough shape to take them to a place for custom milling. If I only needed a small section, I suppose we could have used what was in the closet. The milling place was Victoriana (or something along those lines) in San Francisco. I think there are one or two other custom places in Northern California. The biggest charge is the set up fee. Dunno how big your gap is; replacing casings and baseboards may be overkill. Too much to caulk?
Columbusguy
18 years ago
I think a possible solution for you would be to lay the new flooring as close as possible to the molding, then scribe the outline of the molding onto each piece. Cut along this line at an angle so that the top of the flooring is a bit longer than the underside, then lay the floor as close as you can to the molding, say 1/16 inch. Fill the small gap with colored wood filler which matches the floor. They also make wax sticks which serve the same purpose.
Your gaps should hardly be noticeable that way--who goes around on hands and knees inspecting your wall/floor transitions!?
Yes, flooring manufacturers suggest a wider gap, but interior conditions are fairly stable, and as long as the two surfaces aren't actually butted tightly, I don't think you will have a problem, especially with the angled cut.
Have you decided yet on solid wood flooring or on laminated pre-finished?
Related Discussions
Help, old concrete slab and new floor questions.
Q
Comments (4)
We are just finishing up a renovation project in the kitchen part of our 4 year old house. The vinyl tile there now was basically destroyed - and must be replaced. The house sits on a concrete slab. My 93 year old mom lives with us - so natural stone or tile flooring is out of the question. I had thought about Duraceramic but am concerned about chipping and cracking. We also are considering Armalock by Armstrong - laminate flooring that looks like stone. It is a floating floor over a cushy layer. What kind of flooring would be best?
...See More
From old home to new - or new to old? What does it feel like?
Q
Comments (30)
I love old houses - the quality, the history (I was THRILLED when I saw the names of the owners of our then under 5 year old house on the 1930 census), and the style. If I don't win the lottery, I will never live in another "new" build (80's and up) because the vast majority of non custom built homes are just not up to my standards. Of the 4 new builds I lived in in my life, only two were decent. The last decent one had been built by a guy who had previously done commercial building. It was built to last and I have no doubt that one would still stand after a tornado. Because of the commercial background, the finish "prettyness" wasn't there, but those details were added later, by us. The last new build was a nightmare. The "quality" semi custom build was so lacking that I can't even imagine how much worse some of the mass produced really poor quality houses will last. Within the first 5 years the deck was partially rotting (no flashing between the house and it), the roof leaked at the chimney, many of the windows wouldn't work well and/or leaked at the top, lots of the trim wood was rotting out and the floors of both 1st and 2nd floor creaked in almost every spot as did the entire staircase. And then of course you had the "minor" issues like one couldn't use a hairdryer in the master bath before resetting the outlet in the upstairs bath if someone had used a hairdryer in it before the master bath. And the defective shingles requiring a complete reroof at 3 years is hard to forget. My brother has a friend who last year moved into a house in one of those new mass built neighbourhoods in South Carolina. Brand new. 6 months after moving in, a water pipe junction burst (iirc, they thought it hadn't been correctly connected or something) in the attic while they were on vacation and ruined most of the house and their items. The builder denied responsibility and the insurance company was blaming it on the builder since the house was still under "warranty" and it was turning into a huge mess, to say the least. New does not equal free of work and I'd rather strip wallpaper than deal with finding out what corners were cut.
...See More
matching new cabs to weird old molding
Q
Comments (2)
we have that mahogan trim throughout the house and grains like cherry/birch/walnut don't look good in my opinion. I like alder with a moderate stain because it is quite smooth and grainfree,maple in a few different stains and hickory with the darker stains works.Of course quartersawn oak works. I'll be replacing old merillat cabs. We did some window trim[sills and aprons]-I had a woodworker cut white oak because the stock stuff at lumberyards had more relief than what was needed. Stained it ourselves in early American color [minwaxx]with a little cherry thrown in to redden it a bit-ends up a caramel or fruitwood/teak color, which looks good adjacent to the trim-not an exact match.For cabs-don't try to match the trim exactly-go 1 or 2 shades lighter or darker-maybe you'd like the more swirly grained woods-I did not. I have yet to get to the kitchen-layout issues-but it will be with stained wood and less rather than more movement in counters/backsplash [think nouveau neutrals]-maybe a little more grainy or rustic on the floor.I like the trim...painted some walls [office and bedroom]whitish,recently, and the lighter walls play up the wood.For me I'm not doing a white kitchen,-but the light walls with wood cabs and this trim in all the rooms and hallways,is the simple/straitforward treatment I'm anticipating when my derriere gets a move-on. [there is a ton of prep and thought with projects]-I've just learned to work with exisiting elements and the solid mahog trim is certainly something I have catered to in the thinking and planning[I'm not yanking it out or painting it, and not duplicating exactly either]. Best luck whatever you choose.
...See More
Old bathroom addition has mold - eek!
Q
Comments (9)
A bath like you just described, with questionable framing and insulation, should really be targeted for gutting so that all of the other hidden issues, besides the mold, can be addressed. Unfortunately, there are sure to be other issues, possibly structural in nature. Porch enclosures are rarely done in a top notch manner, as you can already see for yourself. Costs to pay a pro to do a bandaid can approach that of the gut, but without solving the real culprits of the problems. What is your experience level for DIY projects? A $50 box store acrylic surround placed over the existing walls with a new valve and insulation could be a stopgap for a couple of months until you could plan the gut. But paying a contractor for the temp ''repair'' would take away funding from the needed gut. That IS something that someone with low to medium DIY experience could do at minimal cost as a temp measure.
...See More
housekeeping
18 years ago
Another thing that might be helpful is to consider taking an off-set handled back saw (I think that is the name, anyway) and trimming off a very small slice of the bottom of the door tim molding, parallel to the floor or at a matching slant to mate with the bevel of the flooring material as suggested above.

An offset-handled back saw is small back saw: one with a stiffener along the back of the blade. The offset handle is mounted at right (or other, I suppose) angles to the plane of the blade. This allows one to get the blade in places where you couldn't if your hand was on the same axis. It sounds weird, but if you ask for one, you'll see how they work, right away. I find them a bit difficult to get really nice straight cuts, but in the circs. that I used one, it was exactly what I needed and saved the day.

New flooring with old molding and doorframes

Comments (3)

kitchenobsessed

Columbusguy

Related Discussions

housekeeping

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US