With the opening in the wall and the beams cut for the staircase it’s time for the floorboards.

The original oak beams on one side of the gite were in very good condition and structurally sound. In the other side they had been badly attacked by various wood eating insects and not in a good condition. In both cases I scrapped back any loose wood and pressure washed. Once dried all the woodwork was sprayed a couple of times with a universal wood treatment product.

The good quality beams were not flat enough, there was a level change of up to 6cm in places, to lay floorboards directly. By fitting 44x63mm timber at 40cm centers across the beams (with a bit of packing and some notches) I was able to create a level, flat floor for boarding.

The other side was more problematic. The beams were not structurally sound, and had even greater level changes. To solve the problem I used 175x63mm joists running parallel to the existing beams hung on wall plates with joist hangars.

The bottom of the new joists covered about one third of the beams so leaving most of the original oak exposed, but purely decorative. The new floor is effectively floating above the oak beams.  Some of the noggins do rest on the oak beams to help stability.

Once all the joists had been fitted it was just all covered with 15cm wide tongue and groove floor boards. The floorboards were second class quality (i.e. some knot holes) but at less than 10 euros per sq meter, it worked out cheaper than chipboard, felt and laminate/carpet.