Tin tongue and groove in wood floor boards

Working in a place today 145 years old, it used to be a bath house, a very large amazing building on the sea front.  At some point it got divided into 2, 1 half a hotel the other half flats.

I needed to get a couple of boards up, burnt out some multi tool blades, couldnt get it to lift, when it started to lift the board started to brake up. Something was strange.

With a bit of damage i got the 2 sections i needed up. Took ages, carpet, hard board, crazy floor boards with tin.

The floor boards  were around 25mm deep, each board had a groove (saw blade) cut into the the side (in the middle) for the entire length. Beteween each board was a peice of tin around 25mm wide going into the groove of each board. .... . .. if that makes sense.

Why???

No dust had ever fallen through,

was it to hold a filler of sorts so they had a finished wood floor with no big gaps?

(floor guys lay ply under boards to stop filler dropping)

Was it to do with it been a bath house originally?

I was going to take pictures, but i thought dont be so sad. I now wish i had taken pictures.

Wow, I've heard of those many years ago but never seen them, the reasoning was this.

Back in the day there were no power tools obviously and it was both difficult and expensive to put a tongue and groove on every board. Commoners like us would just have ordinary square edged boards on our floors, you lived with the draught blowing through the gaps! However if you were a wealthy Victorian then this was clearly not on, so, the solution was to insert a thin strip of metal into the edge of the boards, it was relatively easy to do, and kept the draughts out. The strip was fitted on site, basically you got a load of floorboards, complete with groove on each side, cut them to the required length, then cut the metal strip to the same length, insert in edge of first board, lay second board the strip connects the 2 boards together, and there you have it, no draughts.

Oh your ancestors have taught you well. 

Sharpend said:

Oh your ancestors have taught you well. 

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I've always liked reading, as a kid I had loads of diy manuals and technical books, I still have some from the 40's and 50's, it's surprising what you can learn, then if I pass it on, it will help others understand things, and it passes it on for future generations.

Who knows, someone may read my post, then one day run across these boards, turn to their apprentice and say "oh yes, I remember some old guy mentioning these on an electricians forum years ago". lol

Well there you go, never heard of that before, every day a school day

No ..never seen the likes of those . 

I came across some of this flooring during a refurbishment earlier this year. The property dated back to the 1900's but was converted into flats in about 1965 - and theses boards seemed to be  in the part of the unit that had been adapted.. in the 1960

Everyday is a learning day.

OK, since you started me on a trip down memory lane, lol, anybody remember the early fish tapes? They were like a normal tape measure, without markings, and, instead of a metal end that is bent at 90 degrees, they had a leather loop to tie the cable to.

Thanks for the answer Phil D, it makes sense now.

 I didnt dare use anything to cut the metal in case of fire risk, and fear of the flat below.

*replacing a consumer unit mounted on a plaster and lath wall, i needed to trim a bit of wood mounted behind  as the tails needed to enter the fuse board on the opposite side to the old one. I trimmed the wood behind with a slightly blunt multi tool. The smoldering cut bit of wood wouldnt pull through,  as i poked it i knew it was the wrong thing to do. It fell in the cavity, which then started smoking. I poured 4 cups of water down the small hole to put out the smoldering in the cavity. Luckily the water drained out the bottom onto the communal stair case and was soaked up by the carpet. :facepalm:

pewter said:

Thanks for the answer Phil D, it makes sense now.

 I didnt dare use anything to cut the metal in case of fire risk, and fear of the flat below.

*replacing a consumer unit mounted on a plaster and lath wall, i needed to trim a bit of wood mounted behind  as the tails needed to enter the fuse board on the opposite side to the old one. I trimmed the wood behind with a slightly blunt multi tool. The smoldering cut bit of wood wouldnt pull through,  as i poked it i knew it was the wrong thing to do. It fell in the cavity, which then started smoking. I poured 4 cups of water down the small hole to put out the smoldering in the cavity. Luckily the water drained out the bottom onto the communal stair case and was soaked up by the carpet. :facepalm:

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WARNING: Professional at work

pewter said:

Thanks for the answer Phil D, it makes sense now.

 I didnt dare use anything to cut the metal in case of fire risk, and fear of the flat below.

*replacing a consumer unit mounted on a plaster and lath wall, i needed to trim a bit of wood mounted behind  as the tails needed to enter the fuse board on the opposite side to the old one. I trimmed the wood behind with a slightly blunt multi tool. The smoldering cut bit of wood wouldnt pull through,  as i poked it i knew it was the wrong thing to do. It fell in the cavity, which then started smoking. I poured 4 cups of water down the small hole to put out the smoldering in the cavity. Luckily the water drained out the bottom onto the communal stair case and was soaked up by the carpet. :facepalm:

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At least you didn't do what a mate of mine did, soldering a pipe in a loft of a bungalow, a joist gets warm and starts to smoke, he pours a bit of water on it, closes the loft, finishes the job and left. a few hours later the bungalow was mysteriously destroyed in a blaze. Fire investigators found it started in the loft, no surprise there then, what was surprising was that he kept his job! then again that certain  company are well known for employing idiots and cowboys, lol.