Flooring advice please!

[gunner]

Moved into my first owned house about 9 months ago - and it was a bit of a state. We got most of the basics done in the first couple of weeks (painting, laminate etc) so it is in a live able state.

One problem we have is that in the living room there were some bricks and some of what can only be described as paving slabs running along the far wall. It looked like someone had started a patio and it looked cold and terrible. So when we started the living room, I got out the sledge hammer and knocked them out. Very satisfying. However to our shock, they were not built on the wooden floor that the rest of the living room had. The floor in the living room I believe is what is called 'real wood' (i.e not laminate) and looks good and we would like to keep this. However we now have a 3.9m long gap in the floor along this wall, that we need to get sorted out before we can get the skirtings fitted. It is about 25mm deep and 450mm wide.

The problem up close..


Even the cat had no ideas (no comments on the wires plese )!


As it looks when you enter the room:


I really do not know where to start with this being a DIY noob, and not sure what can be done to sort it out. I do not think I would be able to fit similar wood down as it would look a totally different colour, and doubt I have the skills to do tiles, which was the other way round we have considered. But I would not know where to start to get a tradesman in to do this? Would it be a builder, carpenter?

Does anyone have any suggestions how to get this sorted out? It is kind of holding up a lot of other jobs in the house and I need to get something done with it sooner or later...

Thanks

[Little John]

Good luck, laying the boards is easy you just go buy the same type of wood thickness width etc most of the time it is tounge and groove and it just slots together. you use small nails (pins) in the joints to keep the floor free of nails. jsut cut to to length if the rest of the floor has been cut with a ofset pattern (like bricks) so you dont get lines accross the floor try to match them.

The hard part is matching the colour you just use wood stain or varnish but your current floor has been down a while so proberbly even buying the same colour wont match perfect. You may need to san the current floor and re stain it to get it to match.

I know someone who tried to do this they ended up replaceing the floor.

[gunner]

Cheers LJ - thats what I was worried about...

I have tried to get matching 'real wood' boards, but they are no where even close to the colour, and sanding them down and using a stain again proved useless.

Anyone know how much someone might charge to tile the area?

[Little John]

tileing is easy, dolop of gunk in each corner and drop it on make sure its level and do the next one repeat untll the hole is filled. then use more gunk to fill the gaps between the tiles.

cutting them out can be a pain. profesionals will do it so the tiles are cut evenly round the edges so it looks perfect, the hard part is cutting them.ohh and tiles can cost a fortune

[BertRoot]

Personally I am a fan of quarry tiles and think they look good if looked after and treated correctly after laying. They are chepa as fuck at B&Q and easy to lay yourself. The hard part is cutting them where required and you can go through cutting discs at an alarming rate and they ain't cheap. I got my shole kitchen done in em and it cost me very little though the price of the cutter discs pushed the price up.

Tilers come in two types mate cheap or good. Bear that in mind.

[gunner]

Thanks guys, I think I might buy the tiles and see how I get a along. I inherited a tile cutter, so thats a start..

[blacksheep]

Tilings easy mate - just remember not to start the tiling flush with one wall as you'll more than likely (sods law) end up with the tiniest sliver at the far side. Much better to have to cut tiles at both ends and have 3/4+ of a tile at both ends - looks nicer.

[dookie939]

I had the same problem with matching the wood when having to replece a couple of boards in my sitting room. what i did in the end was check under the carpet in one of the bedrooms and found a match. wasn't worried about the boards in the bedroom matching because the carpet coverd all.