To spline or not to spline?

Hi,



We just removed a partition wall from between two rooms that have continuous 3/4 x 2-1/4 white oak hardwood. Removal of the wall left a wall sized missing slice in the now combined room. I'm starting to cut out pieces of hardwood on both sides of the gap in order to "weave" new pieces back in and create a continuous floor.



Unfortunately, I can't open a large swath of floor to properly get replacement pieces tongue nailed in place. So... my thought is to use a slip tongue where I don't have the ability to place unmodified boards into place. I would remove the tongue and router a groove so the the boards will go into place. I would lay some glue into the adjoining grooves and then I would attempt to tap a slip tongue down the canal the two boards make. It sounds good, but I wonder if the spline is strong enough given that there will be resistance.



I've seen it done where the lower lip of the groove side is cut off so that the board can be snapped down into place. I like my method better than cutting of the lower lip.



Will my idea of using the slip tongue work? Is it hard to do? Am I better off using the cut off lower lip method or something entirely different?



Thanks guys.

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