DIY wood flooring?

[cc-rider]

No sawmills around here, so I can't go that route.

Can I buy 1X's from the local big box lumber yard, screw them down to subflooring (over tar paper maybe???), fill in the screw holes with putty, sand and varnish? I'm looking for a "rustic" look, but I don't want hillbilly. There's probably a fine line in there somewhere.

If I do this, should they be tightly butted? What is the best thing to seal them with that will be durable?

Thanks again,
CC

[PyroDon]

Then get the beaded box car siding and install it with the beading down
it goes down like standard T&G hard wood flooring so you will need a T&G flooring nailer but most lumber yard (home town/ locally owned will let you use one ) if you buy the wood there .

[highlands]

Siding works well. I got hemlock shiplap siding ultra cheap and used some of it for flooring in one of the rooms of our old house. We simply screwed it down with sheetrock screws, didn't bother with putty. Screw carefully and sand lightly then oil. It came out beautifully.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

[haypoint]

If you go with the 1x boards, screwed and countersunk, be sure to cut grooves into the back side of each board. Wide boards will tend to bow or cup even when screwed down. A slit cut part way thru the board will reduce the amount it will distort. Pine flooring will dent and scratch easier than hardwood so will require more care if yhou want it to stay nice.
For about 2.99 a square foot you can get real maple tounge and groove pre-finished. Simply nail down and its done. It is 3/4 inch thick and you can rent a flooring nailer/stapler to install it. It comes in packages that include a wide aray of shades, so it might fit your rustic decour. Made by Bruce.

[PyroDon]

Another very cheap option is simply 3/4" plywood use a router and V grove for the planking (very shallow ) then stain and finish with multi coats of a good poly.

The floating imitation wood floors are 1-3$ a square ft and hold up pretty well

the yellow pine makes a decent hard wood floor which is what most box car siding is . though it depends on what part of the country your in .

you might check around for any old houses being torn down and see if you can salvage the flooring

[crafty2002]

How much flooring are you going to put down???? That will make a big differemce is you choice.
If it is 125-175 Sq. Ft., I might be able, (Mind you I said might, my sister works in the office at Columbia Flooring) to help you out if you live close enough. I am in Va. They have some beautiful prefinished flooring. You can get info at any Lowes, etc.,.
If you are talking 1,000 Sq. Ft. or more, and you are up to the work and time it will take, you might think of an Alaskan Sawmill and a molder planner...... One good oak tree will do a "VERY LARGE HOME", you will learn how to do it, and still own the mill and planner when it is all done.
And I will tell you, there is nothing that make you feel as good, when it comes to building something, as knowing what you just finished was a standing tree when you got it and now it (shelves in my case, but I bought ruff cut Oak and finished it myself) is part of a home.
I always do things the hard way, LOL. But it is so nice to look back at it.
Dennis

[MushCreek]

How do you know there are no sawmills around? There are more than you might think. We have a big one in the middle of our urban county, but hardly anyone knows its there.

Whatever route you go, make sure you let the wood acclimate to your house for a while before installing it permanently. Narrow boards are used more than wide ones, because the gaps will be less when it dries. As was said, southern yellow pine is a good alternative to the more expensive hardwoods, but it shrinks a lot. I plan to use our own trees when we build our place- a number of good-sized red oaks are going to have to come down to make room for the house. I'll have a local mill saw them and dry them. I might plane them myself, and do my own install. The prices I got added up to about $1 a square foot for sawn, kiln dried, and planed.

I'm going to use old fashioned flooring nails from Tremont nail and leave them exposed- they look hand-forged. Putty over the screw heads will look lousy if you varnish. You could get a plug cutter, and make wood plugs for the screw heads, but that would be a huge amount of labor. If you get tongue and groove, you use finishing nails driven at an angle just above the tongue, thereby hiding the nails. You don't need a special nailer; plenty of floors have been done with a plain ol' hammer and nailset.

[tiogacounty]

Originally Posted by MushCreek

If you get tongue and groove, you use finishing nails driven at an angle just above the tongue, thereby hiding the nails. You don't need a special nailer; plenty of floors have been done with a plain ol' hammer and nailset.

Unless you are doing a very small project, this a massive waste of time. First, most hand nailing was done with cut nails, not finish nails, before the invention of a flooring nailer. A manual flooring nailer is several times faster than hand nailing, and air powered nailers are going to do the job in a small fraction of the time. Nailer will also get the boards much tighter than hand nailing. You can rent nailers for a few bucks a day, why plague yourself doing an inferior job, and spending more time to do it? Regarding wood choices. I have sold and intalled everything from eastern white pine to crazy engineered products that cost 20X as much. IMHO, I would never install another white pine floor. They look great initally, but the wear hard and fast. Southern yellow pine is available in many T&G patterns and it's a much more durable product for roughly the same cost.

[tn_junk]

If you can find a sawmill near you, I suggest getting some 4/4 poplar planks cut in 2"-4" widths. I helped a friend put a floor of these down, stained Cherry, and it was beautiful for less than $1 per square foot.

alan

[Alex]

From an old post,

Our floors are 2 x 8 and 2 x 6 rough Pine (previously dryed or fire-killed -- not sure which.) The neighbors, the Gonvick brothers and father, sawed them and sold them to us 34 years ago for $200. I put tar inbetween (from a tube at Home Hardware), sanded them with a belt sanded and put 8 coats of marine varnish on them. That's for 560 ft2 on the first floor and 250 ft2 of the second floor.


Floors today. To keep up you sweep up the dirt, mop, and take off your shoes -- that's all there is to it. Right in the front of the picture is one of Nancy's beautiful braided wool rugs made from old wool blankets -- we've got lots of 'em all over the cabin -- the floors make them stand out.

Good Luck,

Alex

BTW We have wood every where except the bathroom, there we have 4 x 4 tile. And under Katie the Cookstove we have 4 x 4 tile (which you can see in the picture -- under the water bottle) and under Blaze King wood stove (to the upper left in the picture) we have 12 x 12 tile.

BTW,

Poplar is beautiful, one 55,000 sf cabin in northern BC has its entire ceiling paneled with it. That is not our cabin.

[MushCreek]

Thanks, tioga- it's been a long time since I installed a floor!

That's a beautiful floor, Alex! The old house I grew up in had hand hewn floorboards in a double layer to keep out drafts, and the seams were filled with manila rope pounded in like caulking. That house was over 200 years old.

Probably the best thing to do is find out what's available in your area first. Around here (FL), the only source for poplar would be from a big box store- and that would be more expensive than pre-finished wood flooring!

[DC_Hound]

Wow, Alex, that is one of the best looking floors I've ever seen!! Great job!!!!!!!!

[agmantoo]

An aside,
Alex, how do you operate the main house door fastener from the outside? My guess is with a string? I see what I think is a peg for the inside controlled lock. Nice place!

[cc-rider]

Yeah, I had the same question about the lock!!! I'm also trying to build a door, so that interested me.... I can't find a lock for a door thicker than 2".

I need well over 1000 sq. ft of flooring. We're talking a whole house, not counting bathrooms, kitchen, and foyer. That's why I'm looking for "cheap". How do I know what kind of pine our local big box sells? I can get 1X6X10's for $3.99!!!!

I'm in NW or West Central Ohio.
CC

[haypoint]

Countersink the holes, screw the boards down securly and instead of wood putty over the screws, you can cut up a wood dowel to make plugs. I cut mine up with a table jig saw.

[clovis]

Originally Posted by cc-rider

Yeah, I had the same question about the lock!!! I'm also trying to build a door, so that interested me.... I can't find a lock for a door thicker than 2".

I need well over 1000 sq. ft of flooring. We're talking a whole house, not counting bathrooms, kitchen, and foyer. That's why I'm looking for "cheap". How do I know what kind of pine our local big box sells? I can get 1X6X10's for $3.99!!!!

I'm in NW or West Central Ohio.
CC

Just a note, sometimes I find that 16 footers are better, less warped, less crowned stock.

Not always true each and every time, but the longer stuff seems better. The better stuff will be easier to lay and easier to work with.

I also agree that cutting a relief joint in the bottom side will help reduce warping and cracking.

Clove

[Alex]

Agmantoo, ccrider, dchound, mushcreek,

Thanks.

We put an oblong hole in the outside of the doors, the back-door shown and the front door, and use a 12" removable spike to operate the 2 x 4 latch from the outside. We put a round hole in the latch to accept the spike. We use an 8" spike inside, which stays in the door all the time.

To lock the door from the outside we take the spike away. We also use a hasp and paddalock. The spike-lock has worked well for 35 years.

Alex

[agmantoo]

Thanks Alex. You lock is only the second lock of that type that I have seen. The other was not as study as your but it worked. It was a pivot design and the arm was lowered into a custom made wood holder that had a tapered opening. As the wind caused the door to move slightly the arm worked its way farther into the tapered opening tightening itself. As best as I recall there was a small hole drilled about 8 to 10 inches above the pivoting arm and to the edge of the door. To open that door the small rope was stuck through the door and it was pulled from the outside to lift the pivoting door. From the inside one just grabbed the arm and raised it. To lock from inside the small rope was pulled through the hole to the inside thus making the rope inaccessible. There was no means to lock from the outside. Another door did have a hasp and padlock.

[agmantoo]

CC, I am going to tell you about what an old man shared with me many years ago. He worked in DC on a government project as a carpenter following the depression building a floor. He said it was the prettiest floor that he ever saw and he worked for many years building high end commercial offices. As best as I recall here is what was done to build the floor. Large diameter Red oak logs were brought in to the site, I assume already dry. These logs were cut into fire wood lengths. Only the best sections were saved. Then the logs were sawed into those short lengths at approximately 1 inch thickness and the sides squared in a fixture.
The subfloor was concrete and a mastic was used to secure the cut boards to the concrete. After the boards were secured in place and the mastic cured the floor was sanded and finished. I do not know what finish was used. The old man just stated that the appearance was a deep oil finish with a low gloss. I know he was very proud of the work and that it was one of the highlights in his life. I think if I were to consider doing this I would make a trial run of quarter sawed boards. Quarter sawn wood floors are the best. The old textile mills in the South have those and they were in good condition after 80 years of near daily use by lots of traffic. Possibly you could obtain firewood in your area and sort the best for flooring and burn the rest.

[texican]

If you live in a timbered part of the country, odds are there are sawmills... I'd look in the phone book, or at the tax office and ask around. If there are loggers in the area, ask them. If there are lumber buyers/jobbers, ask them. Local bandsaw millers sometimes purchase logs from individuals, loggers, and wood buyers (pulwood purchasers). I can't imagine anyplace in the country that doesn't have sawmills.

The 1x12's at a bandsawyer are going to be about 1/5 of what a storebought board would be. And, a lot of independent sawmillers will cut on halves...