New England Pine Floor

Am considering buying some New England pine flooring- basically knotty pine flooring. It comes in 6 and 7/8 width and is 6 ft long or 8 and 7/8" widths with varied lengths from 6' to 16'. I am wondering if the varied lengths will look better- more traditional. The advantage to the all 6' pieces would be that I could pick it up at the store, and it is cheaper. Also am wondering whether to put down a product called "Insulayment" over the plywood before I install the flooring. Any help greatly appreciated- baby on the way and we need flooring. Paul F B

[travlnusa]

As for the boards, I will not comment as you only know what you like best and what you want to pay.

As for underlayment, just use roofing tar paper. The goal is to have a moisture barrier under wood floor, and the tar paper works just fine. I have done many many rooms with it.

[FolioMark]

I just put down roofing paper too on my plywood subfloors and than laid random lengths and widths of pine boards. If you look at real old 18th century pine floors the boards are often short and vary greatly in width. Often the floors are a bit of a patch work. Long straignt timber that would give big wide long boards was often more valuable for sale as ships masts and spars and in many colonies actually would have been the property of the Crown. Id go with a mix of the long and the short boards in different widths.

[jbmaine]

I just finished the first floor of my house a year ago. I used T&G white pine everywhere except the bathrooms and kitchen, where I layed ceramic tile down. I used random lengths but put them down in a pre-arranged pattern. worked great. I used the old fasioned cut nails, Sanded and put on 6 coats of water base poly. It looks great. I also used red rosin paper put down as an underlayment with a hammer tacker. I think it is cheaper than tar paper as well, and I didnt want to use tar paper in my house thinking I may smell it.

[Cabin Fever]

Our entire home has wood floors made from 100 year old tobaccobarn siding. If you are putting the floor on a plywood subfloor that is over a basement, I see no need for any type of tar paper or other product below the floor boards. Random lengths and widths will look more rustic.

[fin29]

Coming from New England and having lived in many traditional NE homes, I can give you a few tips: buy the longest and widest boards you can afford. The shorter you go, the less traditional it'll look. We had some boards in one 1776 colonial we were in that were about 15" wide and at least 18' long. The short pieces were only used to fill gaps near the walls or doors. Put a good 1/4" gap between the boards. You can use a big nail as a spacer when you're nailing them down. Surface nail with square head cut nails and sink them into the wood about 1/4" to make them look like they've been there for 200 years. If you want an authentic finish, stick to the reddish orange stains and use a satin poly.

Finally, with any wood floor, buy your wood and find a place for it to live inside your house for at least 6 weeks before putting it down. It's especially important to do this with wide boards to cut down on the amount of cupping that'll happen if you just bring them in and lay them down.

[mtman]

we used the 8 inch tongue and groove notty pine on our ceilings looks good i would think on the floor would look great to no stain on the ceiling just poly.