Delighted beyond belief...wood flooring
 

My husband and I built an addition on our house that is going to be a bathroom, hallway, and laundry room/mudroom. My father-in-law had some trees cut down and made into boards a few years ago and they've been sitting in his garage since then. Since he in my mother-in-law got another car, they asked if they could store the boards in our barn. We said yes and they said we could use any of the boards if we wanted to. I had the brilliant idea to use a bunch of them for flooring in our new addition and they said that would be great! The boards have already been planed and joined (whatever that means) and should be ready to put down. We're going to use square nails to attach them to the floor. It will be a mixture of walnut, oak, cherry, maple, and sassafrass. I'd like to stain it all some sort of light cherry finish. I think it will look cool with all of those different colors.

We might add some pine in there too, but I'm not sure yet. If any of you have any thoughts about why some of the types of wood shouldn't be used for flooring, please let me know.

My concerns or thoughts--are some of those woods too valuable to use for flooring instead of other uses? Some generally cost high per board foot if being purchased.

Will the expansion rate of the different woods create issues? Doubt the boards were quarter sawn so I would expect some issues to appear, maybe even some cupping.

Other than mentioned I think the floor will be great and I would like to see a photo of the finished product.

By "quarter sawn" do you mean the cut on the back? If so, my husband talked to a guy at the sawmill today about maybe doing that. He also discussed having it tongue and grooved, but I'd rather see the nails.

mammabooh. You have a good idea and a welcome gift of wood.If you plan to face nail,do not bother with T and G.The look will be the same.Also do not bother to scarf out a relief on the back.But there would be 2 things to do:Plane to the same thickness and keep all boards 8 inch or under wide.Less shrinkage.Check the boards for thickness even though they have been planed.May need fine tuning.Enjoy your floor.It will be priceless to you.

Even if you nail it so the nails show, tounge and groove is a good idea. It will help keep the edges together through any expansion/ contractions the boards may naturally do. Also helps keep dirt from going into the groove between the boards. Sounds awesome to me!

Since they've been stored, there might not be as much shrinkage, but because of the type of area the floor will be in, laundry and bath, they might expand, so you may want to leave a little bit of a gap between each board. I think the variety of boards you have will make a beautiful floor!

We uses a mix similar to what you are talking, only Oak, Maple , Cherry and Yellow Birch.
I was advised not to stain as it would detract from the character of the individual species.
There was another reason also about the different species accept the stain to different degrees.
I am glad we did not stain it, we did polyurethane it w/ 3 coats and the colors of the different woods have blended as it ages some.
There is a thread here with a picture of how our floor turned out.
Just me probably but i would keep it all hardwood, no pine.

Woodsy, absolutely beautiful!!! You just voiced my thoughts - ALL hardwood, skipping the Pine. I'd never mix soft/hardwoods together for flooring... Pine is too soft and inferior to the hardwoods. Also, love the natural look with high gloss finish...of course, just my preference.

I would only use the walnut and sassafrass if there wasn't enough of the other three. They are softer wood and would mark easier. I would also tongue and groove to make a better fit and remember they'll all have to be the same width or multiple of the same (2", 3" and 5")where the 2 and 3 equals 5. Make sure you leave about 3/8 of an inch gap between wall and flooring because it will expand and contract. I wouldn't use pine unless it's yellow pine (hard).

Thanks for all of your thoughts. I'm probably weird, but I want the floor to be marked up and to look old. I'd like this addition to look like it was added 70 or 80 years ago as opposed to being new.

That's a cool-looking floor, woodsy!

We'll have to measure it all, but I think we might have enough to do our kitchen floor too. How great would that be?!?!?!

Yep, you got it WIHH...I like the beat up look! I don't want anything that looks formal or fancy.

Some of that wood sounds _very_ expensive to use for a floor, if the boards have any width to them. And if you want them to look up beat up, to use such fine woods....

You could easily sell those boards, if they are good, and buy 3x as much pine. The pine look is what you really want, from what I read.....

My dad build a hayrack floor out of black walnut & other good hardwoods years ago. I wiped a few tears that nite....

But it is yours to use. :)

I would not mix hard & soft woods in the same floor. They will wear differently, and the results will not be good.

You can mix the hardwoods, or you can go with the softwoods. Either is fine. Mixed and it will be kinda disappointing in the long haul. I'd be careful on that, I'd hate to see that good wood ruined for nothing. ;)

--->Paul

The boards are all between 8 and 10 inches wide, I believe.

It's easier to make a nice tight floor of narrower wood. They will bend to each other if they are narrower.

It's hard to find cherry, oak, & black walnut boards that wide any more. Can make some nice furniture & projects from that kind of wood - if you can find it.

It's yours of course. You get to make what you want of it. :)

At least thank your family for the very, very generous gift they are giving you. You don't seem to realize what you are getting......

--->Paul

Yes, I realize it. That's why I said I was "delighted beyond belief". My father-in law has had this stuff sitting in his garage for years and has only made one bookshelf with it. I have told him many times that he could try to find woodworkers in the area who would appreciate its worth and buy it from him. He doesn't want to do that...he just wants it out of his garage. I don't understand it. He had it cut from his woods, had it made into boards, let it dry for quite some time, and then he and my mother-in-law spent hours upon hours running it through the planer and joiner. Whatever his reasons, I'm very thankful. I'm hoping to make a corner tv cabinet with some of it too...that would be very cool!

You can reduce the shrinking of hardwood flooring by bringing it inside to acclimate to the environment it will be used in, if thats possible. Usually that pulls more moisture out of it and will reduce the shrinking. This is even more important with wide boards.
Our boards in mixed widths ran from 4 - 8" and due to time constraints it had a limited acclimation period. But came out pretty good overall.
We have some wide Pine flooring in other rooms , covers quick and looks nice too.
All the "pretty" floors i've seen will look weathered over time. They will only look formal for awhile under most circumstances. No need to beat em up prematurely IMO.

We used ONLY square nails on our wide pine floor boards.

Here is the problem we are having.

The sqaure nails we have are tapered.
Over time and use of the floor, many of those nails have begun to work upward.

While we love our floor, it's umcomfortable when a bare foot lands on that slightly elevated nail head.
Even tho we pound them down again, eventually they work upward again.

In hind sight we learned that we should have glued the boards down.
That way the boards would not wiggle at all, and therefore the nails would have stayed where they were suppose to stay.

So, I recommend either useing the traditional ringed nail, or glueing the boards down before adding the decorative square nails.

Thanks for that info, Tallpines. My dad recommended glueing first also.

I would, be hesitant to use the pine, especially yellow pine, unless you finish the floors heavily. Yellow pine has a bad habbit of pulling up splinters when something scoots across it........my sister has a 4 inch scar below her knee from crawling across it playing when she was a kid. Removing a 4 inch splinter running down someones leg isn't fun, even when a doctor does it.

I have been on all kinds of other softwood floors, and except maybe for douglas fir, the other's seemed to be OK.

Hardwood floors are still better. Walnut is a beautiful wood, but it is soft compared to Oak, Hickory, Sugar maple and others. Most anything will do if you put several layers of finish, but if you are going to oil, or not finish, then you will need to be a bit more selective. In somthing like a hallway, with lots of traffic, the softer unfinshed or oiled boards will wear faster and may "cup" from wear.

Just an update...my husband and I made a couple of trips and brought all of the boards home last weekend. They are now stacked in our barn just waiting to be installed.

I'll be sure to post pictures when we get started in a week or so.

I would be SURE to let it acclimate as long as you can possibly stand it and not be in the way. You can use a moisture meter to check the moisture (all through the wood not just the top). There is also a test to do with putting it in the oven and weighing it if you don't have access to a moisture meter.
The down side to "top nailing" a floor is sanding it. One nail is deadly to sand paper - not to mention a floor full. I'd try to glue/blind nail then sand then top nail. If you can get it tongue and grooved then I would regardless how I nailed it; it can only help "hold" the wood. If they are over 6" wide I always glue the underside also. A good floor glue like MVP is best. Expect the different species to contract different. The best way to fix this is keep the house a constant as possible (dehumidifier/humidifier).

One of my favorite floor I've done was a mixed species floor.

FYI even wanting the "rustic" look I'd stay away from adding Pine. And I'd echo the thought about NOT staining. If you want it to look like cherry - get cherry

I know a guy that salvaged the most beautiful 16 inch wide pine from some 70year old houses. Most of that wood was 12 feet long, or longer. After sanding or planing, that wood was stunning. I've not seen lumber like that in all my life, and there was a monster stack of it.

He built barn stalls out of the wood.

Go figure.