Solid Hardwood Flooring

[r1968]

What would be considered shorts vs random length vs normal etc?
We are in the process of finalising flooring for our new home and a vendor has some excess Jatoba wide plank from another job. That is more than enough for our need. It is 5 1/4 inch wide and length varies between 12 inches and 3 feet. Would these be considered shorts?

--raj

[lkazista]

I was told that you want your floor boards to be as long as poissible. BECAUSE you want all of the boards to basically lock together. When you have short boards (like in my new construction home) the installer is often only able to sink one nail into the board. Some of my boards are only inches long, so once you avoid the ends to prevent splitting, you are only left with the exact middle of the board. With only one nail, that board becomes locked to only one board, not two or three like you would want.

In my home, anywhere I have more than a couple of boards shorter than 1foot, I have seperation between them. I have only been in the house for 8 months, but I have gaps everywhere. We had a floor installer come in to give us a second opinion, and that is what he told us.

Hope that helps somehow.

Lee

[JimD]

I am not familar with the wood you are considering but nothing over 3 feet in the flooring I have used is shorts. They will take more time to install and the resultant floor will not be as nice as if you used longer pieces. I put pre-finished laminated flooring in our basement (glued to the concrete) and the pieces were 5 or 6 feet down to around a foot. That worked OK. The bundles of oak I see at the home center have 8 foot or longer pieces. That is what my floor upstairs is made of.

Jim

[thestinker]

Short pieces are great for stagering the joints on nice long pieces. Thats about it.

[JAWS4038]

Intallation and acclimation is the key to a good hardwood floor. 3'ers are kind of short but it depends on the square footage of the room. If the room is small you can probably get away with it. Then it depends if you are going to use nails or staples. One is better than the other depending on who you ask. The moiture content of the wood is also a factor. It should acclimate to your house with the heat on right now if your in a cold climate for at least a week, and properly stacked so the air can get to it. And you should also consider where your contractor got it from and where he is storing it now. In Ikasista's case your if you bought your home in a subdivision and the builder did the installation, he probalbly had 2 guys making $8 an hour installing it. And they probably took the wood from the truck to your house and nailed it straight down to the floor and the wood never had time to dry or get acclimated to the conditions of the house or even worse, they put it down without the HVAC running in the house.

[Russianwolf]

you pay a big premium for flooring that is all long boards. most of the home centers don't even carry it that way.

3 foot may be shorts, but it is perfectly fine for flooring. Don't accept anything shorter than 8 inches.

I say that, but then I think that shorter pieces can be used at the walls. I'm a stickler for using every piece of flooring that I can. The flooring I've been putting in my house is $60 per 20 square foot pack and ranges in length from about a foot to about 8 foot (few and far between). I don't like waste and will use the small cutoffs to start or finish a row.

The main thing is the boards in the first and last rows should be as long as possible. A short board in the middle gets locked in by all the boards that surround it.