Pine Kitchen flooring?!?!?

[Ishmel]

Hey fellas & ladies, I have a couple of questions. My SIL wants (really really wants) a rustic, wide plank kitchen floor. She also wants it made out of pine. I have a friend who has about 5000 bf of pine (bandsawn) that has been stickered and drying for over a decade. Is it crazy to think that I could plane that rough pine out, cut a tongue and groove in it, and put it down over her subfloor? If you think this could work, what the heck would I use to finish it? I'd really appreciate any advice. Also, if you think I should post this in any other sections (i.e. projects/finishing etc.) please give me the go ahead, I'd love to get as much advice as possible.

d

[Ken Weaver]

There's nothing crazy about it if you have the gumption for the job and the patience. It will take a while to mill it, but with a ts, jointer, planer and router, seems to me that will be all you would need to get 5 1/2 - 6" wide boards.

As to finish, my preference is natural looking which means poly or spar poly. Individual tastes plays heavy on this part.

Sounds like a great project, but be sure she understands it won't happen over night.

[RayintheUK]

Excellent advice from Ken, especially the last line!

Ray.

[Russianwolf]

Having done a Maple floor from scratch, I can chime in here.

It's not hard, but it is time consuming. How big an area are you talking about?

1) Figure out which direction you want the flooring to run and get the maximum run length. Hopefully this will be fairly consistent.

2) Set out your boards from widest to narrowest.

Let's say that you are doing a 10x10 room. And your boards are about 6 foot long. You'll take your widest two boards and cut both to the same width, then mill your T&G. The next two board will get the same treatment. This will give you a random width floor (the way they used to do it) and maximize the widths you have.

3) mill the lumber

4) install the flooring.

5) poly (I like Czar)

[venkatbo]

just a novice speaking...

Have some reservations using (softwood :?) pine. I recently did a cabinet, and no matter how much precaution I took, I could not avoid even a scrath (reasonable deep) by a finger nail ! Isn't it true, that not before long, a pine-based floor would have all kinds of scratch marks on it... making all that effort seem misplaced...

just a thought...

/venkat

[Ishmel]

pine floor

Awesome, I thought it might be pretty straightforward, I was worried about the durability of pine, but maybe a tough enough varnish will help with dents and scratches. How about doing the butt joints (end to end planks)? do those get a tongue and groove as well?

[Tom Miller]

Re: finish

Whatever finish you use, it should "match" the rustic nature of this type of floor. If you try to use something nice and glossy, then the scratches and dents are going to stick out like a sore thumb.

You might want to go so far as to consider some kind of "distressed" finish to begin with.

This approach also takes a little pressure off on the milling end -- a sliver missing here and there at a joint won't be so noticeable, and may even lend to the right look.

Regards,
Tom

[rg32]

My more experienced house has all the original random width pine floors with "no" tongue and groove throughout that over the years have either been painted or covered by carpet Etc.
Last winter I did my kitchen floor over by ripping up the carpet, sanding and refinishing it with tung oil.
The tung oil floor finish is by far a more durable and better-looking than the urethane I have used in the other rooms.
The scratches and nicks give it character!

[Pappy]

Around hear you see a lot of 'antique' long leaf pine being recycled. It's fairly well hardened from age (and darkened). I would oil it, too.

[Russianwolf]

On the pine itself, I would try to avoid white pine. It may be TOO soft. Yellow Pine and Long Leaf are the traditional flooring woods. I would also mention Heart Pine, but it's hard to find since it's old growth.

Lumber Liquidators actually has 10" wide pine for less than $1.5/sqft

On the ends. Tongue and grooves would be best as it keep the boards flush at the joints (imagine one staying flat and the other cupping a bit. you could feel the seam).

A cool way to install them in my opinion is to use the rectangular head "cut nails" and go through the surface. But that's just me.

[LinuxRandal]

Hardwood floor had reliefs under it (I am guessing for expansion and contraction), does he need to put some of those in?

[DUD]

I have a pine floor I installed in the main bathroom. I laid it with my floor nailer, it has only been down 6 years but it's doing fine. It is sealed with 3 clear coats of poly. FYI I got mine from a flooring sawmill in NW Arkansas and it was relief cut in back, and my boards are 2 1/2". Bill

[Ishmel]

Pine flooring

thanks for all the tips guys. Great information. The relief cuts and the cut nails I would have NEVER thought of. I think I'll do a sheet of ply with a few different options on it, then keep them in the house to see how they move with the seasons.....

[lkazista]

BUddy of mine owns a wood floor business. Best looking floor he has ever laid (his opinion, photos look great) was something 'custom' a widow wanted from him throughout her house.

She had him remove all of the OAK 3 1/4 T&G flooring, and replace it with random width, rough sewn, non T&G pine boards. It gets better, she made him simply butt all of the boards together, face nail them down, and sand them in place to get everything 'close'. Then he painted (with a roller) the entire floor black.

When it dried he came in with scrapers and some very light sanding, finally 2 coats of poly on top for good measure.

These floors looked 100+ years old, absolutely beautiful.

Just something to consider, you would save a bundle on planer knives.

Lee

[cabinetman]

If it's Southern Yellow Pine, it's pretty hard stuff.



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