wood floor porn

[speedracing944]

We live in an old 1880s farm house but the kitchen was added on in the '70s onto a cement slab foundation. The cement had carpeting on top when we moved in 5 years ago. Who in thier right mind puts carpeting in a kitchen??? Any ways... we were shopping around for flooring and just could not find flooring which matched the rest of the houses "character" (imperfections) Everything was way to perfect looking to go into a house which is near 130 years old. Plus with the cement slab a plywood subfloor would need to be installed. We got a couple of quotes form places to come in and do the job but we were shocked at the cost. Plus the wood they would of used would of been random lengths from 1 foot to 6 feet wich didn't appeal to me.
My wife and I decided to tackle the job ourselves.

The game plan;
1) Pull base boards and tri,
2) rip up carpet and pad
3) grind down the uneven areas in the concrete
4) pour self leveling compound on floor
5) lay down vapor barrier and a 3-in-1 pad which was about 1/32" thick
6) attach the 3/4" plywood to concrete by using threaded inserts inserted into the concrete and stainless steel lag bolts going through the plywood and into the inserts in the concrete
7) Attach 3/4" thick X 8" wide solid Red Oak plank in lenghts from 12 feet, 10 feet, 6 feet and 3 feet. They were attached by countersinking holes about 1/4" and running the screws through the board and going into the plywood. each board had 3 screws across the width of the board, and every 24" in length. The holes were then plugged with Oak dowels.

Here is a pic of the floor before varnish.



After sanding the floor it was finished using a Tung Oil finish called Waterlox. This finish has been used to do some rooms in the White House at D.C. Thie finish soaked into the floor much better than the Polyurathane I used on the second story bedrooms.

Here is a pic of the floor with 4 coats of finish.



We have 3 months of use on it so far and the finish is holding up well. When the floor does need to be recoated there is no need to sand before applying a new coat of finish.

Speedy

[red-beard]

I had an 1824 farm house in West Stockbridge, MA. The town had one of the first water powered sawmills. You could see the type of sawmill was a fixed blade that moved vertically.

The house had wide plank pine floors, each plank was 18-24" wide! Several rooms had the floor covered up with newer oak flooring, I am sure because the pine didn't hold up. But the bedrooms, where you could still see the pine, beautiful.

[Dantilla]

Originally posted by speedracing944
the kitchen was added on in the '70s

Who in thier right mind puts carpeting in a kitchen???

Lots of silly stuff happened in the '70's. Kitchen carpeting was the new, hot thing to do for a couple years until the drugs wore off.

[masraum]

Wow, you did a great job.

[Joeaksa]

Very nice!

[Nostril Cheese]

what a gip

I thought id see hotties nailed on the kitchen floor

[Hugh R]

A little to late, but in Hollywood, we "age down" wood by taking chains and hammers to it. On the other hand, you could still do that.

[Dottore]

Originally posted by Hugh R
A little to late, but in Hollywood, we "age down" wood by taking chains and hammers to it. On the other hand, you could still do that.

Even nicer is the patina you get from old aged wood.

A guy I know bought an entire yard full of old railway ties at an auction for about two cents, and had this turned into high-end "reclaimed" wood flooring. Made a bundle.

[trekkor]

Tell us more about the fasteners.

Looks nice.


KT

[azasadny]

Beautiful work!!!

[campbellcj]

Originally posted by Dantilla
Lots of silly stuff happened in the '70's. Kitchen carpeting was the new, hot thing to do for a couple years until the drugs wore off.

Yup, the house my parents bought in 1975 had carpet not only in the kitchen, but IIRC in one of the bathrooms as well!

PLUS, some of the carpet was really psychedelic. One bedroom had orange shag and another had kind of a robins-egg blue.

The PO's had some freaky taste, that's for sure.

[red-beard]

My 1st wife and I looked at a house with bright orange shag in the lower half of a split level.

A few years later, my 2nd wife and I went to the house of one of her co-workers...it was the same house...same ugly orange carpet. At some point, they had a fire and the insurance company replaced it.

[Hugh R]

Originally posted by Dottore
Even nicer is the patina you get from old aged wood.

A guy I know bought an entire yard full of old railway ties at an auction for about two cents, and had this turned into high-end "reclaimed" wood flooring. Made a bundle.

Creosote soaked railroad ties as flooring? No thanks.

[notfarnow]

speedracing944, they turned out AWESOME.

Too funny. I did exactly the same thing in my 1870's farmhouse. I got 1" x 10" x 12' maple planks salvaged from a 220 yr old church and had them milled. I put 5 coats of Miniwax Satin BEFORE lating them, and then 2 coats after the planks were screwed & plugged:

[speedracing944]

Thanks for the compliments on the floor. I have refinished the flooring upstairs (western fir) before this project but this is the first time I have layed down new plank. I liek the results more than anything I saw in the stores and looks more period correct.

notfarnow,
I remember you post a couple months back and I think I asked you what type of varnish you used. That was about 1 week before I started the project. I decided on the Waterlox Tung Oil warnish because I thought it would bring out the natural beauty of the woof more than the polyurathane I used upstairs. Your 10" floor still makes me drool.

procon,
Thanks! hey my wife and I are already anticipating the next Pelican Dragon Run. Have you had any thoughts about organizing another?

Speedy

[Zeke]

Originally posted by Hugh R
Creosote soaked railroad ties as flooring? No thanks.

The wood used commonly for rail ties was a hardwood, whatever was available in the region. This could be oak, an open grain, or beech, a closed grain, just to name a couple of examples. Creosote does not penetrate very deep into hardwoods. If you skin them, there will be plenty of well preserved virgin wood inside.

I have worked with some ties for landscaping and found that they were some of the toughest timbers I have ever tried to cut. A Sawzall was worthless. Had to have a large circular saw with a lot of set to the teeth. Inside, they were light colored. Any odor would leave the wood if it was stacked spaced for a time, which one would probably want to do before final planing.

The floor featured at the top of this thread is outstanding. But, the installation method is even better.

[speedracing944]

Originally posted by trekkor
Tell us more about the fasteners.

Looks nice.


KT

For the plywood attached to the concrete.
2 1/2" long stainless steel lag bolts with stainless steel washers
plywood was counter sunk 1/4"
lag bolts went through the plywood and screwed into the concrete floor which had threaded inserts sunken in by drilling holes with a hammer drill 2" deep. When the lag bolts are torqued down they expand the inserts against the wall of the holes in the concrete.

For the Oak attached to the plywood.
Counter drilled 1/4"
used Torx head fasteners for decking because of the resistance to stripping out.
Plugged the holes using Oak dowels with a little dab of glue on them, tapped them in with a hammer and cut flush with a special saw. (can't remember the name of it)

I wanted everything done so it could be easily repaired if nessessary. The Torx fasteners will come out easily as well as the lags if I really need to dig in deep. I made sure to use plenty of vapor block (6 mil poly sheeting over lapped and a 3-in-1 vapor barrier/padding/ insulation.

Even when it was -20 degrees F outside, the floor was as warm as the room. You could walk in bare feet without discomfort. I thought the floor would of felt colder than it did. I am glad I was wrong.


Speedy

[trekkor]

Thanks.

I missed the plywood layer.

KT

[notfarnow]

I'm envious of the tung oil finish.

I don't know the technical terms, but it seems to accent and highlight the wood, instead of just making it shiny like a polyurethane does. Almost glows.

The other detail I really like are the dowel plugs. They offer a really nice contrast.

Any more pics of the finished product?

[Superman]

When I became divorced, we were living in a large house that we were fixing up. I insulated, replaced windows, add an air handling system, new roof, yadda yadda. Was doing walls and stuff when we split. Last phase was going to be hardwood refinishing. Yes, we found plenty of hardwood when we removed the carpet.

I wish I had taken a picture. There was at least 1000 sf of PECAN hardwood. Originally done in 1963. Solid Pecan. It was one of the most beautiful floors I have ever seen. Very light parts, and very dark parts. Tiger-striped, if you will. Anybody ever seen a pecan floor?