I have a question we receintly bought a truck load of mill ends from a hard wood mill for 10.00 none of the peices are over 12"x12" I was wondering if I could make a floor parquet style I am a quilter and the design would be easy for me to do the problem is they are not toung and groove and I am not sure how to fasten them i'm worried about expansion. At first I thought I could put them down with liquid nails but they may end up popping up the design I want to use is an 8 " square, with a 2"x8" border, and a 2x2" square on the diagional at each corner so it would all be straight lines I am going to do the 8" ones in a natural stain the corner diamonds in a very dark stain and the side runners in a medium red stain. after it is down I am going to oil it I have found this is better for hard wood because when it wears off in the high traffic areas I can go back and re oil rather than completly re finish the whole floor. any suggestions on fastening this to the floor. thanks Ronda

-- ronda (thejohnsons@localacccess.com), November 02, 2000

Answers

Tongue and grooving so many small pieces would be a nightmare, especially if you have different sizes. A good option might be to place them like tiles, with a tile mastic. Come back later and fill the grout lines with a mixture or sawdust and polyurethane. Sand everything with a floor sander. I've been experimenting with using the same technique with 1 x 12 planks, filling up the joints with the same mixture. Also trying a mixture of fine sawdust, water, and carpenters glue. The carpenters glue is a lot cheaper and more forgiving than the polyurethane.

Experiment first in the closet area. Using different colored stains might mean staining and then sealing, if you use a grouting system. "This Old House" had an episode a long time ago using this technique. Good luck.

-- Phil (phillipbriggs@thenett.com), November 02, 2000.

We used the sawdust & glue mix to seal the cracks in an old plank floor.It did not hold up to the natural floor movement.

Diff episodes of This old House had plank flooring,and they used a product that was rather like watery drywallcompound, but I never caught the name of exactly what it was.Check with a flooring company for the product or does anyone know what it is?

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 02, 2000.

We re-did the floor in my present house, my grandparent's 80-year old house. The old oak flooring was still in good shape, but the years of oil treatments had built up in areas to a black finish that was NOT attractive like the rest of the warm, light cherry-look the traffic areas had. We ended up having to sand the whole thing down (electric sander) to get rid of it, also because we had to patch areas where walls were moved over the years. The final floor was finished with a water-based acrylic, three coats, by a local man who does this for his living. It was his opinion that it held up the best (and I was happy that it was less toxic).

We tried remodelling one place that had beautiful birds-eye maple flooring -- it had been nailed to the subflooring and we couldn't take it up, but I'll tell you, in the 20 years we had that place, that stuff never moved! You may think about nailing it down, even using the nails as part of the pattern (so long as you don't want to ever remove it...I spent the weekend taking oak stalls apart to move a barn. It was NOT FUN.)

I throw down runners over the high traffic areas to save on wear and tear. Also so I can wash the dust out frequently. It will be interesting to hear later how the oil works out. I remember my grandmother oiling the floors and it seemed to take days to dry.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), November 02, 2000.

we also had a floor that had been nailed.Cut nails were used and it looked nice.You Just had to go thru and make sure the nails were flush before sanding,bc you would go thru alot of sanding papers if they were not.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 02, 2000.

We put yellow pine planks on our floor. Lots of wide gaps, but it was the cheapest way to go. We're filling with different things: sawdust/glue, wood slivers, whatever. We originally nailed the boards, but they tend to pop up with expansion and contraction, so I've been using screws as I get around to it. I finished with linseed oil. It's very durable, cheap and looks great. If it doesn't dry quickly enough, you can dilute it with paint thinner, but I use it straight.

-- Teresa in TN (otgonz@bellsouth.net), November 03, 2000.

Sounds like it will be nice looking when done. As for the tounge and groving it is no hard if you have a router it only takes two bits for it. and a routing table with a fence. If the floor is to be over 12 x 12 it may take a little time to route. But it should only take about 20 - 30 seconds to route each board. You will need to make sure that the boards are dry. Give them a chance to season and shrink to keep your gaps smaller. And depending on the lumbers condition you might wish to clean up the edges on a joiner. So Have Fun and Enjoy. Anthony

-- Anthony J. DiDonato (didonato@vvm.com), November 04, 2000.

Ronda, I'd highly recommend ripping all the boards down to the same width, e.g. 3", then putting a T&G on sides and ends.

If you lay these boards as is, the very wide ones will not only shrink and expand so much, from season to season, causing wide cracks to appear at the joints, but also, the wide boards will cup.

Before T&G-ing the edges, run the boards through a planer to get uniform thickness, so the tongues fit into the grooves correctly, or you'll have lots of problems, too.

I'd personally recommend that the boards be very dry before planing and T&G-ing, but for extremely hard woods, I've had friends screw up their equipment that way. Talk to your friendly neighborhood millworks person.

Sounds like a fun project; I personally love the concept of utilizing this "waste" product, and I've done a lot of similar things with low grade t&g for panelling walls in the past, by high grading it into short pieces. You can make some way cool patterns even with nothing but straight cuts. If you want me to send you a sketch, e me.

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), November 04, 2000.