# Another flooring question- raw milled lumber. Has anyone used it as flooring?



## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

Has anyone taken their own lumber from sawmillmll, rough cut, and installed it as flooring? We are wondering how to attach it to the floor. What did they do before tounge and groove? We have some beautiful 12 inch pine planks that I would like to use in a dining room- tile in the entryway and maybe kitchen- but do not know how to go about it. Any advice? We can sand and finsh, have done that before. Thanks!


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## jnap31 (Sep 16, 2005)

Nope but use it for lots of other stuff.I like to support the local companies and the mill is 15 min down the road.They delivered 7 huge loads of sawdust for the garden for $40 a load last mar.


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## just_sawing (Jan 15, 2006)

Yes I have.
What was done in the past is a neat way. Attach the boards to the sub floor with screws. Now that you have done that enjoy. In six months remove the screws vacuum the dust in cracks move the boards closer and reattach. This time sand and finish.


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## SteveD(TX) (May 14, 2002)

InHisName said:


> Has anyone taken their own lumber from sawmillmll, rough cut, and installed it as flooring? We are wondering how to attach it to the floor. What did they do before tounge and groove? We have some beautiful 12 inch pine planks that I would like to use in a dining room- tile in the entryway and maybe kitchen- but do not know how to go about it. Any advice? We can sand and finsh, have done that before. Thanks!



It depends entirely upon what your sub-floor is made of. Nailing or screwing to wooden sub-floors is usually done, and gluing and/or tongue-in-groove if the sub-floor is concrete. And with newly cut 12 inch planks, you are likely to have some warping and shrinkage. This will probably require letting them dry after properly stacking them, hopefully within the room where they will be installed. Kiln drying is also an option.


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## Farmerwilly2 (Oct 14, 2006)

Used poplar in the chicken house. Covered it with thin luan to make cleaning easier and to cover any shrinkage cracks. Made a nice stout floor that'll out live me.


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## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

That is a great idea, just sawing! This was milled 1 1/2 years ago, stacked and dried since. We have osb sub floors. Have been looking for a website on this, hard to find. Just companies that want to sell at a huge price.


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## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

If ya wanna get all rustic looking and expensive..... drill out your holes for your fastener o' choice. Wrap a piece of tape (or use a guard, if you're so inclined) around a large drill bit that is a wee bit smaller than your choice of dowel widths, a wee bit shallower than your first hole. Remember the distance between hole 1 and hole 2. Oggie and CN, you keep quiet. (Stay with me, confusing, I know. I type like I talk. Just be glad you don't have to talk to me on the phone.) Using your first hole, drill another down to your guard. Nail/screw your wood to the sub floor and fill the hole with the peg you've cut from the dowel. Either distress and finish or let life distress the floor and finish.

You've now created yourself a genuwine designer *rustic look* floor. 
I can't wait to move somewhere and do it m'self. Just don't think rustic goes with a 3800 sq foot brick house built within the last twenty years or so.

Dang it.


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## RosewoodfarmVA (Oct 5, 2005)

We used our own timber cut from our farm for flooring in my parents' house to replicate old style wide flooring common in this area. We had the boards sawed by a local woodmizer man, let them dry about a year, then planed them with a 20 inch planer that I bought for $1200 from Grizzly, then moved the boards into the house and stacked them in the dining room to allow them to acclimate to the inside climate, for about 3 months, then laid them using old cut nails that I had been pulling/saving for years, face nailing two nails (or three on wide boards) into each floor joist.

We stained it (didn't sand it any, just left it planed) with Red Oak then put 3 coats of polyeurethane on it. The tone is similar to that found with old "heart" pine floors. The boards are random 4 inch to 16 inch widths, with all the rooms full length boards (the front hall with 24' boards, and the dining with 20 feet long boards because the room is 20' long). It has been 5 years now and they have held up well. Because we face-nailed it, they do squeak some, but that's OK because we wanted it to "feel" old. You need to glue it down also if you don't want squeaks. 

The floor in their house....sorry for the bad pic, but we took it awhile back to show the dogs.....didn't think I'd ever need a picture to show the flooring by itself! The picture looks too red....see the next pic. for the correct color....










And the landing upstairs showing the stair railings and posts made from the same wood cut off our farm. The posts are 6" square with turned profile and the rails are 4" rounded on top and beveled on bottom.


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## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

Rosewoodfarm- that is just what I'm looking for. Wish I could see the floor better! Could you post another picture? The pro sites say it cant be done. So glad to see it done anyway! Have you had any problem with warping or nails coming out? How far apart did you put the nails? Did you sink them, and put the poly on over them? You get a big applause from me! Can't wait to show hubby!


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## notenoughtime (Aug 13, 2007)

My uncle did this in his family room over concrete. I think he put down firring (sp) strips then nailed the boards to strips. It turned out beautiful. He also took the nails and ground it so it was square (like the old days). Very sturdy.


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## tomjones (Dec 22, 2007)

The other main forum I hang out on is www.forestryforum.com . Last year I bought a small Norwood sawmill andhave been sawing away ever since. In fact, just cut the last of the siding I need to put the finishing touches on my 12x36 pole barn that will be reeiving my new large black pigs next weekend.

Anyway, back to the point. Go there and use the search function. There is a huge wealth of information on this question, although people will discuss the questions to death there too. IMHO, for a small project I would have someone run it through a jointer and cut tounge and groove. Otherwise screw it flat after well dried and sand. That is what I am doing on the oak for my deck. ANy cracks that form will fill with a bit of dust or refinish and will add to the character of the finish..

JMHO,

Tom


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## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

tomjones- those are great forums= if anyone is thinking of using their own milled lumber, or buying it- those are the forums to see. We have 1 x 12 inch pine that was going to be used for shelving. Someone made me a goat stanchion out of the scraps, stained it- and it was beautiful! (think I'll use it as a coffee table!) Anyhow, too nice for the inside of a closet only- really hope to use this in the dining room too. Thanks so much!


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

On those 12 inch boards and some that aren't that wide, you'll have to do something to prevent bowing or cupping. Cut a curf about half way thru the depth of the board, alonng its length. Two spaced cuts on wider boards.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I've got pine 1x12's upstairs, laid down on 1/2" plywood. The boards are butted against each other, held down by forstner drilled holes, screwed down, then doweled. Unfortunately, when I installed it, I didn't have a jointer, and didn't know about dado blades. 

When I install wood flooring upstairs in the new home, I'll dado cut each 1x12's edge, so I can avoid wide cracks.....

It all depends on how smooth your rough sawn boards are, to whether you'd need to plane them first... Something else I need to get is a good planer...


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

Heres my take having done this.
First of all if your going to use truly rough sawn lumber you have to remeber that they are not going to be the same thickness. Nor will they have straight edges. Bandsaw mills do a pretty good job of staying close but your lumber thickness can vary 1/4 inch and more if they came from a regular mill. Secondly the rough sawn look is going to be impossible to tounge and groove due to the thickness difference. You could shiplap them but you will still have a differences in thickness. And last of all RSL (rough sawn Lumber) is really hard to keep clean.

If you joint and plane and rip them to width then your thicknesses will be a lot closer and you will have straight edges so you can T&G them but you will probably have some variations. In the old days they laid them and if they shrank they put oakum in the cracks. Nowdays if they are pretty dry you can do like Just Sawing said. I would drill a countersunk hole twice the diameter of the screw to allow for movement. Once they no longer move on you, you can take them up butt them together,rescrew and plug the holes with dowles,sand and finish. Make some extra boards and keep them in the room to make up for shrinkage.
If there is plenty of circulation around them then you should not have a lot of trouble with warping. If they are oak you should be pretty sucsessful. But if they are laid where there are temperature and moisture differences ,(are you going to have some kind of sub-floor? ) then you may have a problem. Then you generally run a saw kerf on the back about 1/8-3/16 deep every 2-1/2-3 inches as Haypoint suggested.
DO not glue them. Wood moves and your just asking for trouble, splits and cracks. Lastly wood this size creaks its part of the charm  plan on it,
Depending on the look you want it can be a little work or a lot.


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## Alex (Mar 20, 2003)

Our floors are 2 x 8 and 2 x 6 rough Pine (previously dryed or fire-killed -- not sure which.) The neighbors, the Gonvick brothers and father, sawed them and sold them to us 34 years ago for $200. I put tar inbetween (from a tube at Home Hardware), sanded them with a belt sanded and put 8 coats of marine varnish on them. That's for 560 ft2 on the first floor and 250 ft2 of the second floor.









Floors today. To keep up you sweep up the dirt, mop, and take off your shoes -- that's all there is to it. Right in the front of the picture is one of Nancy's beautiful braided wool rugs made from old wool blankets -- we've got lots of 'em all over the cabin -- the floors make them stand out.

Good Luck,

Alex

BTW We have wood every where except the bathroom, there we have 4 x 4 tile. And under Katie the Cookstove we have 4 x 4 tile (which you can see in the picture -- under the water bottle) and under Blaze King wood stove (to the upper left in the picture) we have 12 x 12 tile.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Our floors are rough-cut pine. We love the look of the circle-saw marks in each board. The boards are T&G and were face-nailed to floor sheathing using square-head nails for a rustic look. The difference in our floors boards is that they were first used for a barn and then reclaimed about 100 years later for our floors.


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

Cabin Fever said:


> Our floors are rough-cut pine. We love the look of the circle-saw marks in each board. The boards are T&G and were face-nailed to floor sheathing using square-head nails for a rustic look. The difference in our floors boards is that they were first used for a barn and then reclaimed about 100 years later for our floors.


I was thinking about this last night. Were your boards planed on one side and one side left with the saw marks. Seems you could use the planed side to reference for the T&G. Other wise I would sure like to know how they T&G rough sawn. Seems it would take some specialized machinery or a trick i don't know. And that wouldn't be good   How do they come off flush to one another pretty good ?


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## RosewoodfarmVA (Oct 5, 2005)

> Rosewoodfarm- that is just what I'm looking for. Wish I could see the floor better! Could you post another picture? The pro sites say it cant be done. So glad to see it done anyway! Have you had any problem with warping or nails coming out? How far apart did you put the nails? Did you sink them, and put the poly on over them? You get a big applause from me! Can't wait to show hubby!


Sorry to take so long...I don't get on here that much. I'll see if I can find another picture that we have on the web. I have many pics, but since I can't just copy/paste them here, I have to find ones that I've put up elsewhere so they have a link....

Our flooring was meant to be a replica of old style, so we did it the old way! The pro's wouldn't like it, for that matter most people today like new stuff from LOWES so they wouldn't like it either. Old house lovers that see it think that it's original though. We get comments all the time like..."where did you find all this old flooring?" or " how old is the original part of this house?...well, uh, four years old!"

A few boards, especially those 12 inches wide or wider, shrunk a little leaving cracks inbetween boards. We don't care, since most old houses around here have cracks between boards! We face nailed it, using the old cut nails, every 16" since that's what the floor joists are spaced. It was laid over 1/2 inch ply to keep out drafts! We just followed the nails of the ply to know where to nail the boards. They are NOT tounge and groove, just butted together. Most pre-1850's houses around here are not tongue and groove either, just butted. I had to predrill the nail holes because the old cut nails tended to bend (most were bent when pulled anyway and I had to straighten them). I used a 1/8 inch bit to drill the holes through the boards and ply, but let the nails make their own way into the joists for strength. A few nails, maybe 5, have worked their way up with traffic use, and when they do I just use a bigger nail to replace them.

As to the varying thicknesses, that's why you have to have a good planer. You want the finished boards to all be the same, so some boards you have to make two passes, others four. Just put a mark on the planer height adjustment and mentally note that all boards must reach this mark before taking them to the finished stack. We planed the bottom first with one pass to get rid of unevenness, then do the other side. After two sides have been done, pick the best looking side and continue planing it until you reach the designated thickness. Our lumber was rough cut 1 inch, so we ended up with about 7/8 inch boards after planing. 

It was easy to do, a little time consuming perhaps, but we got what we wanted. Total cost for us was a little over $2,000, including paying the man to saw it and purchasing the planer. Ofcourse the trees were ours, and labor was free. Not bad cost though for 3,100 square feet of "old" wide pine flooring! I also used the lumber for built in bookcases, glass doored bookshelves, 5 mantels, other woodwork, etc. Even the raised panel cabinet doors are ONE wide board, not edge-glued like new stuff. The doors have handmade bevels instead of "routered" raised panels, and are pegged like the old style woodwork.

Right now the camera is broken so I have to stick with photos already taken.... 

Here is a set of doors I built for a historic church near here. They are also made with rough cut lumber, pegged together, and the raised panels are handbeveled and are 22" wide, ONE board! 









Another pic showing in the background some of the cabinets and a mantel in my parents' house that I built with the same wood. Can't you tell we love our dogs? PS This pic was taken awhile back and without the intention of showing off the floor or woodwork....










Here's another that shows the floor in it. We used to have a large rug under the table, and when we took it up it had left marks on the floor where the edges had stuck/rubbed. That's what the light marks are.









Here's another I found that shows the entry hall. The wide boards in the hall are 16" wide. The stairs are 4 feet wide and the door in the pic is a 3' door opening (for reference).









In case you're interested, my dad has a website and blog that has a lot of info about what we've done. His site is www.daveblackonline.com go to the site then click on BLOG to go to the blog. If you go to the bottom you can click on any month prior to that, and see the building of this house and other farm and family stuff. Lots of good photos and info on the blog archives.

I hope you decide to do this....we have never regretted it. It makes beautiful and unique flooring. Nathan


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Something else...
if you want absolutely 'perfect' floors, rough sawn wood, even after working the wood through jointers and planers, will still not look perfect. That not 'looking perfect' look is what I like...

There are many levels of 'finish' you can apply to rough wood floors. Mine has zero finish... lined em up, mostly straight, have cracks up to 1/2" thick between some of the boards, no stains or finishes applied. Always thought about mixing up some sawdust/glue mix, to put inside the cracks, to smooth everything out..... however, it's been over ten years now, and the cracks obviously haven't bothered me that much...


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

TNHermit said:


> I was thinking about this last night. Were your boards planed on one side and one side left with the saw marks. Seems you could use the planed side to reference for the T&G. Other wise I would sure like to know how they T&G rough sawn. Seems it would take some specialized machinery or a trick i don't know. And that wouldn't be good   How do they come off flush to one another pretty good ?


You are right. The boards are planed on the "down" side and I assume the edges were possibly put through a joiner before the T&G operation. The boards are all square and the same height. The "odd ball" widths (5", 7", and 9") are the reason I thought there were put through a joiner first.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We got some shiplap siding and used that for flooring. Excellent looking and inexpensive. It has worn well.


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## just_sawing (Jan 15, 2006)

One thing that I didn't mention. If the boards have dried ununiform dont worry. Take you power saw and saw the edges while the floor is attached. This will make a uniform edge that will go together. When you ahve the edge sawn unscrew side together adm reattach.


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## shellyr44 (Jul 23, 2006)

We used these boards for our bedroom and hall landing. What we did first was to lay them out flat under the bed stacked up on top of each other and let them dry out for a few weeks so they would not shrink after we put them in. I love the look the wood after it aged.


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