My husband and I are adding 3 rooms to our 18th century home. All the floor boards are chestnut in widths ranging from 12″ to 20″. I recently discovered a pile of boards in our attic – all chestnut in widths from 12 – 15″. They are all about 3/4″ thick and 15 feet long. This discovery is too good to pass up so we would like to use them as floor boards in one of the new rooms. They will need to be planed to an even thickness but I am afraid that they are already too thin to use as floor boards. Does anyone have any advice on how to make these gems into floors? Any advice on finishes would be greatly appreciated also. Thanks for any advice.
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Here's a link to a post in a recent discussion - http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=24029.22 that touches on a few considerations -
you will need to lay your boards over a subfloor - 3/4" plywood would be appropriate - if you plan to face nail the boards, consider designing the floor joist to be on 24" centers - a less busy, more traditional look - (how are your existing floors secured?) -
a nice find - hope that the boards are reasonably flat - probably should get them out of the attic, hose and scrub brush/pressure wash, and examine them for any metal - are you going to have some one else dress and true the boards? - good luck -
Thanks, David and Frenchie for your replies. We were planning to plane these boards ourselves and bring them to a friend for jointing. But not before spending a lot of time looking for nails. Our current floors were laid many, many years ago (possibly originally when the house was built) and are nailed directly to floor joists. You can see into the basement through the spaces between the boards. We will be laying the new boards over 3/4" plywood as this room is newly constructed. I was thinking of nailing directly to the plywood unless tongue and groove is the way to go. We were trying to keep cost and work-load down but if we have to, we will.
Do either of you have any suggestions for a finish? I was thinking of an oil-based poly. Thanks again guys.
While I have a great deal of respect for David (and recieved a lot of suppurb information as well) I think I'll disagree with his selection of 3/4 inch plywood as a subfloor.
Too much potential for a differance in swelling/shrinking between the Chestnut and the pine the typical plywood is made from. If the 3/4 inch Chestnut is too thin as a thickness increaser I'd suggest using butternut If you are looking for a lighter colored wood you might try aspen.
Two reasons for my suggestion.
One
the value of chestnut boards esp. to that house. makes extra effort justified. thus while the potential for a slit caused by reaction to the differance between plywood and chestnut is relatively small, it does exist and I think you would feel bad if it did cause a crack and for hundreds of years people would be forced to notice it....
Two
The use of plywood in a home of that age is just not correct. OK I'm not the local originality board but when you think of the tiny differance in price, I think the use of butternut or aspen is justified...
I'll disagree with his selection of 3/4 inch plywood as a subfloor.
ya - - on a practical level, I think plywood would serve - I think we would agree that as described, the chestnut would need structural support - I didn't get any impression from the first post that period specific construction was a consideration - I wouldn't advise gluing the chestnut to the plywood -
Frenchy, can you get butternut? - -the fungus has decimated it in Indiana - the DNR has done surveys and evaluate and collected germplasm of specimins that seem tolerant of the fungus, hopefullly to release trees that will thrive - interesting thought to glue up two near extinct species - which side would you turn up? ;-)
Last I checked Connie has about 700 bd.ft. of butternut 4/4 millrun butter nut cut and stacked up.
If you need more give him a call. I think I see about 200 bd.ft. of butternut trees still on logs...
If the bottoms won't be seen you could laminate narrower/ thinner boards underneath. I suggest you don't use pine or other softwood because of the differance of expansion as the wood shrinks and swells during the seasons.
Butternut has similar dimensional change numbers
Radial Tangental
butternut .00116 .00223
chestnut .00116 .00234
and it would move the least relative to the chesnut so any glue you would use would have the best chance of holding up.
When you have them plane the wood, plane only one side and don't be afraid to leave a little "character" in them. It will produce a thicker plank and evan a little "story" to tell.
Wow! What a find! What else do you have in that attic? Here's a suggestion from the boatbuilding world: you could epoxy-laminate those nice boards to planks of another species. Plane one side to get a smooth surface. Rough it up a bit with 80 grit. Then glue it to 3/4" pine or whatever. Then run the whole thing through the planer to achieve a standard thickness. There are numerous epoxies on the market that would work fine (e.g. Gougeon Bros, System One), and the expense would be a couple of hundred dollars or so. Come to think of it, since the joint would not be under any strain, you could use yellow glue!
As I said,
please don't use pine in that application.
differant rates of expansion and contraction then the chestnut (swelling due to changes in humidity levels)
the closest commercially available wood would be butternut.
I guess I wasn't clear enough that that was my suggestion also, (except with the correct underlayment.
You are absolutely correct. It will be critical to match the physical characteristics of the wood species, especially if they are laminated. (I guess I got so excited at the thought of playing with all that chestnut that I forgot myself!)