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Ed- If I remember correctly, they mixed the saw dust, with oil-based varnish. I think the ratio was something like 2:1. I remember seeing that & thought what a cool looking floor that would be.
Hope that helps.
Mike.
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Ed- If I remember correctly, they mixed the saw dust, with oil-based varnish. I think the ratio was something like 2:1. I remember seeing that & thought what a cool looking floor that would be.
Hope that helps.
Mike.
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My sweetie has done a floor like that recently and an article on it will be coming out in FHB.
*Kathy Blodgett, Finally a use for the end cuts.
*End grain block flooring used to be common in factories. I recently visited an ancient, defunct Caterpillar repair facility that had a block floor in surprisingly good shape even where they had run Cat tracks over it or welded above it. The blocks they used looked to be about 3" pieces of fir 4x6. There has been some discussion of this in the past on Breaktime. I think the blocks were bedded in mastic and were oiled, although the oil may have just been from the leaking heavy equipment that was repaired there. I was really surprised as to how little damage the welding sparks seemed to have done to it. A search will give you a lot of things to sift through.
*I did make and install about 70 square feet of endgrain 6 x 6 VG Fir (have to bow my head when I say that) last year as part of a kitchen remodel. My blocks varied in thickness because I had to machine a ramp into the floor to make up a 3/4" difference in existing floor heighth between the kitchen and dining room (Mark Cadioli gave me the idea for the sled to support the router). The thinnest blocks finished at about 3/4", while the thickest were 2", with several graduations in between.I used good old Woodpatch for grout, but I didn't have many joints over 1/64" or so. I laid them checkerboard fashion, alternating dominant grain direction and really like the way it turned out. She even had me inlay several blocks into the surrounding oak strip floor as if they had been dropped in a pile, all kinds of interlocking pieces, cool looking. I have a ton of photos, but don't have a scanner. I think there will be a write up on Meldos by <ahref=http://www.livos.com/">Livos, the non toxic oil I used in an upcoming "Tools & Materials", but I don't know anything about any article about the floor itself.
*Thanks for the info. At last, something definitive from one who has been there. One question - was it worth the work? Would you do it again?
*Absolutely. Positively. It came out beautiful. But it cost her a few thousand bucks for about 70 square feet of floor. I guess you'd have to ask her if it was "worth it". I can't wait to inlay some quilt patterns in our house and a little house we are planning to remodel. I have been tryin' to get to those projects for a couple years now, but it seems my business is running me, instead of me running it.
*I'm not familiar with the Woodpatch product, but I asume it dries hard like other wood fillers. Do you suppose I could use regular floor tile grout?
*Floor tile grout would surely fail, considering it's relative brittleness in contrast to the expansion and contraction properties of wood.Pete
*Then what keeps wood filler from failing? Isn't it just as hard as cement grout?
*yeah...you got a point there Ed...in truth, probably any filler or grout will crack...but are we talkin' a house you live in, or a museum here? What's wrong with a few cracks?
*So that's my point. Tile grout would seem to be easier to work with, comes in many colors, can be used for wide gaps, etc. I can imagine an oak parquet floor with 1/2" contrasting grout lines...Maybe the problem is that the moisture in the grout would cause the wood to swell?
*Seems to me that the application of grout to a pre finished parquet floor would be pretty abrasive on the finish, 1/2" joints mean sanded grout. On an unfinished floor I think it would stain the wood and be hard to deal with when sanding the floor before finishing.Chuck
*I've seen the end grain floor before and have been curiousmyself. What surfaces have these been set over with mastic, and were these purchased at a flooring shop? As for the swelling I am only familiar with latex fillers, while rre finishing floors, and the grain is alwaysraised between grits. I don't know if cement based nonsanded tile grout has ssimilarnough properties as latex wood filler to work, my experience is cement stains wood. Museum floor Yost
*How could this floor cost a few thousand dollars? Peter
*What about the interaction of floor grout with the finish used on the wood (if regular grout is used)? It seems to me one of the virtues of the sawdust/finish as grout is that since the finish and the liquid in the grout are the same thing, there won't be any problem with bonding or discoloration. And if a contrast is desired for the grout, maybe a sawdust in a contrasting wood color could be used.
*I thought that this was going to be a relatively simply question when I first posted it, but apparently not. I agree with questioning the "several thousand dollar" cost, but I though I was too inexperienced and probably missed something. Not critisizing since I wasn't there, and I'm sure it's a nice floor, but i was certainly hoping to install mine for a lot less. I also agree with the potential problem with sanded grout, but it seemed like a good solution since it's a product used for floor work all over the country, and something that everyone can relate to. I had not planned on instaling pre-finished wood, but rather glue down end grain blocks, sand them somewhat smooth and level, one coat of finish to seal, then grout, then repair and recoat as needed.
*We used VG Fir (have to bow my head when I say that) 6 x 6s to cut the blocks from, 18.00/lineal foot. There was a lot of pretty intricate inlay work on one side, where the blocks were "spilled" into the surrounding strip flooring. We had to scribe fit all the blocks along another side where they abbutted 1" tile floor and around a tile "leaf". You ever try sanding tight grained endgrain? I can't remember how many coats of oil we used, 8, maybe 10, and we broke the surface loose with a steel wool pad on a buffer every time. All in all, there was a tremendous amount of labor.
*Ed, FWIW in the midwest endgrain floors were used in machine shops, unfinished, probably to absorb spilled oil, and to minimize transmitted vibration. This was pre-1950's construction at least, maybe 1900. The blocks were about 6" deep, and were anywhere from 2x8 to 4x4. They could be pulled up and replaced, with some difficulty. I think they were softwood, but the only ones i ever handled were so oil and dirt soaked it wasn't obvious what they were. There was no grout, they were just packed in together.
*Can anyone tell me if this flooring can be purchased as flooring? I like the look and obviously grain and wood, are factors?
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I saw a quickie by Bob Vila the other day that said you could use end grain slices of lumber for flooring. Said to use troweled mastic to fasten it to the slab. Ok so far. Then he said to mix sawdust with (missed this part) oil based something for the grout. Anybody have any suggestions and/or experience? What about a finish? Thickness of the slices?
*b TVMDCEd, Saw a quickie on the net the other day but no names were given.End-grain makes beautiful flooring. I saw 4x4 laid in a staggered pattern at Ventana in Big Sur. I believe it was about 2" thick. Don't know about the grout but normal sanding and finishing with a clear satin polyurethane would work.Good luck!
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OREGON LUMBER COMPANY SELLS END GRAIN FIR FLOORING. THEIR TELEPHONE NUMBER IS 503-636-5691