Hi All,
For about 3 years I have been collecting, de-stapling, de-nailing and stickering wood from crates. The wood is from Indonesia- at least that is what the crates say. I don’t know what 99% of the wood is but I call it “mahogany” because that is the only wood I can identify. This year my brother built a house and needed to decide whether to put in a decent heating system or put in flooring. I suggested we make the flooring ourselves from the “mahogany”- I had about 1600 board feet of it by now. Beautiful wood too! 7 ft long 1 inch thick and some boards 8 inches wide. We milled it flat and straight and then glued & screwed the floor into place. After 320 + man hours the floor is done. It was a lot more work than we bargained for. Putting everything on a diagonal didn’t speed things along either.
Anyway the Floor is FANTASTIC. Especially when the first coat of Varathane went on….
Better than we had hoped.
I include pictures of:
-the milling with crates in background
-close up of the unfinished floor
-a picture of the “plugging party”
I will include pictures of the finished product as soon as I get the photos developed.
Cheers
M.Stehelin
Replies
I love the look. It sure beats the bland uniformity of Pergo, and probably the price, too. Where do you get the crates?
-- J.S.
Thanks for the comments.
I got the crates out of the garbage.
They were made with common nails by hand so they were easy to pull apart too.
Cheers
M.Stehelin
M-
Go ahead and post a large KB pic and I'll shrink it down.
That floor deserves a better look than that little pic in the corner ;o)
sleeps till noon but before it's dark...
M, Thanks for the plug party pic............and I mean no offense.
Very nice job, the finish pics will be sweet.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
You definitely got a better class of garbage where you are. ;-)
-- J.S.
MStehelin -
You did good. I recall hearing about a company a few years ago in NYC that got packig crates, disassembled them and made the wood into furniture. They actually used unskilled (read homeless) labor and taught a trade. Supposedly, they turned out some nice stuff. I was never able to see it.
I love the idea of doing this and admire what you did.
Don
We have a program like that here, except that its abused and neglected and otherwise underpriveleged teenagers. they use pallets, and cull and mismixed paint and whatever else they can get there hands on, and they make picture frames. theyare pretty neat actually. They have been making them for about 5 years now, started out it a tablesaw and a router,and some hand tools, and now they probably have one of the nicest shops in town. They turn out a really neat product, and if i remember correctly a couple of the kids have gone on to be trim carpenters.
We waste so much stuff in this country; it's ridiculous. Nice to hear that some people are doing something with (some of) our castoffs.
It's worthwhile for the kids and/or adults. They feel like they are doing something, and in the case of teens, it keeps them off the streets while they are working. maybe it will even give them a little bit of work ethic.
Don
Its really a great program. My Lumber Yard donates all of our cull to them. The kids are a good group for the most part they just need someone to give a flip. The woman that runs the program has worked her butt of to keep the progrm running, and there shop is in the old airport terminal. Its a good use for a building that isnt good for much. I may whine about our municipal government sometimes, but letting them use the building for free was definitley the right to do.
sleeps till noon but before it's dark...
did you use Miller dowels or steel screws and your own cut plugs or storebought
nice plugs
You have a great eye for detail(s)!
I'm glad to see I'm not the only guy working in "OSHA approved construction Teva" sandals.....