Since I’m thinking about hardwood floor options–I’ve come across ‘handscraped’ hardwood floors.
Do workers at the manufacturer’s actually hand plane each and every one of the thousands upon thousands of board feet they sell? If it’s done in your house, do the installers actually get down with planes (jack? jointer?) and set to work?
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Where are you located?. You could fill out you profile. I'm in Ft collins and Craigslist has had handscraped flooring in there for a while. Just wondering. They keep putting it in but never put a photo in.
As I've been surfing around the 'net looking at hardwood floor mfg there are quite a few that offer hand scraped. I thought they were talking about planes, because one company, in Titusville, PA has a picture of an "Amish" man planing a piece of their "Amish Hand Scraped Collection." I live in Lancaster Co, PA, and I can tell you the "Amish" man in the picture isn't Plain, even though he might use a plane. The hat looks like it was bought in Aruba and and no Amish man ever grew a beard that looked like his.
Some of it probably looks great. But what if you bought some of it and it didn't?
Maybe that is why someone is selling it on Craigslist. My brother hand planed all the beams in his house. They look great! But it took a LONG time.
I had a handscraped oak floor installed on one of my projects in San Antonio. It was glued to a concrete slab, then it was sanded like a regular installation, but I think they did not do the final grit. Then a crew of about 6 guys attacked it with paint scrapers, about an inch or inch and a half wide, ground with a slight curve. Took a long time, something like 3 days for 1200 sf. They would each set up in an area and start scraping, stopping to hit the scrapers with a belt sander as needed. Then they sanded lightly to remove any sharp edges and tears, and applied the finish. We used Sherwin Wms oil stain in ebony, I think, with a matte finish. Looked great.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I have used a scraper to refinish some floors and stair treads, but never heard of it for new.
And a plane is a different tool and process than a scraper.
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The pre-finished 'hand-scraped' floors are made to be non-smooth, to show tool marks and dips, or 'faux authenticity'. Exactly NOT what someone actually skilled with a scraper would leave behind... *sigh*A pic... http://www.sheogaflooring.com/images/scraped1.gif
Edited 1/12/2008 6:47 pm by splintergroupie
cute what that plane in the background implies, isn'####?
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I noticed that immediately, too! Maybe Frenchy was there... <G>
There is a company in Chicago that does do hand planed floors, not for the faint of heart though!
This company travels across the US to do these floors and they're very expensive. You can buy a lot of floors that have a faux hand planing or scraping such as those that Splinty linked but to the trained eye they are just that, faux.
Doug