Have a chance to get some random length, 4 1/2″ tounge and grove flooring for the kitchen. Wife likes the herring bone pattern, Would run a permiter border (on 2 sides), then infill with the pattern that I cut from the random lenghts, and then finish with the final permiter on the last 2 sides.
Anyone done this? Or should I seek to find existing herring bone floor that I can buy and jsut lay this down. Not sure I can find the wide witdth. — Thanks
Replies
Be prepared for time consuming work. First you will need to layout the pattern to find proper dimensions to facilitate your pattern. All your infil flooring will need to be same dimension. I found it easier to use a slooting bit and splines rather than T & G all the pieces. My finished wood floor was 28" wide, L- shaped and about 12 feet of run. Used a 2" border with 1-3/4" x 7-3/4" flooring for the herrinbone pattern. The installation alone took close to 40 hours. Milling was another 30 hours, but I was working from rough lumber and milling it to a final thickness of 3/8"+. Looks beautiful when completed.
good luck
david
Dudley,
I have done this on several occasions -- here is one example,
View Image
you'll find more at my site.
The width and length of the pieces are critical as even a slight variation makes it difficult to keep the pattern straight.
My procedure was to lay the pattern across the floor, (rather than row-by-row, which is the normal method of laying herring-bone parquet) as I found it easier to cope with slight variations that way.
I snapped chalk-lines down the floor where each mitre would come and followed them religiously, since once the pattern starts to drift it is very difficult to correct.
I layed the field first and then sawed around the perimeter using a circular saw against a straightedge and filled in the border.
You can use random width, as long as each row across the floor is of the same width -- otherwise the joints won't line up.
The floor in the picture has chamfered joints to give a groove in the finished floor -- this is a French Provincial pattern but is actually quite practical since grit, etc., that otherwise would scratch the floor tends to be trapped in the grooves.
Good luck with your floor -- if I can be of further help, send me an e-mail.
Ian
Edited 3/28/2002 11:10:09 PM ET by IanG
Boy that is a beautiful floor. I had not thought of doing the field first and trimming at the end -- I thought using the first two border sides down I'd be able to follow a pretty good straight line. I like your idea and especially the splines.
thanks