I have a customer who wants an inlaid floor in the foyer of their home. I have never installed a custom design inlaid floor. The design calls for different types of wood installed in different directions. I plan on using 1×3 T & G flooring. How do I allow for expansion and contraction? What is a good way to connect the cut ends to one another? Are there any other problems with this type of floor I need to know about?
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A back issue of FH had an article about a guy that switched from being a nuclear physicist to a wood floor guy. I remember he mentioned he commonly worked within tolerances of 1/64 if an inch.
I would recommend trying the search feature here on breaktime since there are a number of old threads dealing with inlaid floors with photos. Try typing in 'inlaid wooden floors' or something similar.
Someone else should be around shortly to help you with specs.
Welcome to Breaktime. Glad you're aboard.
Half of good livin' is staying out of bad situations.
Edited 12/8/2002 11:19:01 AM ET by rez
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages for an inlaid border series of pics. You might get some ideas there.__________________________________________
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Many Thanks Rez
hi,
you didn't give enough information to respond very specifically, but there are some things i would recommend figuring out. first is proper sub floor and prep. is there potential for moisture from below? from what i think you are planning to do, you won't always be running across the joists (16" or 24" spacing?), so you will want at least 1 1/8" of subfloor for both deflection, and toenailing from the different directions. there has been some discussion about off gassing from tar paper used as underlay instead of flooring paper, but i still prefer it over spaces prone to produce moisture.
make sure you have suitable moisture content of your wood, and don't take some one elses word for it, know for yourself, the quality of your results belongs to you.
you may find different tongue and groove profiles if you are using wood from different manufacturers, so make sure you have proper fitting. i would also recommend using 2 1/4" flooring instead of 3" if possible, less movement per piece. a fancy floor looks much lousier if it opens up than straight runs, so you want it to stay tight. i always end match my pieces after cutting to length, even if they are cut on an angle. depending on your design and lay out you may only need to do either tongues or grooves, which makes an easier set up.
if you want to provide more specific info or have other questions i'm sure there answers here somewhere. the taunton press wood flooring book is definitely a valuable source of info also. all the best, D
(inlaid floor) the floor joist are 16 oc and I can reinforce from underneath if i need to, moisture should not be a problem. if the flooring is 3/4 i had planned on joining the end cuts with a biscut or spline if that is needed. I was also considering using a thin flooring and gluing it but I'm leaning toward the 3/4.
Still glue it..
Excellence is its own reward!
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The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
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Can the pattern be made into a preassembled strip for you.....or maybe there's a stock iten real close to what they want. I know these places will change to woods used to match what you need.
http://www.kentuckywood.com or http://www.oshkoshfloors.com
A coupla guys around here do them every now and again......email Ditch...he may have more resources.
There was another thread...I think by Ken Fisher...on installing and cutting with that circ saw and guide track system...I forget the name of the maker right now.....
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
for end cuts.....Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
Ron,
It isn't really clear what you mean by 'inlay' as you say you are using 1"x3" stock. If you mean a pattern like this
View Image
The centre of this floor is made from 3/4"x3" and the whole thing is glued down which is sufficient to hold it against any movement.
If you really mean inlay work, like this border
View Image
then the small pieces are glued down and to each other.
If it is a border, you could have it pre-made but you'll have to take a bit of care with laying, otherwise the height of the border may not match the rest of the floor.
I've heard of a case where this happened and the client refused to pay.
the floor is still being designed but will mainly be similar to the first picture.If that floor was glued, with no problems, it should work for me. What glue was used? any tips on estimating this type of job. also, how thick should the sub-floor be.
Ron,The glue used was regular parquet adhesive. If you want to be really sure then quote for polyurethane adhesive -- Bostik make a good one -- they are pricey but far more flexible and will cope with movement better.With parquet flooring you don't allow any structural benefit so the underlay should ideally be minimum 1/2" ply, screwed or glued and stapled, over a structural sub-floor.I made and laid that floor in Australia so the pricing wouldn't be much good to you but a ball-park estimate for make, lay, sand and finish -- complete -- would be 5 sq.yds/day plus the cost of material.The border is extra and would have been 5 lin.yds/day extra over the square yard rate.
well ya get paid...but only half of the outstanding balance....
then after a coupla months.
Sounds like he can sand/finish the 3/4 and avoid all the hassles!
JeffBuck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
This is a very simple inlay of DFir 6x6 blocks into an existing Red Oak floor.
The second one, we cut the blocks around her tile "leaves" to look as if the tile had been inlaid in the wood field. I have a bunch of photo of the jigs and progress photo somewhere, but I can't seem to find them this morning.
We made a simple template of 1/4" plywood to rout the square holes, then glued the blocks in place. Real simple to do. You could use a similar technique for virtually any shape. Say you wanted to inlay a Star of David, you could make it up in the shop, maybe on a thin plywood backer, then glue it in as a single piece. Fun project.
Interesting concept Jim, whose idea was it?I used a router to inlay the first chain border I ever did but the eucalypts are so hard it cost me a fortune in bits!!The disadvantage of an inlay to the main floor is the likelihood of it popping out if there is a lot of seasonal movement.
"Interesting concept Jim, whose idea was it?"
The customer's. She had a lot of really cool ideas like that. I really enjoyed the 18 months I worked with her; it stretched my abilities, that's for sure. She and I spent several hours dropping and positioning those blocks "just so" before she was satisfied.
There was another real nice inlay detail in that floor I don't have any photos of, too. The field portion absorbed ambient moiture and all those blocks swelled enough to lift the plywood subfloor as if there was a bubble of air under the center. I still couldn't talk her into relief cuts that would allow for movement so I made several leaf shaped hard maple patches, about 1" long. We dropped a handful of them directly over the center of the 2 foot diameter bubble, used a jig and router to cut the shape of the leaves then screwed back down through, capping the screw with the maple leaves. The maple patches/leaves are in a random looking pattern, similar to the squares in the photo I posted. Worked beautifully.
Lots of great stories about that job, sure hope I get to finish it someday. Great old house.
Brinkmann for president in '04
I know what you mean -- the money becomes a bit secondary when you get jobs like that.I did work on and off for an interior designer who, over the years, had me lay a pure white floor, a jet black one and a floor in a 150 year old National Trust mansion that had to be aged to look like it was original. The oddest was a floor for the entrance in her holiday cottage -- I made it in 2 sections and she trucked it over 200 miles to install it!BTW, you could still have trouble with the 'bubbled' floor with moisture driven expansion and an effective cure, providing it isn't in a wet area, is to re-finish with a penetrating oil. That allows the timber to breathe and the moisture to escape before the timber expands too far.
Edited 12/11/2002 8:21:46 PM ET by IanDG
That was finished with a penetrating oil - Meldos, made by Livos.
Edited 12/11/2002 8:54:28 PM ET by jim blodgett
Hmmm, unusual -- goodness knows what would have happened then if it had a polyurethane coating!
Jim & Ian,
Always so interesting listening to problems about moisture caused by humidity. In Calgary, usually the only question is how long leave the wood to acclimatize so the post installation shrinkage isn't too bad. Here, moisture problems with a floor, usually means the water bed sprung a big leak or the dishwasher overflowed.
I once knew a fellow who got a job transfer here from someplace in France. Naturally he brought a number of the family heirlooms and antiques. Within 6 months a number of them were virtually destroyed due to shrinkage - it was a sad thing to see.
Jim, How did you rout the floor without hitting nails?
I think I did hit a couple, Allen, but it wasn't that big a deal. She understood stuff like that and never complained about paying for whatever it took to get the results she wanted. I used a 1/4" spiral bit and only cut around the perimeter with the router, then pulled up the interior square with a flat bar.
I did find the photos of that job, I'll try to post one of the jig.