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Greetings all-
I’m hoping to once again capitalize on your collective knowledge. I’ll be installing a wood floor in our living room (haven’t decided wood type yet) and would like to spice it up with an inset compass rose. The rose would probably be about 2 feet in diameter, and I’d thought about using walnut and some other lighter wood. My question is: how best to fab this inset? I’m thinking about using a sheet of ply as a base and then gluing the pieces of the rose to the ply, so that the total is built up to match the thickness of the flooring. I would then install inset and flooring and finish them all at the same time. Does this sound about right?
Thanks in advance, Olav
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olav,
Use solid wood, it can be sanded the same as the floor. You will want to use a couple different woods to made it up.
I inlayed one and used walnut and maple for the point with an ebony ring. You can also buy these pre fabricated according to my floor man. I will ask him where if i see him. Make sure you have a good sub floor.
Rick Tuk
*Rick-Thanks for the quick reply. I assume you mean that I should just lay the solid wood pieces directly on the subfloor? Glue or face nail (or both?). Ebony in the center sounds nice...Subfloor is 3/4 t&G OSB which I have heard is not so great for installing wood floors, but it is what it is...-Olav
*Olav, I think there was a picture in the Tavern from Ed in Dallas of a floor inlay he had done. Within the last 2 months. Joe H
*Check out (www.kentuckywood.com) for some examples of some prefab units. I would be curious what they charge for them if you contact them.
*Thanks fellers-I found the info on the Dallas floor inlay, and there were pictures over in Knots. Sounds like quite a project, although finishing mine will be easier...I also went to Kentucky wood and am awaiting info...I'm pretty jazzed now, the pic of the finished inlay looked really nice. A new idea: inlaying a fancy metal N (for north) into the inset and floor. Now wouldn't that look cool...Thanks for the help, Olav
*If anyone is still reading this thread, I found another source for prefabbed inlays: http://www.premierinlays.comReally nice looking stuff, probably way too $$$ for mere mortals such as ourselves, but very inspirational. They will even build an entire carved, inlayed floor for you and ship it to you ready for installation...Woodenly, Olav
*I recently inlaid some fir blocks in an oak floor as part of a remodel. I cut the oak all the way to the subfloor with a router and jig and glued the blocks in place with hardwood flooring adhesive. I left them a little proud, machined them close to flush with a router and spiral straight bit, then sanded the entire area. Came out decent. Much easier than I thought it would be.
*Glad to hear about the router. I was thinking that might be the best way to create the hole in the floor. The floor needs to go in sooner rather than later, and the inlay will have to wait for a bit. The thread over in Knots suggested using biscuits to hold the various parts of the inlay together which sounds like a good idea.
*Olav,It will be a lot easier if you do it now. you can sand it with the rest of the floor. Using the router will work well if you know what you are doing but it will take a lot more effort. Using metal inserts sounds like a good idea, I used some brass in a humidor I made a couple years ago. Brass cooper and aluminum are good soft metals. be careful of the dust when you sand. it can get into the surrounding wood and give a sparkleing effect. doesnt look good on a classy project like yours.Rick Tuk
*Yeah, I'm with Rick, if the floor around the inlay isn't down yet either, do them both together. If you do it all at once, you have way more potential to tie it all together mechanically.I did use biscuits for abbutting the fir field to the adjoining oak, but where it is inlaid (a different area) that wasn't possible, because it was meant to look like someone dropped a bunch of blocks and they fell randomly, so there are individual fir blocks inlaid in the oak field, as well as an area that has several interlocking blocks, as if they had fallen - and some fell in a pile while others fanned out onto the oak. Would have been a piece of cake if we were installing all new flooring. Way easier.
*Hmmm- yeah, I can see what you guys are saying. Guess maybe I'll just pull some late-nighters to get the thing done. On a related topic, we've now decided to extend the same run of flooring into the "dining" section of our combined kitchen/dining area. This means that I am going to have to sand that floor while trying to keep the dust out of the other half of the SAME ROOM. I've only sanded one other floor, but my experience with that and with trying to keep general remodeling grime out of pristine living areas (not very positive experiences) has me a bit worried. I've always used plastic, with some wood nailers to keep it tight to the walll/floor, and maybe some duct tape where it's needed. Does anyone have a better, or maybe even sure-fire, way to keep the dust out? I suppose I'd better brace myself for lots of opinions...-Olav