antique, reclaimed wood floors

[CWebster]

Getting ready to remodel the inside of our house and the wife wants to go with a wood plank floor. Putting in the new stuff is pretty straightforward, but that is not hard enough. We have been researching all of our options and have come across antique and reclaimed plank flooring. My question is whether anybody has any experience with this, cheap sources, or general comments. We are both "traditional country" people an d love the old long leaf pine plank floors and walls, but we have no experience in the search/purchase of this material. Any comments or suggestions woulod be greatly appreciated.



Thanks

Chris

 

[Hummin Cummins]

Chris

In my area there are alot of older houses that are being torn down ( early 1900's barn beam construction ). Our old house had 1" tongue and groove plank flooring. If it can be removed without splitting, you can run it through a surface planer just to take the top 1/16" or so off to clean it up. I've built alot of gun cabinets, hutches and entertainment centers from barn boards. It's amazing how beautiful that wood is underneath the weathered surface. The blackened rings around the old nail holes and the bug marks give it a nice antique country look. Hard on planer knives though. I just use my cheap 12" portable planer to do that.

You could also find a barn being torn down, around here they are very common to find. Plane the boards then have the tongue and groove milled into them



Chris

 

[illflem]

Maple T&G flooring is available cheap when high school gyms are being renovated. Only problem is years worth of gunk on the edges that must be removed to get a good tight fit.

 

[THerman]

Old roller rink floors are another great source.

 

[redneckdr]

flooring

our house was built by a man who worked in a saw mill, at the time. he specially cut clear pine for the floors. 2" tongue and grooved pine--4300 sq ft. looks great, years later. i'd recommend you do try to find a source for this kind of thing. new flooring like this is not available. a builder recently told me if i had to replace it, i'd have to find used, reclaimed flooring. some times old warehouses have this kind of flooring also, being salvaged.

 

[CWebster]

?

Thanks for the replies.



Hummin Cummins-

I noticed that a lot of commercial antique plank and reclamation companies were out of PA, they must have a lot of barns. What is a ballpark on $/sq. ft. ?



Around here (TN) there are quite a few abandoned barns. The house is being remodeled in MI, though. Going to a sawmill and having them cut some up sounds interesting. What is the best wood (age, grade, type) for flooring? I seem to recall reading where the newer stuff would be quite more active than the older stuff, and get out of whack.



Redneckdr-

Where at in Dixie? Do you put in fresh cut wood? How has the fit and levelness held up? Going right to the mill sounds like the best idea, if they will sell to individuals.



Thanks\

Chris

 

[redneckdr]

FLOORING

chris, we bought the house from the original builder, when it was about 14-15 years old. he told me he had cut the "mountain pine" from areas where the trees have all been cut in north georgia. he then sawed it, kiln dried , then stored it for a year. he ran it through the kiln again, and planed the wood, and cut the tongue and groove. there probably aren't more than 2 dozen knots in the entire 4300 sq ft. he used 2X4's, 2X6's, and 2X8's. when he cut the tongues and grooves, that left 3", 5", and 7" boards. he then ran the pattern of a 3, then 5, then 7 board, then repeated; interesting effect.

all in all it has stood up well (house now 25 years old); there are very few places in the house where it has opened up cracks, and there is only one small area where it "buckled " slightly. he put the flooring down on 3/4" plywood on 2X12 floor joists on 12" centers. needless to say, it's solid. only one place in the house with a slight "squeak" when we walk on it. we love it.

oh, i'm in north georgia.

 

[CWebster]

ideas

Thanks for the reply redneckdr, gives me some ideas on what people have... ...



Thanks

Chris

 

[redneckdr]

another interesting effect

i forgot to mention that he made at least some of the doors out of the same pine. he apparently had some trouble with them, and replaced them with panel doors. i inherited one of the doors. man, that sucker is heavy!!!

 

[Floor It]

Try and find a builder or contractor that builds houses-more of the higher end type houses-they usually have some sort of access to these type of materials.