Another question, if I may.
Most of the floors will be hardwood. I want to use heart pine (new) but my wife is very concerned about scratches and dents. We looked at Austrailian Cypress in the cottage grade and liked it very much. It is almost 50% harder than red oak. A friend of mine in the flooring business (who does not sell Austrailian cypress, by the way) said the floor will creek (chirp) because it is so hard.
Has anyone had any experience with this flooring material?
Thanks,
8
Discover a concrete-free foundation option that doesn't require any digging.
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Dig into cutting-edge approaches and decades of proven solutions with total access to our experts and tradespeople.
Start Free Trial NowGet instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.
Start Free Trial Now
Replies
Bump
Anyone?
8
Creaking, chirping or any other sort of noise is more likely to be caused by the method of fixing than the hardness of the timber.
Some of the Australian timbers that I've successfully used for floors are so hard/dense that they don't float!
Cypress isn't the hardest by a long way and will give you a very good looking floor that will last a lifetime providing it's properly maintained. [....and properly laid]
IanDG
noise is a subfloor problem, has nothing to do w type of wood used most common problem is badly nailed subfloor, not enough nails or proper type nailed w smoothshanks, renail entire deck w 8d ringshanks if they used ringshanks, walk around to id any noisy areas and renail make sure plywood decks are nailed to schedule use pneumatic gun
australian cypress is nice material, very durable gives character of knotty pine w/o the damage 3" width tends to look nicer than 2 1/4" fewer seams, less busy use a 6-8" nail pattern, rosin paper is cheap insurance i've installed this in shoreline and rustic construction where pine was often used, real crowd pleaser
My brother selected that for his home that he just moved into. It is pretty knotty, but once that final coat went on, it looks dynamite. I really like it, but then again, I love wood :-)