Replies

1. 
   Piffin | Jan 29, 2003 04:41am | #1

   E GADs!!!

   Are these professional sites that recommend using cut nails on the face?

   That is a method for show, if you want an old-time "look"

   You should install the flooring properly with a floor nailer. Then, if you want that look, drill oversized holes to place your nails.

   You shouldn't be buying wood with any cup in it. I would consider refusing the order if they sent me cupped wood. Among other things, it's a sign that they didn't handle the wood properly.

   If you mean heart ring facing, that decision has already been made ofr you when they milled the T&G edge on it. A flooring style T&G cutter bit takes m,ore away from the bottom so the top fitrs tight where you see it. Wide plank flooring is probably relieved on the back too.

   .

   Excellence is its own reward!

   
1. 
   mmoogie | Jan 29, 2003 06:16am | #2

   I've done all my wide pine plank floor installs with exposed cut nails as the primary fastener. Glue?!! for pergo, not wood floors. Wide floors where I come from is an 18 inch board. I've got em up to 22 inches wide in my house. Plank to me means 4/6/8 inches. But that's just my own internal definitions. But where I come from I can also buy 1x5 boards or 5/4 clear pine as wide as 20+ inches. Or I should say where I was. Now I'm in the big city and they act like 5/4 is a football overtime, not a lumber size...

   Steve

1. 
   ClevelandEd | Jan 29, 2003 07:08am | #3

   I am thinking of some similar flooring for my kitchen this Summer, and maybe one of you can clear one of my biggest reservations.  With a room full of  8" planks, why won't a lot of those planks split from normal expansion & contraction once they are permanently affixed in multiple points?   You wouldn't firmly attach a table top to its base because it might split.

1. 
   UncleDunc | Jan 29, 2003 08:01am | #4

   >> You wouldn't firmly attach a table top to its base because it might split.

   If the table top was only 8" wide you might.

   What kind of wood are you considering? What is the actual long term humidity swing in your kitchen? How much does an 8" plank of that wood swell and shrink across that humidity swing? If you nail it with two nails, each an inch from the edge, how far does each nail have to flex to handle the swelling and shrinkage across 6"?

   And if it's T&G, it's not fastened at multiple points, it's only fastened on one edge.

1. 
   ClevelandEd | Jan 30, 2003 06:03am | #5

   And if it's T&G, it's not fastened at multiple points, it's only fastened on one edge.

   This is  the "safe" route to me,  time-tested and reliable, and it is what I will probably do.   The drawback  is that I will get 4" or 5" wide boards instead of the 8" planks.   I doubt that I am going to feel comfortable with that double nail system across the width, especially if I have to start guestimating expansion and contraction and the ability of the nails to flex with it.  I want something simple.   

   Lumber? I honestly don't know yet.  I am considering some of that recycled longleaf heart pine, but probably will get some local oak or even some tiger maple if I can find it at a flooring price.  I saw some hickory that I liked, but the mill seemed to slice it any which way from the log and I doubt that it is as dimensionally stable as I want it to be.     

2. 
   kb | Feb 14, 2003 05:24pm | #6

   I'm installing wide random width pine, 8-22" wide, one batch is 7/8" thick and the other is 1 3/8" thick (for seperate floors) There is no tongue and groove, it was milled two years ago and has been sitting in my unfinished house that long. My floor joists are 2' O.C. What do you think the is best way to install ? I was thinking of butting them tight, screwing them to the joists, countersinking the screws and plugging with walnut plugs. I see there are various opinions on wether or not to glue, any advice you have would be much appreciated...thanks