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laying salvaged hardwood floor

| Posted in General Discussion on July 3, 2000 10:59am

*
Hi Folks,
I need some tips on laying a salvaged maple floor. The floor was broken out of a gymnasium, the operative word being “broken”! Tongues were trashed, grooves split, and I had to take ring shank nails out of thousands of board feet of solid 3 inch wide maple flooring. The wood is beautiful and will make a spectacular floor – if I can just get it laid correctly.

I will be laying over thin vinyl, using a Senco nailer with the 45′ angle tip. I need to know if I should cut all the trashed bits out, or can I glue, nail and screw the damaged parts of the tongue and groove in place to make a solid floor? One of the suggestions has been to match trashed tongue to solid groove and vice versa – whverse you think?

Because so much of it is damaged (not my fault, by the way) I’d like to find a reasonable way to use this without cutting out the damaged parts – somehow laying floors in two and three inch sections doesn’t sound fun.

Any suggestions welcomed and thank you!

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  1. Guest_ | Jun 29, 2000 08:02am | #1

    *
    Ann,

    I had a similiar experience some years ago when the local university tore out their gym floor and threw it in dumsters. I picked out a bunch as I was building a small office addition for my wife. The wood wasn't beat up too bad, but as you said a number of portions of tongues were split out. It still laid up quite nicely as you don't really need a continuous tongue or groove as long as there's enough to allign the boards properly and that there's no damage to the top surface. As the boards were in many places painted with the school colors, I ran them thru a thickness planer just to remove all the finish before installing and then sanded and finished in the standard way. Looked beautiful, still does and the price was right. Good luck, ted

    1. Guest_ | Jul 01, 2000 01:22am | #2

      *Ann, you've got thousands of feet of net 3" flooring, presumably 3/4". Cut off ALL the tongues and grooves, and you've got 1000s of feet of 2-1/2" maple strips. Mill it into T&G flooring and you've got 1000s of feet of 2-1/4" face unblemished maple flooring which is a lot closer to classic household flooring (east coast and midwest) than the 3" gym stuff, and you have preserved your length. Last week we made hard maple flooring, 4" and 6" wide, for a contractor to make a bar top. 80 BF was $487, and to a retail customer would have been about $700. If you don't already have them, find a shop with a shaper, a power feeder and a cabinet saw. If they aren't set up to mill floors, call Grizzly and for $129.95 buy a 2 pc 3/4" bore set of flooring T&G cutters for the shaper. Each piece will need 2 passes through the saw (reset the fence once) and 2 passes through the planer (at the same fence setting, just change cutters and flip the board end for end). At a conservative 26 fpm for 2500 linear feet you're talking 9 hrs at $60/hr, which also includes set up time and about an hour for miscalculations.Total cost $540 + $130 = $670, and you get about 500 sq.ft. of premium maple flooring for $1.25/sq.ft., which installs quickly and solidly, with no problems. After the shop sees how well those cutters make flooring, sell them the used cutters for $60. We're in the L.A. area, and shop rates might be less in your neighborhood. Our rates are higher mainly because we've got the machinery and most others don't.

      1. Guest_ | Jul 03, 2000 10:59pm | #4

        *Ann;I read your post last week and was tempted to chime right in, but after reading the prior 2 posts some considerations come to mind.You don't mention the size of the room. If it's small and you have the time to sort thru the chaff I'd go with the 'ted temple' approach. I have done this (in my home) with reclaimed red oak that, although salvaged very professionally, required lots of time to lay properly (lots of sorting, maximizing and spreader clamps). I did my kitchen (150 sq ft.) and it looks great. Your senco nailer might not straighten out the flooring to your satisfaction hence the spreader clamps. And I think 'robkelly' gives you some good advice on the t&g bits. These along with a flush router bit and a router table would salvage much of your damaged tongues. Consider cutting some splines to match two 'females' if neccesary. I also presorted my bundles and marked objections with a sharpie so I could maximize my board feet relative to the cutoffs. I prefer not to plane prior to installation - better to have that done in the sanding process.Good luck!Will

  2. Ann_Zavala | Jul 03, 2000 10:59pm | #3

    *
    Hi Folks,
    I need some tips on laying a salvaged maple floor. The floor was broken out of a gymnasium, the operative word being "broken"! Tongues were trashed, grooves split, and I had to take ring shank nails out of thousands of board feet of solid 3 inch wide maple flooring. The wood is beautiful and will make a spectacular floor - if I can just get it laid correctly.

    I will be laying over thin vinyl, using a Senco nailer with the 45' angle tip. I need to know if I should cut all the trashed bits out, or can I glue, nail and screw the damaged parts of the tongue and groove in place to make a solid floor? One of the suggestions has been to match trashed tongue to solid groove and vice versa - whverse you think?

    Because so much of it is damaged (not my fault, by the way) I'd like to find a reasonable way to use this without cutting out the damaged parts - somehow laying floors in two and three inch sections doesn't sound fun.

    Any suggestions welcomed and thank you!

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