Replies

1. 
   Armin_ | Mar 04, 2002 11:14pm | #1

   *
   Aspen is pretty soft to use as flooring although not as soft as pine. On the plus side after it is kiln dried it is very stable so you should be able to go as wide as 5 inches with the flooring. Aspen is a fast growing tree and is very prone to reaction wood. We mill a lot of aspen paneling and found the best way around this is to have the lumber sawn as close to your finished width as possible. Our paneling is 5 inch so we have the mill saw 6 inch wide boards, eliminating having to saw too much wood of the edges and having the whole board bow on us. Sanding is also a problem, the grain tends to be fuzzy and requires alot of work to get rid of the bristles. I would not use the aspen unless you can get it kiln dried, the shrinkage from green to 6% is is quite dramatic and if not handled properly will produce less than desirable results.

1. 
   Bud_Fox | Mar 05, 2002 02:02am | #2

   *Wouldn't your floor have that green hue that poplar has? You could stain it, but that's an extra step or two. When we laid down a floor last summer (red oak), we used to crack ourselves up joking about a poplar floor with high gloss poly. Of course, if you have a whole forest of poplar, that changes everything.

1. 
   Armin_ | Mar 05, 2002 02:09am | #3

   *Bud, You are confusing poplar (Yellow) with aspen, they are not even close in working properties.

1. 
   Tree_ | Mar 06, 2002 08:43pm | #4

   *Poplar is an extremely soft wood for floors. Several years ago I milled some 4" poplar plank flooring for a second floor bedroom in a weekend cabin and it turned out quite well and is still in good shape. Here are a few pointers that may help you for your project. When milling - quarter cutting the material is the best, as you will end up with less flat grain which has the most amount of soft grain exposed. Poplar does have a tendency to twist and warp when drying. To prevent this dry it slowly and out of the sun making sure it is stickered well. Use narrow dry poplar strips as stickers because discoloration will occur if you use green stickers. This discoloring penetrates quite deep into the boards and will reveal itself on the finished floor as dark lines. Kiln drying is of coarse the best way to go. Because poplar does have a high shrinkage rate and is prone to warping, cut your rough lumber at least 3/4 to 1 inch oversize, this will give you enough material to mill it to a 3/4 finished thickness. For width of your planks try to get the most amount of standing grain (quarter cut). Four inches finished will probably work well.To harden the surface of the wood once installed I would recommend washing the floor down with equal parts of thinner and urethane before applying a finish coat. This will soak up to an eighth of an inch into the surface making it more dent and wear resistant. When you sand the floor you'll find that there will be quite a bit of fuzzing, this fuzz sands out quite well after the wash-coat of urethane has dried. Try not to put on to thick of a finish coat because chipping can occur at pressure points on the floor. Good luck

1. 
   Treetalk_ | Mar 07, 2002 03:41am | #5

   *Poplar does luv to rock and roll while it dries.An old codger sawed a bunch of 2x stuff near me.Good grade too. Figured he'd beat the pretzel effect by stickering the whole pile then chain binding it down in several spots.Said he let it dry for year or more and it stayed straight as an arrow....until he released the binders.He said in a week it all went zonkers.If its green treat it like pressure treated and nail it down before the mill truck is out of the driveway.