We will be buidling a second story loft in the cottage that will be on rough sawn pine beams and thought we would use pine tongue & Groove planking for the upper floor. It has been suggested that perhaps T&G fir would be better as the soft pine dents /scratches easily. Is fir is better to go with or is it just a matter of using 2- 3 coats of proper finishing on the pine? There are just two bedrooms upstairs (and the loft area) so it is not a high traffic area.
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Both are fairly soft for flooring. What kind of pine? Southern yellow pine has a pretty similar density to fir. White pine, on the other hand, is a soft as butter. I personally think either is fine, as long as you are prepared for some dents and scratches. Fir is more dimensionally stable than pine, so you will have smaller gaps between the boards in theory.
I believe it was quoted white pine, although I think I can get red pine thorugh an alternate source - which is supposedly harder than the white pine. Some dents & scratches are ok - it is a cottage, but I don't want it to look totally beat up.
I am finding it difficult co-odinating the different woods - windows will be douglas fir or hem-fir (haven't quite decided yet - I want the Loewen Douglas fir, but the Jeld-wen hem-fir are on sale - difference in package price $39K vs $24K). There will be White/Red Pine beams & columns, and some kind of pine on the ceiling. While I don't want it all the same neccesarily, I don't want a mish mash either.
I'm not really a big fan of white pine in that sort of application. It's a great millwork wood, but IMO is a little dull and lacking of grain to my taste. One of the purtiest floors I ever saw was red pine. It is quite a bit harder than white pine, though not as dimensionally stable. Upstairs of a cottage, it should be fine. In my experience, mixing wood species (in terms of one species on the window, another on the floor) is something that people angst too much about. Usually turns out fine.
Since you can get red pine flooring, it would be better than white pine for flooring and will compliment any of those other woods. Fir is even better.
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Compared with pine, fir would be a superior floor for a cottage, esp. for a second floor loft that is not going to see heavy, everyday traffic. I finished a house about two yrs ago and used all clear, vertical grained fir for the downstairs floors (about 2,000 sf). 4 coats of Ben Moore Ceramathane and it still looks new (although the HOs are fanatical about having everyone take off their shoes before coming inside).
Yellow pine, good,fir good. White pine, too soft. I have installed white pine for flooring, once. Customer had the trees, had it milled into 1 3/4"x 5 1/2" planks with t&g. Looked great when the shellac finish was put on. I came back about two years later for another job, still looked great, but there were a couple of dings in the floor near the front door.
mike
That's good to know, we were also thinking of milling some white pine we have on site for the screen room - but I think we might not be happy down the road as the screen room is the main entry - so it would be high traffic & trust me nobody will take their shoes off.
Thanks.