End Grain Flooring?

Messages
43
Location
Creston, Ohio
I have an enclosed porch, with a crawl space underneath, standard construction with 2 x 6 walls and 3 sliding glass doors, with a floor area 10 x 15. My question is......has anyone here tried making their own end grain flooring. I have seen other sites that do it for a living but when I have emailed them since they are just asked for information on how to do it I have never recieved a response which don't surprise me. My thoughts at this point is to get seasoned dry walnut logs approx. 4-6" and slice them into 3/4" slices and make my own tiles. Anyone ever tried this on this site? Thanks for any info.
 
are you talking end grain like a parquet floor? i would think they would be brittle end grain sliced to a thin thickness doesnt have much strength..the parquet i have seen commercially was flat grain.
 
I've seen it in stamping plants but its thick blocks--just guessing maybe 6x6x6 blocks. Been a while since I was in a stamping plant.

That's what I've seen, too. 5 or 6" thick (long) blocks stood on end.

The ones I've seen were loose - not fastened to one another - and laid over a concrete slab. That's so they could be removed easily for re-configuring the machinery.

Generally, they were heavily oil soaked, too.
 
Don, that is one of the sites I wrote to and never recieved a reply. If you check through their site at one point they have some mesquite peices, about 8-10" in diameter, laid down and it is simply beautiful at least to my eyes. The peices are just like an end grain cutting board. They are glued down to a plywood subfloor with a rubberized wood glue then a grout mixture is made up of the sawdust and polyurethane and the voids filled. Most floors are made of square or rectangular blocks but since I will be doing it out of logs there would be a large amount of voids so I would need peices anywhere between 1 1/2" to 6" in diamater. I seriously believe this would make an absolutly beautiful floor. With the light sapwood then the dark heartwood all laid on ends. I was just wondering if anyone else has tried it. http://cobbledwoodfloors.com/
Tried posting a link to one site but don't know if I did it right or not
 
I seen them making one version on one of the TV shows several years back. They were using old barn wood and basically making tiles out of it. Then these tiles were epoxied together, sanded and moves to site. It sees to me as if they were in the 1-2 inch length but it a pretty vague memory I have of the process.


I have also seen a lot of the industrial versions in machine shops, in fact the plant I worked at in Kansas City had close to 70 acres of it at one time back in the 50's and thousands of square feet of the stuff left when I hired on in the 70's. The shop floors were usually 2x4 pieces and I am not sure how long(thick) but they were oiled and anything but pretty. Saved a lot of parts that got dropped though.
Garry
 
Last edited:
Quite awhile back I visited the cheverolet plant in Brookpark, Ohio, yes they had the block flooring and its purpose was to soak up the many oils that are present in a shop like that. With all that oil that floor will last forever. One of the members here sent me a very informative site that talks of acclimation of the product and the humidity of the room. Since this is actually a 3 season porch that does have one register for heating and cooling, I think it still might work. So far this winter the temperture at its lowest was 52. Guess I will actually have to wait to see what the summer is like before I can decide wheather to go thru with it or not. Checking and cracking will happen, no way around that, but once the voids are all filled with a grout mixture it should be minimzed then once the top coat is applied it should slow the cracking wouldn't you think?
 
You may be able to cut the end grain fairly thin and use it as a veneer glued on to a material that wont shrink or expand nearly as much. I was thinking of this myself for use on a design inset in my floors.

You could try a piece, seal it up and stick it outside for a while to see how it fairs in the warm of day and cool of night. Now I'm curious, guess ill have to try it :rolleyes:
 
Sounds interesting but remember if you decide to glue it down you will probably have to replace your underlayment if you ever decide to change the floor. If you find a way to mechanically fasten it down you wont have to.
 
I've been searching for seasoned walnut firewood to make the blanks out of but as of this date no luck. I have just cut down two black walnut trees but it will take a long time for it to dry and season. To get the right look I'm after the blanks will have to be fairly large because of the heart and sap wood relationship. I crosscut several different sizes of limbs and there is just too much sap wood to make a good looking floor. I have already learned the hard way a light floor is very hard to keep clean. I have talked to a flooring manufacturer and they said to use granulated cork as a filler between the rounds and it would harden when the polyurethane hits it. I really want to do this, it will be expensive and very time consuming but feel in the end it will produce a beautiful, long lasting, floor
 
Hey Virgil
Long time lurker, first post. Many years ago I worked in a Chevy engine plant that used end grain flooring throughout the plant. If there is any possibility that your floor will ever see water (rain, snow) on it I would caution against it. Small quantities of water ruined lots of flooring in the factory. Easily repairable for them (remove contaminated block, wagon loads of dry blocks, hammer/hatchet, wedge em tight, good to go, back to work). Sealing end grain will take a lot of finish. I do think it would look cool but I'd be leery.
Victor
 
Victor,
Thanks for the information. I know it's going to suck up the finish but this is going to be one of those projects that regardless of cost and time required it will get done. I have a few of them under my belt now. LOL Some would argue it's a waste of money,time, and materials but I'm retired and don't have any thing else to do except waste the kids inheritance and kill time. LOL
 
Virgil,
You would get no argument from me. I'm sure it will be very distinctive and beautiful when completed. I just had 30 year old visions of a severely buckled floor shutting down the line for about an hour while the flooring guys finished their repairs.

Victor
 
Top