Wide Pine Flooring

Tom Hoffman

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My wife and I are remodelilng our kitchen, I am making all new cabinets and we have decided to make a wide (12" pine) board floor. I have a source for commercially produced 1X12's for only $1.27 per bd. ft. I think that price is not too bad. I need some advice on board preperation. Since the boards are #2 pine. They come from the mill with what appears to be a very smooth surface and they appear to be raw wood. However the wood feels so smooth, I wonder if there was some sort of a coating applied in the production process. This is normal construction grade pine, but these boards appear to be of a much better quality than you would normally find.

I am assuming that I will have to run a saw down the back of each board several passes approx. 1/4" deep to relieve the tendancy of the board to cup. I have been reading and it seems that traditionally wide pine floors were normally just butted together and not tongue and grooved. I had planned on doing tongue and groove on the edges. The ends would not have to be done as all the boards will span the entire width of the room. 12' or less.

Should I use a wood conditioner on them to get a better more even penetration of the stain and finish?

Any advice to help me with this project will be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Tom...:)
 
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My dining room has wide pine floors. 1x12's.
They are butt jointed and do not have any relief cuts on the back. The joints have opened up a bit, especially in the winter. But they are supposed to look colonial. The joints should actually be chinked with rope or something similar. Probably been there 25-30 years. No cupping at all.

The only issue I have with them is wear. Between the dogs nails, the kids and their toys and moving furniture around they scuff and get some pretty big scratches and divots. Like I said they are supposed to look colonial and rustic. Every 6 months or so I go over them with pine stain and poly mix.

They are slippery. The dogs running full tilt makes for some pretty funny acrobatics.:D

I'll try and get a pic later.
 
Tom,
That maybe what is called "mill glaze". From what I have read, the jury is still out on what this actually is or even if its a problem or not. Some think it is a hard surface that is created from the milling process when heat from the high speed saws meet the resin in the wood. I don't know. Leave that up to you. Some people swear this will cause irregular results when staining. I was advised to use a simple pre-treat when staining my log cabin to avoid the problem....it was cheap so I did it.

I love those floors, but with 3 kids under the age of 7 those floors would get killed in my house. Then again, my family would figure out a way to dent an Osage orange floor :D
 
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