On making my own hardwood floors

[rob dalry]

I have allready read one article that most otheres say NO, but I have a slight predicament.
I boughy a bunch of cherry, maple and pacific black walnut at a great price when I was on a overtime job. I can get careless with money and investments. I have been expecting us to be right where we are in the ecoonomy 4 yrs ago. TG I bought gold!. Anyway, the cherry I got, alot of it has splits to where its only good for 3" x 4-5' pieces, so I though I could make my own hardwood floors. consider this fact: I have terrible credit,and am buying my half built house on contract. I am apipe insulator that only works half the year nowadays so money is more critical than time. I allready have the rough lumber, so buying flooring would be extra expense.
I also am confused on how I see flooring with a rabbeted lap edge, and regular hardwood floors with t&g. I would rather to the rabbeted lap and that way hide my nails. Is ther a reason that I would not wnat to make a rabbeted lap like the flooring sold in sections? thanks for any help here.

[Dave Gaul]

Rob,
Sounds like you have plenty of reasons to do your own flooring, "because I want to" would be good enough for me, so I say go for it.

As far as using a rabbeted lap joint, you say you want to hide your nails, so that tells me you would only nail one side of each board? Sounds like a bad idea to me, the un-nailed edge would not be stable for flooring.

You could make the flooring just like you get at the stores and use a flooring nailer, you should be able rent them for about $40 a day...

[John TenEyck]

Well, if you've got the lumber and the time, sure, why not? Cherry certainly is beautiful. You can cut the joinery and pre-finish them, or finish them afterwards, as you choose. But I think you will want to make T&G edges on your boards. You nail through the tongue with a floor nailer; the groove will cover the nail head automatically. If you use a rebatt how will you secure the top without resorting to face nailing? The only place to consider a rebatt, IMO, is for the ends of the boards.

[Nathan Callender]

If you have the time and inclination, why not? Flooring is simple to cut, it's just that you need lots of it. If I were considering this, I would spend a good amount of effort trying to find a small power feeder I could use on the table saw and router table.

[Dave MacArthur]

Hi,
Here are two good threads on making flooring, with a lot of posts covering the time involved, how to make it, methodology of the shaping and cuts, how to nail it, etc.

Large flooring project - please review (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?143805-Large-flooring-project-please-review-profitability-for-me&highlight=)


Straight Line Ripping question (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?152561-Straight-Line-Ripping-question&highlight=)

[rob dalry]

OK I should explain myself better. I am a pipe insulator/.pretty much a jack OAT,but for the most part a glorified finish sheet metal worker. I am one of those people that can make anything, and a Mcgyver. I really wanted to be a machinist out of high school. Measurements, eyeing degrees, and holding them and critical point are my specialty. Not the fasted,but my work is tops. THAT said, I dont know alot of wood terminology, and alot of the new tools since the 80s. I dont watch woodworking shows,but I am a craftsman by birht and by pay. I could swear I saw flooring pieces with a overlap which i thought would be a parrellel rabbet. I know that real flooring has t+g and snaps in place. when you nail, you nail to the floor and only on the tounge side,thats one side of the board but yes the groove would be held down by that toungue...your still only nailing ONE side of board..correct? I was going to use a finish nailer to hold town the tounge,as a flooring bail is just that ,wiht a handicap for those whose cant hold na angle or for speed, as I am sure amish use the same angle wiht a hammer. what i have are mostly 5-6 inch boards that got splits. My wood situation is this...I got cherry and maple and others at $2 a bd ft and walnut at 4 and 1/3 is cherry and I spent about 9 grand..get the idea?
I mihgt have been wrong about seeing floor that way, but 3/8" toung and groove..wow thas not much to hold. I guess with a toungue i wont have to worry about a little bow in the wood. I do plan on getteing a better jointer. I built a 5' planer sled, and made better cheaper jigsfrom stud scrap, and put a sliding stop in the front as my JET has a VERY strong feed roller, I guess those baby Dewalts can actually leave the lumber on the stair tread,lol.
So from a guy that does angles all the time: when you cut an angle on a 4 sqaure material, the other side will have the same angle,which you can use on the other side of your jig for strength. Need to get a chip for camera to show that ..soory off topic

On 1/2 and 5/8 t+g what is the thicknessof the tounge and the depth? I was hopin to use a dado and a router table for making these. I might even get fancy and add some other woods in between. I do feel a littl estupid about the rabbet lap, i thought with a faced 4' board i woulndt have to worry with 2" width. its touhg getting back into wood..i absolutley hate sanding lol..why im a metal man, plus bient a klutz with dropsies..dings happen

thanksfor the help so far
btw..do those Craftsman satin blade dados hold up for a job like that or need to goto carbide?

[Jeff Duncan]

Not sure what you have for equipment but here's a couple things to keep in mind. Your going to need to rip all that stock and get it clean and square. More importantly it needs to be dead parallel. This is problematic when trying to hand feed stock with any amount of bend in it through a tablesaw. Small differences in width of flooring will be magnified with each course you lay. Not sure how your going to profile it, but the same holds true there.

Your also going to want to have a finished thickness right around 3/4" of an inch. 5/8" is a bit thin and anything thinner is likely going to be problematic. Also remember that flooring is tongue and groove, but not made using tongue and groove cutters! You need/want flooring cutters as the joint is looser allowing you to get the flooring together. Though it does not "snap" in place, your thinking about the fake (laminate) stuff.

I can't even imagine trying to use an angled nailer to lay down a houseful of flooring....no disrespect, but that's just not a realistic approach. Get yourself a flooring nailer, not only does it hold the angle and sink to the correct depth, but it uses either staples or spikes, either of which will be far superior to finish nails. Not to mention a flooring nailer pulls the joint closed, you'd have to come up with something pretty elaborate to get a finish nailer to do that.

I also highly recommend using a feeder for your stock. If you think sanding is bad, installing a house full of flooring that's been hand fed through a tablesaw or shaper....oh boy!

I'm guessing the wood you bought was air dried, which would explain it being a bit less than market rate as well as why it has checks and splits and whatnot. If that's the case plan on it becoming even less useful as you start cutting into it as you'll be releasing stress that's in the wood when you mill it.

OK so my honest assessment, you'll never make good flooring cheaper than you can buy it, anymore than you could build a car from scratch cheaper than you can buy one. it's been discussed here before and it's really not even close. For a guy with a well equipped shop and a lot of time on his hands it could be considered a worthwhile undertaking. This does not sound like your situation at all. In this situation my advice would be to try and sell the wood you bought and use the proceeds to buy flooring. Again I'm not trying to sound disrespectful, but this sounds like your getting into something where in the end your going to find yourself in a bad place. If you decide to go through with it I'm more than happy to lend my advice which may help with some of your obstacles, but you've been fairly warned;)

good luck,
JeffD

[Joe Shinall]

Rob, it sounds like a great idea to me. Only thing I can think may be an issue is the darkening of the cherry later on. Any light coming through windows will darken it so any furniture will block that darkening so in so many years you will have an uneven floor color. That's the only thing I can think of. Unless there's a type of sealer to stop it from darkening that I dont know about, only worked with cherry a few times. Other than that, i say go for it. It's kinda like asking your next door neighbor if you can take a nap. If it doesn't bother anyone else, just do it.