Project: Thresholds and Wide Pine Floor

[Jim Becker]

Ok, this is a little odd-ball and not "fine furniture", but it does involve woodworking and finishing. LOL

The "home improvement project that wants to live on forever" is finally moving toward completion and some vacation time this past week got it back on track after I got a new hot water system installed in the 250 year old portion of the home post-Irene. (we lost one of our HVAC systems, the hot water system for that portion of the house and the "horsie" laundry that all live in the basement of that area)

The floor in this room needed replaced due to it having been sanding to within a millimeter of its life by the previous owners and some extra help by some, umm...wood eating six legged creatures. There was no subfloor and the spans are nearly 30"...a bit much for effectively 1/2" of degraded white pine. So I ripped it all out last fall, installed a real subfloor and painted the room before putting down new wide white "pumpkin" pine floorboards. After that point, the project languished due to a wide variety of distractions, including "life in general", work, horsie activities, a couple tack trunk projects and so forth. I started getting the dye on a few months ago, but once again got stalled. But that's no longer the case...the finish is on and I'm loving how it turned out. It has the exact same look as the original floor including the color (hallelujah!), cut nails along the approximate joist lines and even a nice inlayed patch. The coloration isn't "perfect" which makes it even more authentic looking.

As part of getting the floor finished, I had to create 5 custom thresholds, also out of the same white pine material with the exception of one that was done in very figured douglas fir for effect. They are all slightly different which is also in-tune with the previous nature of the room. I should be able to get the quarter round in along the baseboards and tackle some touch-up painting next weekend. And at that point...the room is done and ready for whatever furniture and accessories we choose to move in there. The plan is for a comfortable "study" with chairs and lamps for reading with a minimum of clutter.

Pictures...

Thresholds on the hoof
208476

Thresholds installed
208477 208478 208479 208480 208481

The floor, itself...
208482 208483

[Don Jarvie]

Look nice Jim. I've had to make a few myself since most home centers never have what you need.

Don

[Jim Becker]

Don, there were a lot of 'nooks and crannies" and "non-straight lines" that had to be accommodated as well as thickness and height changes. Oh, and I wanted things to match the white pine, too. It took me a whole day to make those 5 thresholds given I had to make a 1/4" MDF template for each unique piece, but the time spent was worth it. And I got to use some of my nice Neander hand-tools, too, in addition to the slider. Quite a contrast... :D

[Mike Wilkins]

Great looking floor and thresholds. Love that old pine. I think old houses and woodworkers are made for each other. I also had to make an Oak threshold for one that was worn. Went to to the local big box store and the millwork guys looked at me like I was a space alien. Never heard of one. You did a masterful job on those.

[Jim Becker]

I appreciate your comments, Mike, although I wouldn't call these "masterful". LOL But I'm happy that they look like they belong where they do and have the "flavor" of what was there originally. Imperfection was actually a goal for this project...it wouldn't look right otherwise.

Interestingly, I opted to use a very inexpensive white pine board product sold by a local lumber center that I often use for "home improvement" purchases. It's actually designed for barn siding and was rough on one side. It wasn't tongue and groove, either. But it had the #2 knotty look I wanted and was under $2 a board foot. I used some biscuits to lock the boards together as I laid them with adhesive and blind nails and after all but the last coat of finish, put in cut nails on the surface to get back the look of the original floor. The whole floor was also "hand sanded" with my Festool sanders, which smoothed it out, without "flattening the heck out of it". It already has some seasonal changes that incredibly look just like the old boards in the room just above it...a little humped in the middle of each, giving the whole room some "texture".

I used a low-VOC adhesive (to insure no bad fumes to hurt our birds) and also used a water borne emulsified oil polyurethane finish for the same reason.