DIY Flooring?

[Todd Burch]

Anyone ever milled their own flooring before? I'm considering getting some reclaimed lumber and putting T&Gs on it, plus probably back cutting it too. I suppose I would have to buy a proper moulder. Somewhere in the range of 2,000 square feet I suppose.

Todd

[Ryan Hellmer]

There was a long thread on this about a year ago. I've done it. My setup was to plane and gang-rip on a woodmaster then tounge and groove on a 1.5 HP shaper with powerfeed running Amana SC450 cutters (they performed flawlessly). Back to the woodmaster to drum sand the tops of the planks. Installed with staples over 15lb roofing felt. Sanded with 4 head orbital flooring sander (rented from Home Depot) up to 120 grit. Finished with 2 coats of zinnser seal-coat followed by 3 or 4 coats of minwax oil-based polyurethane. Almost 2 years in and things look great.

There is a lot of handling involved, but if you get your machines set up properly it can be done pretty quickly. Reclaimed lumber may present some difficulties if metal is "found." I didn't cut any back-relief in mine, but it would just be one more trip through the planer/moulder or shaper. I found that a clean level floor was pretty easy to install over and, as I said before, I haven't had any issues.

Ryan

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I've done it before, and will be doing it again next year once the ash I milled has dried.

I only need about 250 square feet so I'll be doing it with a shaper/feeder.

One thing for sure, there won't be a shortage of shavings at your house..............Rod.

[Peter Quinn]

Oh, I've done it at work plenty, never at home. Buy a proper molder? That statement is subject to interpretation. You can cut reliefs on a Hussey, Shop fox, wood master, almost anything. Biggest challenge? Straight line ripping. So do outsource that. Second biggest challenge? The huge pile of shavings that come from planing 2000+ BF of lumber to thickness. Better buy a dump truck too...or outsource that. Yes, I would buy or pay to have the material straight line ripped and planed close to final thickness. The rest is a cake walk with a decent shaper (or two). It is a lot of material handling so its important to have a good material flow and some handy rolling carts to organize the material. Its certainly not rocket science I'll tell you. Its like deciding to make a piece of furniture, but just making the same table leg 3000X in a row.

[Joe Angrisani]

There was a long thread on this about a year ago....

Here it is:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?143805-Large-flooring-project-please-review-profitability-for-me&highlight=tongue

[Jeff Duncan]

I recommend reading the thread linked to....but in short....get prices to have it run for you! It's pretty inexpensive to have it run and you''ll also have the benefit of end matched boards which your not likely going to do in the small shop. I personally wouldn't get much satisfaction running flooring and would rather be making something else....but that's just me:D

good luck,
JeffD

[Todd Burch]

Thanks for the link Joe. Just read it. Long thread! While I was getting close to the end, I was thinking... "OH NO!! There won't be an ending!!"

I liked the idea of subbing out the milling in his case. Made perfect sense to me. That's a lot of material handling otherwise. But, he had cheap labor too. I would sub it out.

[Todd Burch]

I'm with you Jeff!

[Ron Kellison]

Been there, done that! Sub it out!

I bought some 400 BF gorgeous clear 1" red oak with brown mineral stains for a ridiculously low price. Air dried it in my heated garage for a year. Milled it usisng my old Delta chop saw, Sears table saw, Sears 113 jointer, Craftsman 1/2" router and a Dewalt 733 planer. Moved that wood about 40 times because the jointer wasn't powerful enough and the planer would only take off about 1/32" at a time. When the job was finished I got a nice kiss from my wife, lots of compliments on the new floor and a powerful urge to get some decent equipment.

I now have a 5 HP Unisaw, a great old 8" jointer, a Hitachi 10" slider, 2 HP dust collector and a big router in a solid table. I would still sub it out!

Regards,

Ron

[Peter Quinn]

Think about it this way. 2000SF + 15% waste minimum is 2300SF. With a 4" face average, thats SF X 3 =LF, so almost 7000 LF of reliefs, 7000LF of face to plane accurately, 14000 LF of tongues and grooves to run, and if you don't do it accurately, it will be painful at install. You would have to buy relief knives, a molder, shaper cutters, possibly a shaper. You can certainly face nail a square edge floor, no t&g, for a more rustic look that might work with reclaimed material, but you have to be willing to accept the aesthetic that implies, and it does't work in every home. If you pay yourself $0.23 per day, its still cheaper to have the stuff run for you than mill it in a small shop. When I worked in the flooring mill two guys could prep and run 2000SF in an afternoon, so there is a certain economy of scale at play with modern t&g plank of strip flooring. If you run a wider face, the LF goes down, the weight of each board goes up, the work and pain remain about the same, just different. I'm not trying to discourage you from doing this.....:rolleyes:.....just encouraging you go at it with eyes wide open.

[Stephen Cherry]

Unless you want something very unique, it may be cheaper to buy it premade. In my area, oak flooring is cheaper than oak.

[Steve Meliza]

I recently paid $2.10 a square foot for some Aacer milled 2.25" #1 red oak flooring at 6% m.c. delivered and stacked in the house for me. Even if I got the wood for free I'm not sure milling my own would be worth it unless that wood had a unique quality that you can't buy from a mill.

[David Nelson1]

Think about it this way. 2000SF + 15% waste minimum is 2300SF. With a 4" face average, thats SF X 3 =LF, so almost 7000 LF of reliefs, 7000LF of face to plane accurately, 14000 LF of tongues and grooves to run, and if you don't do it accurately, it will be painful at install. You would have to buy relief knives, a molder, shaper cutters, possibly a shaper. You can certainly face nail a square edge floor, no t&g, for a more rustic look that might work with reclaimed material, but you have to be willing to accept the aesthetic that implies, and it does't work in every home. If you pay yourself $0.23 per day, its still cheaper to have the stuff run for you than mill it in a small shop. When I worked in the flooring mill two guys could prep and run 2000SF in an afternoon, so there is a certain economy of scale at play with modern t&g plank of strip flooring. If you run a wider face, the LF goes down, the weight of each board goes up, the work and pain remain about the same, just different. I'm not trying to discourage you from doing this.....:rolleyes:.....just encouraging you go at it with eyes wide open.

I have to agree with everything Pete has said. Unless you want something you can't buy it's cheaper in the long run to sub it or buy from a supplier. Now having said that I didn't listen to the advice because I wanted something different.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?141255-T-G-flooring&p=1772728#post1772728
It's a bit hard to follow because you have to keep going to the top and clicking on more replies to see everything.

Go for it! Just be prepare to part with a lot of cash for tooling if you don't already own what's needed. :D