DIY Hardwood Flooring

[Chip Byrd]

Hello,


My wife and I want to put down some hardwood flooring. The section is only about 190 sq ft. I am thinking about milling the boards and cutting the tongue and groove on my router table. If it was much more (size wise), I wouldn't consider it.


We would like to do some things with various species of wood that would be cost prohibitive if we hire someone


I am a hobbiest woodworker and not a pro, but believe I have the skills and tools necessary. Have any of you gents done this. Would you advise for or against? Any advice if I move forward?


Thanks for the help,
Chip

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I say go for it!
perfect project to learn a lot.
The ends will be the hard part.

[Pat Barry]

This is an interesting idea but what is the proper way to go about doing this assuming you have the materials and the tools? For example, I would think that you would first mill all the material to finished thickness and desired widths and true up the faces. Then what? Cut the ends where the planer snipe would affect the dimension and cross-cut everything nice and square. Then proceed to cut the tongues followed by the grooves, or vice versa? Are you planning to nail these down or create a floating floor? Would you pre-finish the parts or put it all together, sand it flat, then finish it. Lots of decisions to make with this project but for the description you provided handmade seems the way to go for sure so its worth the effort.

[Gus Dundon]

You can do it. You said already that you have the right tools and skills. Goodluck! You can search some DIY tips/techniques. That could help.

[James Conrad]

How wide are your boards going to be? If you go with a typical 2 1/4 - 3" width you are looking at running 1600 to 2000 linear feet of material through your router, not to mention end milling, and working the stock from rough to get to that point, picking straight stock, etc. Not trying to discourage you, it as actually a lot of work producing flooring, but if you have the time I'll look forward to seeing the end result!

[Jim Andrew]

If this were my project, would start with some 5" wide, then maybe some 3 or 2 1/2" and alternate every other row. Just make 1/2 each by lineal foot. It is not important to tongue and groove the ends.

[steve joly]

It seems this comes up often. I am doing the same thing and many people said to not do it. However I started the process this week. I say go for it. My wood is all in the kiln right now so I can not shed light onto the process of making the flooring, however I will share a couple tips I figured out while testing.

if you can have a helper it is much easier, you will be moving a lot of material from one point to another. For example I pass boards into my table saw with power feeder and have a helper catch them on the other side.

Move your tools to the wood. It's easier to move a tool to a stack of wood than a stack of wood to a tool.

consider an outboard fence for your router/shaper. I used the fence on my shaper to put the groove on the boards then when I did the tongue I used an outboard fence. That way the shaper was also cutting the final width the same on every board. I used a power feeder for this I'm not sure about doing it by hand.

good luck with the project post pics of your process as you do it.

[Chip Byrd]

Thanks so much for the replies. As I said, it's only about 200 sq feet so I think I am going to go for it. I will begin some tests this week. That will give me the confidence to move forward... Or not.

Thanks again,
Chip

[Ellen Benkin]

I've never done this but I do not see why it can't be done. My only advice is the make sure the wood has been left in the room to acclimatize before doing anything. You don't want wood movement to spoil all your hard work.

[Keith Weber]

Move your tools to the wood. It's easier to move a tool to a stack of wood than a stack of wood to a tool.

That depends on your tools and your power/dust collection setup. An 1800 lb. jointer doesn't move very easily.

[Scott T Smith]

Chip, I make flooring in my shop on a regular basis, but I have the advantage of having jointer/planers, straight line rip saws, and 4 head moulders to make it with!

If you manufacture your flooring from rough sawn stock, you should follow the following steps.

1 - face joint flat
2 - plane to dimension.
3 - straight line rip one edge.
4 - rip to width
5 - cut the tongue
6 - cut the groove (5 and 6 can be interchanged).

If you have a small amount of wane along one edge of the board, you can still use it as long as you mill the tongue on that side of the board.

When you're done with the millwork, stack and sticker the lumber in your house for a few days to allow it to acclimate before laying it. This is very important.

Plan on at least a 35% loss in the manufacturing process - ie if you want to lay 200 sq ft of flooring, you had better start with at least 270 square feet of rough stock. You will lose some width when you straight line rip and rip to width, and you will lose more width when you mill the tongue. You can reduce this percentage a bit if you're willing to use shorter boards.

A power feeder and some good feather boards are almost a must for your router table. If you plan to nail it down through the T&G, you will want a router bit that cuts a nail relief in the top side of the tongue. Also, have you thought about how you will mill the relief grooves on the back side of the flooring?

Considering what you can purchase inexpensive hardwood flooring for (Lumber Liquidators), if you're only planning to make standard 2-1/2" wide flooring you may end up spending more $ making it yourself (especially if you have to purchase router bits for milling the tongue, groove and relief grooves) versus buying it.