How much flooring do I need to keep?

[Steve Wurster]

We recently had the floors in our house redone, and I got a bunch of unused leftover pieces. This pile is 6 feet long, 16" wide, and about 14" tall, which I think comes out to around 112 board feet. All of the pieces are unfinished, 3/4" thick, 4" wide, tongue-and-groove white oak, in random lengths. Naturally that 4" includes the groove, and the 3/4" thickness includes the relief cuts on the bottom.

My question is, how much of this do I need to keep in case repairs are needed on the installed floors? I don't imagine it will need to be much, but I don't want to start making boxes and other small stuff from these leftovers and then realize I have nothing left over. Of course I also need to store this stuff in a very small shop, so I might be burning or using up a lot of it anyway.

Thanks.


343340

[larry senen]

I kind of depends on your storage space. If you ever have a toilet leak you'll wish you'd kept it all.

[Jeff Duncan]

If it's a few years down the road it won't match anyway so I wouldn't worry too much about keeping it. You can always pick up some in the future if you do happen to need it, white oak is not something that's rare at all. Plus how often do floors really get damaged to the point of needing to replace boards? I'm sure it happens, but I wouldn't plan on it anymore than I'd keep extra cabinet doors around in case one gets damaged.

Now having said that....I still have a small pile of white oak in my garage left over from when I did the floors about 10 years ago. I didn't keep it for repairs, just haven't found anything to do with it yet:confused:

good luck,
JeffD

[Rich Riddle]

I kind of depends on your storage space. If you ever have a toilet leak you'll wish you'd kept it all.
This is how I believe. And unless it's some exotic brand, I have found matching oak a few years down the road not to be a problem if you have some original wood.

[Frank Martin]

As others said oak is a common flooring material. Personally, I would keep either none or just couple boards to avoid dedicating storage space, which comes at a premium where I live.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Keep it all.
Stick it in the attic above the garage.
While white oak is a common flooring material, you might find at some point down the road that 4" wide has gone the way of the wind and is no longer available anywhere at any price - other than to mill it yourself.

I ran into that issue a few years ago.
The white oak floors were made of 1.5" wide pieces and all that's available anymore is 2" as the narrowest.

I ended up putting in about 100 sq. ft. of 2". It sticks out like a sore thumb (to me anyhow). It's in a rental otherwise I'd tear it all out and put in something else and divide the new and old with a transition.

BTW - cutting and/or milling that flooring down to useable flat stock is a major PITA.
I bought some bundles of unfinished red oak form Lumber Liquidators - thinking it was a decent source of "cheap" lumber.
It's not worth the effort.

[Robert Parent]

I would keep about a half dozen of the longest pieces and use or dump the remaining. I remodeled a few things in my house a couple years after buying it and having a package of left-over flooring allowed me to make some room modifications without having to replace the entire floor. If one is going to do something major down the road you will likely want a change to something different anyway hence the change.

Robert

[Jon Endres]

Been in the same boat. In my case 3" wide silver (soft) maple, a lot of it with curl. I saved all of the leftovers, probably 200 sf, because it was bought as a lot. So far I've given some away and I plan on using the rest in furniture and shop projects. I'd keep a half-dozen pieces just in case, but in my situation it's something I can easily duplicate in the shop.

[Mike Cutler]

Keep as many of the longest boards as you can store. The odd shorts you probably won't need.

While it is true that you can always get oak flooring in the future, it doesn't mean that the milling will be exactly the same. I had a flooring project that stalled,and eventually ended up needing an additional amount of flooring 2 years later. The T&G's on the new flooring did not match the old flooring.

"It kind of depends on your storage space. If you ever have a toilet leak you'll wish you'd kept it all."

So, so true!
BTDT!:eek:

[Jim Becker]

I would keep it all. Some can be for floor repairs. The rest can go through the planer to create some very nice 1/2" stock for project use...I got a bunch from a builder friend and have used it exactly that way. ;)

[mark mcfarlane]

Can you tack them up on the wall(s) of your shop for storage? You might just like them on the walls....

[Daniel O'Neill]

I would keep a decent amount of the longer boards. The previous owners didn't leave us any and I wish we had some hardwood to fix a couple of bad joints. It's hard to store the extra flooring but totally worth it when you need it.

[Rick Moyer]

Here's another way to look at it: keep enough for the largest closet you have it in. This way if you ever need a repair amount you can remove the closet flooring for an exact match and install your stash in the closet.

[Mike Cutler]

Here's another way to look at it: keep enough for the largest closet you have it in. This way if you ever need a repair amount you can remove the closet flooring for an exact match and install your stash in the closet.

That is brilliant!!!:cool:

[Rich Engelhardt]

Here's another way to look at it: keep enough for the largest closet you have it in. This way if you ever need a repair amount you can remove the closet flooring for an exact match and install your stash in the closet?????
Why do double work?
The stuff in the closet isn't any different than the saved stuff. Why go to the bother of taking it up?

Using flooring from closets is SOP when you're patching a section of floor & don't have any of the original material, but, if you have a supply on hand of the original, I can't see where using the stuff in the closet would be any advantage.

Am I missing something here?

[Jim Becker]

?????
Why do double work?
The stuff in the closet isn't any different than the saved stuff. Why go to the bother of taking it up?

Using flooring from closets is SOP when you're patching a section of floor & don't have any of the original material, but, if you have a supply on hand of the original, I can't see where using the stuff in the closet would be any advantage.

Am I missing something here?
Likely the reason is color match from aging, but then again, the material in the closet gets little or no exposure...so it's probably a wash...

[Rich Engelhardt]

Likely the reason is color match from aging,Possibly - but - OP said the flooring is unfinished. Unfinished usually requires sanding after it's installed & prior to finishing.
I may have answered my own question there.
Using the closet material might eliminate the sanding...

[Martin Wasner]

I hate carpet. I've torn enough out to know how disgusting it is. If I were to ever build a new house, no carpet. One of the ideas I've kicked around is putting all of the wood flooring down before the interior walls. Install would be frighteningly easy, they hard part would be not beating it to death during mechanical installation and sheet rocking.

[Steve Wurster]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Sorry for the delay in getting back here; I've been a little busy lately.

I put a few handfuls of the longest pieces out of the way to be used in case of emergency repairs and similar issues.

I took a decent amount of slightly shorter pieces and set them aside for potential projects (small boxes, trivets, things like that).

Great idea by Mark to put some of them up on the wall to be used for shop storage. I think I will definitely do that with some of the pieces.

The smallest pieces are going to be burned in the fire pit.