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View Full Version : Using wood flooring for a bar top?



James Brothers
03-06-2007, 3:53 PM
I am in the process of building a wet bar and am planning to use teak for the bar top. The teak that I will be using was originally hard wood flooring. The plan was to plane it all down attach it to ¾ in. plywood and then to sand it to one flat fishable surface.
My question is what would be the best way to keep the joints tight over time. I guess what I had planed to do was to use wood glue on all the tongue and grove joints. Then possibly glue the teak to the plywood and also screw it on from the backside. If you have ever done any thing like this or can think of a better way to do it then this pleas let me know, thanks.

James Brothers
03-06-2007, 4:01 PM
Sorry I think I may have posted this on the wrong forum but if you have any suggestions I reposted this in the Design Forum (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/forumdisplay.php?f=5) thanks.

Mike Null
03-06-2007, 5:31 PM
What about nails in the tongue and groove joints. My floor seems to be holding up well that way.

Jason Roehl
03-06-2007, 7:49 PM
If you absolutely, positively want to keep those joints tight, you would glue all the tongues and grooves of the teak pieces together, then when you attached that assembly to the plywood base, you would only glue and screw from the bottom in the center of the teak. In other words, if your top is 5 teak boards wide, the glue and screws would only go on board #3.

Curt Harms
03-07-2007, 10:19 AM
and I wish I could find it:o . Someone has introduced a router bit that is a straight bit on the bottom but has a cutter on the top that forms either a V shaped or flat bottomed countersink at the same time. Could you cut countersunk slots in the 3/4" ply so You could screw the teak to the ply and it could still move? Glue the teak together, screw the center board tight and screw the outer boards down using the slot idea so they can move some?

Steve Schoene
03-13-2007, 11:50 AM
I think you would be best off treating the teak as boards in a panel glue up. Joint off the tongue and grooves so that you get a tight fitting--no light shows between them--joint and glue the boards together to create one solid panel.

I don't know how thick this will be when you have planed it smooth--probably a bit thin to use by itself. I imagine it will end up somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4" But, you can't glue this to plywood, changes in moisture content across the seasons will cause the teak to self destruct. You could stiffen the panel by laminating an extra teak board to the front, and rear to increase the visual impact, and perhaps another down the center to add to stiffness. Then attach this glued up panel to a sturdy sub-frame so that it is solidly affixed at the front, and is allowed to move in width at the back. This attachment should keep the top flat, though you should finish both sides about equally before screwing it down.

For a finish you should use a good traditional resin varnish such as Behlen Rockhard for a darker tone finish or Pratt & Lambert 38 for a lighter toned varnish. Spar varnish is a bit too soft, and the flexibilty and UV resistence not needed for an interior bar.

James Brothers
03-20-2007, 7:59 PM
A lot of good ideas now I just have to choose how I will do mine. Thank you every one for your replies, I’ll let you know how it turns out.