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Thread: Making Engineered Hardwood Floor

  1. #1

    Making Engineered Hardwood Floor

    Has anybody here made their own engineered hardwood floor? I am an experienced cabinetmaker who gave up on cabinetmaking when the economy tanked and went into trucking. Years later I am back rebuilding a mold damaged house from frame up. I'm making all of the cabinets and trim out of knotty alder. I keep looking outside at a maple tree that was cut down 1 1/2 - 2 years ago by a septic system company and just left there. Its 30" to 36" in diameter and approximately 12' in length. I've taken a few smaller pieces across my saw and made 1/2" thick slabs from it. Its quite solid and the grain looks like something that would go well with the cabinets. There is a local sawmill that can cut it up how I want. My plan would be to glue 1/4" thick planks to 1/2" Baltic birch ply. Other than moisture content what problem can I expect to find. Some are going to say just buy it but time is not an issue.....labor is not an issue..... There is something about doing it yourself that is lacking in most houses today. Quality not quantity......

  2. #2
    Are you wanting to make it go further by cutting it into thin slices? It seems like that is adding a lot of complication. Cutting into 4x4, planning, back cutting, and tongue and grooving will all be time consuming enough for most people. Adding in gluing a veneer onto plywood doesn't grossly change the amount of work but it will add work.

    I've never made it but I've put it down. I've also done "normal" solid hardwood. The engineered I used was less than 1/2 thick. I glued it to a concrete basement floor. I didn't enjoy the process but it came out fine. I much prefer nailing down 3/4. I also put down 700 square feet of solid oak that was less than 1/2 thick. That required a special stapler and was worse than putting down 3/4.

    If you have the tools and the time I don't see why you can't. If it was me, I'd probably skip the laminating step and just have it milled to 4x4 and make flooring (or anything else you want) out of that.

  3. #3
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    +2 , just saw it 4/4, and mill solid flooring, you will get a better product for less work.

  4. #4
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    I used to do it for a living as part of my last job. We outsourced most of it but made plenty in house for custom samples and short runs as needed. We used 15mm phenolic glued 4x8 Baltic birch, 1/2 lapped to make length, sawed skins to 1/4", sanded to 3/16" and glued up with urethane glue as suggested by the outsource manufacturer. Maple grows a lot, engineered beyond 8" in maple is questionable, we did up to 12" in most other species. Primary demand was for glue down applications to concrete slab floors in NYC or over radiant heat. For traditional application solid wood is cheaper all in if you don't need the advantage of engineered. You will not save money making engineered , it is not cheaper even if labor is free.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by peter gagliardi View Post
    +2 , just saw it 4/4, and mill solid flooring, you will get a better product for less work.
    less work, most definetly. Better product is open to debate. Good engineered flooring has some excellent performance characteristics that may be desirable for certain applications. It's not going to be even close to equal in cost unless the species is something like teak or ebony where the woods value is great enough to overcome the additional labor. For maple? I'd be asking my self....do I need an engineered product?

  6. #6
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    Slapping a 1/4 inch lumber on top of 1/2" plywood hardly makes it engineered flooring. I would stick with the simpler nail down approach unless you are truly going to pay to have it engineered for you.

  7. #7
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    I'm assuming the reason you want to go with veneer is that there isn't enough wood in that log to do solid flooring, am I correct? If that's the case, what if you got the log milled, and did the trim or some other accent pieces for the house instead? We took down some trees for our new house build and used some of the wood for things like door casings, the fireplace mantel, and such. Just a thought.

  8. #8
    Only way I would attempt it would be for a parquet floor or border. Something special.

  9. #9
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    Engineered flooring is more or less standard here in Europe now. A tiny bit on the basics here: http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/ad...-wood-flooring There's probably a stability benefit and a saving in the high cost species that makes up the top veneer.

    Chances are the factories use automated lamination processes with heat curing adhesives and the like to get over the labour issue. Chances are too that there's a bit involved in coming up with a sandwich that doesn't warp badly with changes in humidity - they typically use a backing layer behind the low cost (spruce?) central core which no doubt needs to be correctly set up to avoid problems...
    Last edited by ian maybury; 05-20-2015 at 2:54 PM.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by ian maybury View Post
    Engineered flooring is more or less standard here in Europe now. A tiny bit on the basics here: http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/ad...-wood-flooring There's probably a stability benefit and a saving in the high cost species that makes up the top veneer.

    Chances are the factories use automated lamination processes with heat curing adhesives and the like to get over the labour issue. Chances are too that there's a bit involved in coming up with a sandwich that doesn't warp badly with changes in humidity - they typically use a backing layer behind the low cost (spruce?) central core which no doubt needs to be correctly set up to avoid problems...
    They cut the skins on a "Frame" saw, which looks like a giant bread slicer and leaves a glue ready cut, then glue down with an automated glue roller, through a rolling press that involves heat, lots of pressure, and in some cases a little UF cure too. Most here use baltic birch multi layer with no backing veneer, gives you a wear layer very similar to 3/4" standard solid hardwood. Any given piece has a bow to the face side of its length, I always questioned the no backer, but I'm told it glues down and stays down just fine. There are a few doing lumber core, and a few doing backer veneers, pushes the cost way up on an already expensive product. Not so much labor involved in a manufacturing environment, in the home shop? Lots and lots and lots of clamps, cauls, maybe a vacuum bag could help, or four of them on a manifold?
    "A good miter set up is like yoga pants: it makes everyone's butts look good." Prashun Patel

  11. #11
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    With a little bit of shopping around I am sure you can find engineered hard wood flooring for less than the milling will cost on your tree. I just finished laying a bunch of Hickory engineered flooring though out most of the up stairs floor of my house. I have a half dozen boxes left over because I found a deal and bought all they had.

    The very best part about engineered flooring is being able to put electric floor heat under it!

    I got my under floor heat from this guy on ebay: http://www.vodoley91.com/?nav=special but there are a lot more suppliers now than when I bought mine. It cost me less than 1/4 what I would have paid for the same thing at HomeDepot.

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