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Is red pine ok as flooring?

Started by JimMartin9999, March 23, 2010, 11:30:00 PM

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JimMartin9999

I was thinking of sawing up red pine to use as flooring in my cabin. I have the choice of oak but  I can sell that and I have a lot of red pine which is not so easy to sell.  The trouble is that I somehow remember reading that red pine is hard to dry without warping.
I was thinking t&g, air dried,  1inch thick, any suggestions about optimal widths? I already have  heavy plywood subflooring in. I have never  done flooring but  will have the help of a friend who has.  I just want to get the wood right.
Jim

isawlogs

 Red pine is good for floorin g, Air drying it to make flooring from it aint such a good idea . Let me explain , air drying will bring it to ambiant humidity , so as soon as you put heat to it , it will shrink more , thus making nice wide cracks . I would dry it at least to 8 or 10 percent before making flooring for a cabine .
It makes a very colourfull floor, the deep red heart wood , with the yellowish sap wood just gorgeous !!!!
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Glenn

If you already have a subfloor down 4/4 is fine but if not then 4/4 is too thin.  I'd go at least 5/4 or preferably 6/4 thick.  Red pine is also a soft  wood and won't hold up as well as the oak will.  Tamarack is very strong and holds up almost as well as hard wood if you can get it.

Chuck White

Good post Jim.
I got a call from a guy 3 days ago and he wants me to saw 2,000 bf of Red Pine for replacement flooring in his house.
He's going to lay it on the existing floor.
He wants ¾ x 6 and ¾ x 8 inch boards.

I thought it might be to soft, but I guess it is ok as several types of pine are used for flooring, across the country.
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

tyb525

You could stack the air dried flooring inside the cabin for a few weeks (if it is heated already), that will acclimate it to the new humidity and it shouldn't shrink once you put it down.
LT10G10, Stihl 038 Magnum, many woodworking tools. Currently a farm service applicator, trying to find time to saw!

Chuck White

Quote from: tyb525 on March 24, 2010, 09:04:03 AM
You could stack the air dried flooring inside the cabin for a few weeks (if it is heated already), that will acclimate it to the new humidity and it shouldn't shrink once you put it down.

That's exactly what I told my customer about his Red Pine.
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

roger 4400

Hi . As Glenn wrote you could use tamarac. If you want to see what tamaracs floor look like go on the site "planchers ancestral" (that means ancestral floors). They treat their floors with oil. This company is in Québec, they use only tamaracs. I guess you could do the same for your cabin and tamaracs are easy to get.
Baker 18hd sawmill, massey Ferguson 1643, Farmi winch, mini forwarder, Honda foreman 400, f-250, many wood working tools, 200 acres wooden lots,6 kids and a lovely and a comprehensive wife...and now a Metavic 1150 m14 log loader so my tractor is a forwarder now

isawlogs


I read that the options where  A- Oak , wich he could sell
                                               B- Red pine , wich is not so easy to sell , nothing in his post mentioned Tamarack ...

  Red pine is fine for floorring , it is one of the harder pines it looks , I have sawed it many times for customers and we never did more then 10 to 20 % more then needed and they had blenty to do there jobs. I have sawed it anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 inches for use with out subfloor. You could go with 1 inche if you put your floor joist at 12" spacing but I would not go there .. space at 16" and use 1 1/2" .
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

JimMartin9999

Thanks guys.   Drying it inside is a good suggestion.  Funny, I hadn´t thought of it.
I don´t have tamarac,  just red pine and oak.  Actually, I do have white pine but I thought it was too soft for flooring.
Nobody reacted to my concern about warping. Would that be more of a problem with 8"?  Isn´t it a problem, of course I will sticker it and air dry it  AND now dry it in the cabin before laying it.
Yes, as I wrote, there is a solid  plywood subfloor on top of 16" o/c.
Jim

WDH

The narrower the width, the less obvious will be the shrinkage gaps between individual boards.  But, it is more time consuming to process and lay down a narrow floor.  Like everything in life, there are trade-offs  :).
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

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