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2" T&G car decking

Started by mmhailey, April 22, 2008, 10:09:21 AM

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ARKANSAWYER


  Put adhesive on the end of the boards and do a 5 or 10 degree back cut.  It will give a bit more glue area and on some not so good cuts will not show up as bad.  You can sand down the edges later.
ARKANSAWYER

mmhailey

Arkansawyer:

Are you saying at each butt joint to miter a 5 degree joint and glue the ends together? I could see how that would definitely give more gluing surface and better support? I currently do not own a biscuit joiner, but also see where that could be a help. I may try tomorrow using my router and a spline on the butt joint to see if that is feasible.

I went through my 2420 lineal feet of 2X6 T&G today, and chop sawed out the waste. I ended up with 975' of usable flooring. That was a bit of disappointment, as I wasn't expecting quite so much waste, but as they say " it is what it is"  :-\

I will definitely be spanning joists!



Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and turn him into a liar.

mmhailey

Well I racked, measured, and cut my flooring. I also conducted a test of joist spanning with some scrap. The bottom line is I ended up with enough clear, that I'll be able to complete the butt joints over a joist. Here are some pics of the 1 1/2" Alaskan Hemlock T&G that is ready to be put down. It is al clear, with the exception of the worm holes in a few pieces, that my wife really likes the look of. I am working on a siding job right now, and will save this for inclement weather days. I'll get some more pics of the progress.  Thanks for everyones help, and I hope this thread can help someone else as much as has helped me.







Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and turn him into a liar.

mmhailey

We got to work on the floor for the last few days. Let's see what have I learned?

The 3 1/4 Ring Shanks hold better, but need to be shot at just the right angle and position or the dry hemlock has a tendency to crack. I had tried some 2 1/2 galv rings. The were easy to shoot, but didn't hold down the crooked or warped boards to my satisfaction. Here is a close up of the worm pecked boards next to the clear. I didn't know if I would like them at first, but the wife was right ( aren't they always?)




I have been able to seat and straighten every board with a block and a sledge, then snug it up tight with a long handled extra large screwdriver. It is certainly a learned skill holding the screwdriver in one hand and shooting the nail gun with the other. It definitely is better with a helper.




The PL400 subfloor adhesive seems to dry in 24 hours, and snugs up the boards well.

I now know, why they call it car decking... :D When you put down 1 1/2" T&G over full 2" joists on 16" centers you could drive a car anywhere in the room...  ;D





We are now starting to talk about finishes. Has anyone heard or used a product called Gym Seal? Everyone around here raves about it's durability.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and turn him into a liar.

beenthere

Gym seal is what I used 40 years ago on our oak floors. Was recommended to do two coats, but I put on 3 coats. The floors still look great (my opinion, anyway) after 40 years. There are some affects of wear but mostly things like the flat iron, door stop, dropped furniture, etc. that were accidents and small gouges/dents.  But the finish, even in the hallway to the bedrooms which gets ALL the traffic, are holding up well on the finish.
I think the 3rd coat is what made the real difference. Friends who did their floors about the same time, and only used 2 coats were not as lucky with the high traffic areas.

Your floor looks great.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

mmhailey

I just wanted to follow up on this thread. The floor has been down now coming up on a year. I've had no issues so far with cupping, loose boards, or squeaks.

I hand scraped the floor using a a scrub plane. I did this at joints that were a little uneven, and to add a little character. I was a bit timid in how many marks I left. Now we wish we had done more. They ended up giving the floor in our opinion a great look.

For finishing we ended up using a product  called Waterlox. I put down 3 coats, and have been impressed so far. We just sweep, vacuum, and occasional damp mop, as you would any other floor.  The gaps between the boards are noticeable, as you would expect. Basically it is a rustic floor, and is just what we were looking for.

This is not a great picture of the floor, but the only one I have that shows the finish.





Again thanks for everyone's input. I plan on using this same floor in a project I am involved with currently.
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and turn him into a liar.

ARKANSAWYER


  A job well done!   Do you know that people pay good money for a floor like that?
ARKANSAWYER

Oregon_Sawyer

Sure looks good for something that started out to be a possible sub-floor.  I have a hunch we are looking at the permanent floor.

In my log house I used 2X6 T&G Fir (a lot of #1) as a sub-floor for the main floor of our day-light basement home.  We then poured concrete on top of it.  Oh yeah,  the radiant floor tubes were in the concrete in between nailers.  Then I laid a random width and length Oregon White Oak floor on top. 
Sawing with a WM since 98. LT 70 42hp Kubota walk behind. 518 Skidder. Ramey Log Loader. Serious part-timer. Western Red Cedar and Doug Fir.  Teamster Truck Driver 4 days a week.

MbfVA

Since this thread went to sleep in 2009, May I wake it up with a related question?

Is using a biscuit arrangement with a plate jointer a possible substitute for tongue and groove flooring, assuming the thickness of the wood was sufficient and the subfloor adequate?

Like a lot of the folks on this forum, I have timber available from my woods & a sawmill, which tends to blind me to the opportunity cost of overusing that wood in my own projects  smiley_inspector smiley_swinging_board
www.ordinary.com (really)

Brian_Weekley

I think biscuits would be OK for connecting the ends of boards together, but I wouldn't rely on them to replace T&G.  If you don't want T&G, how about just cutting grooves in all edges and use splines instead?
e aho laula

MbfVA

 Splines? Sorry for my ignorance, tell me how that relates to the flooring.  BTW,  we like your cat avatar.
www.ordinary.com (really)

LeeB

With tongue and groove one board has a tongue and the mating board has a groove. with a spline both boards have a groove and the spline is a floating tongue the fits the groove of both boards.
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

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