How would you mill siding and flooring?

[Kelvin]

I'm starting my new timber frame home.  I'm trying to figure out a couple of options on finishing things, subfloors and floors.  First, would you do board and batten or clapboard?  I want things to go fast, but be weathertight.  'the board and batten on my barn doesn't seem to seal up to well, and if i left it natural wood, i couldn't use tons of caulk to seal up all the openings that would develop.  With clapboard there is a lot of redundant overlap, much more maching, to make sure everything is the same size, so a lot more lumber to cover the same area, but probably more weathertite.  Though my lumber is only air dried and i've seen clapboard curl when not QS sawn, or really dried, or really nailed down?
The other issues would be flooring.  The subfloor will be seen from below on the first and second stories, so it needs to be neatly done.  I'm using airdried stuff, so i guess i'll have to shiplap everything? or T&G?  I'm trying to do the least amount of work, and use the lumber in the most effeciat way.  What do you think?  My spans will be 3' at most, and i'm putting down 7/8" pine subfloor with 7/8' hardwod finish floors.  Gonna be bouncy?  
I also want to do some sort of wainscot around the bottom of the rooms as i have more wood than drywall talent, and the tops would be drywall to break up the total wood look,, and lighten things up.  Ship lap again?  Whats the best machine for this?  A big shaper with a power feeder brought right out to the house site?  Wish i could put something like the debarker on my woodmizer to make a shiplap on the mill.  Any help out there?  What do you think?
Thanks for any input, it will be appreciated.  Any tricks of the trade, like putting the subfloor down at 45degree angel?
Kelvin

[Minnesota_boy]

I'd say to use tongue and grove for the subfloor.  The tongue and groove interlocks the boards to transfer weight from one to the other and makes a stronger floor.  Kiln dry it before you have it machined.  You don't really need a weatherproof outside on the house.  You are in a heating area, so you need a vapor barrier on the inside of the wall and a way to let moisture vapor out of the wall if it gets through the barrier (and it will).  I put a 6 mil polyethylene on the wall behind the drywall and didn't worry much about the wind coming in then.

[IndyIan]

I'm no expert but we are doing board and batten with house wrap(tyvek) underneath so the main job of the siding is to keep the sun and most of the moisture off the wrap.  

For your floors, t&g your subfloor for sure, try standing on one board in the middle of a 3' span...  might even break if you got a spike knot in the wrong spot.  At woodweb.com they have a board strength calculator.  Play with that for a while and see what you come up with.  Even going to 1 and 1/8" or 1.25" thick will have a big increase in strength, also you need the subfloor thick enough so the flooring nails don't come through.  My parents house has the subfloor put at 45° but I've never seen that in a timber frame house.  I think if you put your hardwood floor at 90° to the sub floor you should be OK unless you've got a pool table or grand piano upstairs... ;D
Good luck,
Ian

[beenthere]

I'd do some serious thinking (and checking) before I would put down a subfloor of less than 1" (preferably 1½" or decking) on 3' center joists. I would also run the flooring 90° to the joists to gain any additional bending stiffness possible from the flooring boards. (I once volunteered to sand a hardwood floor that was laid parallel to the joists over sheating boards on 16" center joists. Nightmare!  The oak flooring was a roller coaster with valley's between the joists and hills over the joists. Ended up doing the entire floor with the round edger sander, as the drum wouldn't touch the valley's).

But check it out with some first hand experience on a trial run so you are satisfied that it is what you want. (IMO).

If mine, and I had the 3/4" or 7/8" material, I'd lay the first sub boards 90° to the joists, then glue a second layer at 45° angle, and then put the flooring at 90° to the joists on top of that. The glued subfloors will give you lots of stiffness, and much more than a 1 ½" single board subfloor.  So much for my ideas and your desire to do this quick   ;)

[etat]

All board subfloors I've ever seen around here on older houses  were not laid at 90 degrees to the joists, they are 45'd across the joists. I never remember seeing a board subfloor laid at 90 degrees.  What I have seen is 2/8;s or in a few cases 1/ tongue and groove subfloor.  In my opinion, either one will be bouncy on a three foot span, excessively so. Under these circumstances I tend to agree with beenthere and designing a laminated subfloor with glue and screws.

Running em 45'd to the joists  give quite a bit of  flexibility in direction in laying the main floor.  

Also highly agreeing that quick is not gonna be better and thinking  what you need for three foot spans is well engineered and stiff. .

[hillbilly]

                     If you were wanting quick you should have went with 2ft center floor joist and plywood.
                      I,m with benthere and ckate, slow down if youare going to span 3' then you might want a thicker subfloor 45 them then run your flooring 90 to the floor,there is nothing like standing  on a SOLID floor after your finished ;)

                  hillbilly

[Ed_K]

 Glue the subfloor (s) for sure. I glued the first course, and not on the second, What A Nightmare I'm living with now  >:(.

[sigidi]

Hey all,

here in Oz, flooring joists are a standard 450mm centres or 18" if we are talking floor joist spacings of 3 foot between centres or even 2 foot, I'd be thinking you would have to have a heavy duty floor to not bounce even over 2 foot centres???

Our standard run-of-the mill flooring for shop-bought T&G is around 90x19mm or  3.5"x4/5" and the flooring is run 90 deg to joists which are run 90 deg to bearers. 45deg flooring is a personal taste thing (and wallet thing - much more work ;D)

Maybe totally off track, but wanted to throw in our building regs.