White pine flooring

[Engineer]

Dunno where this belongs, so it's here, in the general board.

I have thousands of board feet of white pine that will be "leftovers" - a bonus from cutting beams and cants for my timber frame.  I've been cutting it at 5/4, figuring that I will use most of it for flooring and trim in the house.  It's being air dried, but I don't know how to handle the stuff.  Should I have it kiln dried, or will air drying be enough?  Also, most pine floors that I see, are simply boards laid down and face nailed.  It often leaves big gaps in the floor, and I done want to look down and see my subfloor between the boards.  Anybody here run T&G or shiplap on a pine floor?

Also, there's a bunch of logs (maybe 4000 bf) that are gonna be mostly dimension lumber, 2x4 and 2x6 etc.  Any reason that has to be kiln dried, or can I air dry it and use it "surface dry"?

[beenthere]

All depends on the look you want, rustic or smooth or whatever ?

This site shows some tamarack flooring, http://northslopewood.com/  
with the T&G and back relief. Should work for pine as well. Some people even like the pine flooring with the square nails showing on the surface.

If you don't want open cracks between the boards, by all means kiln dry it.  Air dry wood will usually shrink more as time goes on, unless the year around humidity where it is used stays 70% or higher. Usually dimension can stand a bit of shrinkage that isn't as noticeable as the same amount of shrinkage in flooring laid side by each.

[Ron Wenrich]

I used T&G white pine on my ceiling that was air dried.  I left it inside for several months before installation.  I still get gaps, depending on the weather.  

I'm wondering how durable that pine floor is going to be.  I have some old pine flooring in my house that was in pretty rough shape.  This was slow growth white pine.

[Cedarman]

Most white pine is fairly soft so it will dent fairly easily. That can be countered somewhat by putting a thick hard covering on it.  One of the reasons to kiln dry is to set the sap. By heating, some of low temp resins are removed.  That is why you see sap on some old pine boards on a real hot summer day with the sun shining on them.
The crack can be decreased by using narrower boards, but then you do not get that wide board effect.

[karl]

We have installed many pine floors over the years, I would certainly KD the stuff. If you can get your T frame dried out a bit before installing finish floors there will be less chance of dry lumber absorbing lots of moisture from the "Green" building and crushing the fibers- leaving large gaps when everything stablizes(there will always be seasonal swelling and shrinking)
Wider boards = wider gaps.
Our own home has several wide pine floors- the ones in the bedroom areas hold up well (19 years so far)
In the high traffic areas they are, well, RUSTIC. My bride, bless her, keeps them shiny and bright with frequent Murphy's Oil Soap applications.
Ours are all s4s face nailed, we have done several houses since with t and g blind nailed (my prefered method)
Finishing of t+g should be done with care as to not "glue" the boards together with exess urethane since when they shrink they will split sections of the thin groove edge.

Good Luck with your home

karl

[slowzuki]

My parents entire house is SYP floors, full 2" x 6" v-match, air-dried.  They were installed v-match down and nailed from the hidden faces.

The gaps grow in the winter and shrink in the summer, my mother tried crack filling them but that was a mess.  With new durathane type finishes the high traffic areas (including big dogs) last about 10 years before looking rustic.  The low traffic areas haven't needed anything.  We wear dirty boots in the house and drag stuff across it so it hasn't been babied like most people do with hardwood.

Our stairs were left nude and the spring/summer growth rings erode out and leave the slower grown portions.  Gives a beautiful texture to look at and excellent traction.