Milled Monterey cypress

[Anthonyhughes1]

Hello

 

I am trying to find out what uses milled monterey cypress has. I am getting 3 about 1 meter wide trees cut down and in hoping to use them for something other the fire wood.

 

Anybody has any tips on usage please let me know, my hope is for flooring in the house but not sure if it's any good.

[Steve Bullman]

I know nothing about milling, but good luck finding them without any defects inside!

[se7enthdevil]

anything where outside is concerned as it is very durable.

 

also makes excellent joinery wood. i'd love to make a table out of it.

 

mill the lot into 1 1/4" and 2 1/4" boards and turn it into tables and chairs...

[flatyre]

took down a few Monteray monoliths a while ago, most went to firewood but carved some crude seats for the owners grandkids.

 

 

 

[devon TWiG]

Flatyre that is monterey PINE not cypress ... not remotely similar ( except provenance ! ) Monterey cypress is a good wood , however there is not much demand as it is not regularly commercially available ( rarely on offer ) I sold lot's to boat builders in the past , but sadly there are few of them left now , as others have said it is durable outdoors , do you perhaps have any use for it yourself ... new shed ? etc etc ...should be fine for flooring , it is dimensionally very stable , strong and pleasant smelling ..

Edited February 21, 2017 by devon TWiG

[Gareth Dalzell]

took down a few Monteray monoliths a while ago, most went to firewood but carved some crude seats for the owners grandkids.

 

 

 

 

Like the table and chairs, rustic and functional.

[agg221]

To the OP, you asked about use as flooring in the house.

 

Whilst this isn't a common use, this is probably more due to availability. There are three characteristics you need for flooring - strength (to span the gaps between joists without breaking), stiffness (so it isn't too bouncy) and hardness to avoid the surface being marked. You can overcome lack of the first two by making the floor thicker.

 

The wood database has figures for Monterey Cypress of:

 

Janka Hardness: 620 lbf (2,750 N)

Modulus of Rupture: 11,770 lbf/in2 (81.2 MPa)

Elastic Modulus: 1,133,000 lbf/in2 (7.81 GPa)

 

By comparison:

 

Oak (Quercus robur)

Janka Hardness: 1,120 lbf (4,980 N)

Modulus of Rupture: 14,100 lbf/in2 (97.1 MPa)

Elastic Modulus: 1,544,000 lbf/in2 (10.60 GPa)

 

Norway Spruce

Janka Hardness: 380 lbf (1,680 N)

Modulus of Rupture: 9,130 lbf/in2 (63.0 MPa)

Elastic Modulus: 1,406,000 lbf/in2 (9.70 GPa)

 

Scots Pine

Janka Hardness: 540 lbf (2,420 N)

Modulus of Rupture: 12,080 lbf/in2 (83.3 MPa)

Elastic Modulus: 1,461,000 lbf/in2 (10.08 GPa)

 

So in summary, it looks like it is plenty strong enough, the surface shouldn't mark too badly (but you will get dents if you wear your stilettos on it!) but it may bounce a little so using inch thick finished size would be a good idea. To do that, I would mill at 32mm and reckon on cutting boards down to a finished width of around 6" before planing up. You could go a bit wider if wanted but you would end up with more wastage. You could do a very large area of flooring with what you are taking down!

 

Alec

[Anthonyhughes1]

Thanks for the help alec

 

I'm just wondering has they are been laid on a concrete floor will they need to be as thick.

 

 

Anthony

[agg221]

Thanks for the help alec

 

I'm just wondering has they are been laid on a concrete floor will they need to be as thick.

 

 

Anthony

 

Hi Anthony,

 

I don't like laying timber directly on concrete as there is the potential to trap damp areas through condensation at the cold back face, or any spills. I prefer a small air gap, created by laying battens on the floor first. This also makes fixing a lot easier as you can use rawl plugs in the concrete for screws through the battens and then just use ordinary screws for the boards into the batten. I prefer screws to nails as they don't work loose and leave the boards squeaking (and if they do, you can just nip them up). This is important with your own air-dried timber as you can never get it quite to the right level without conditioning in the room. The minimum thickness on the battens is set by the ability to hold the screws. I have used 25mm but you might get away with 19mm if you use a larger (coarser) screw such as a No.12 and a hard timber like oak for the battens.

 

What this does allow you to do is put the battens slightly closer together to eliminate the bounce in thinner boards. Without calculating it, 300mm centres on the batten should allow you to use 19mm finished thickness.

 

I would get the boards half-lapped on the edges (easy enough with a router, even a cheap one if you use a decent cutter - that's how I did my first one, alternatively find someone with a spindle moulder). That way, if they move about a bit you don't get gaps opening up through the floor which you can lose credit cards or coins down.

 

You can get a drill bit which makes the pilot hole, the counter-bore in the board and the countersink at the top all in one, which saves a lot of time. I found that running two drills, one to drill and the other to screw, did the job a lot more easily. I would use brass or stainless slot-head screws as they look nicer, particularly if you are anally retentive enough to line all the screw heads up in the same direction

 

Hope that helps.

 

Alec