sweet chestnut flooring

[farmerjohn]

Has anyone ever used sweet chestnut for floor boards? it would wither be layed directly onto floor joists and nailed to them or thinner pecies made and glued onto a 18mm wayroc type board.

any comments / advice welcome especially regarding the following...

durability

drying problems

stability

board width stability.

I have a small 4-sider to machine T&G boards once dry.

Thanks, John

[codlasher]

Bring them into your house for a month minimum if not longer before laying. I'm presuming these are already processed and dry, not straight off the saw! Consider putting 'cupping grooves' in underneath of the widest (anything over 150mm)

Use good old fashioned cut nails to fix and if you can get hold of (hire?) some floor cramps (pictured) you will do a good job with just butt-fixing. You can lay the boards out and cramp three in one hit with a sacrificial piece to ensure you don't werck the edge of a usable board.

Again I'm assuming these are about 3/4'' to 7/8'' thick.

codlasher

[se7enthdevil]

not heard of many people using sweet chestnut as it can mark fairly easily.

 

i would suggest something a bit harder.

 

 

elm, oak, ash, beech, maple, robinia, hornbeam and cherry are all good flooring woods.

[kernowstu]

I cut a load of chestnut flooring for Cornish Chough on here beautiful hard wearing flooring.

[spiral]

Lovely wood, when not spiral growth! Very stable once dry.

 

Can split on nailing unless predrilled & steel or iron nails will cause black stains from the tannin, so use copper or bronze or some such. I guess.

 

Bit softer than some, but so is pine, just don't dance in hobnails or stiletos on it to on a daily basis...

[Forest2Furniture]

I'm half way through supplying a client with 300 square meters of sweet chestnut for flooring. I'm milling the boards just over an inch so when dried and machined they'll be a distant thickness.

[Forest2Furniture]

If you secret nail through the tongue with a nail gun you shouldn't get any problems with splitting or tannin stains.

[farmerjohn]

I'm half way through supplying a client with 300 square meters of sweet chestnut for flooring. I'm milling the boards just over an inch so when dried and machined they'll be a distant thickness.

 

are the boards to be layed directly onto the joists or onto an existing floor?

what width can you get away with before it starts truing to cup?

how long would you air dry 1 1/4" boards before kilning?

 

thanks, John

[Forest2Furniture]

Boards are being layed direct on to a concrete floor (not my idea), I think they'll cup but customer thinks not and as he's paying the bill who am I to argue.

 

The board will be 12" wide finished so 12.5 with tongue.

 

I'd leave 1 1/4" boards for 9 - 12 months to air dry before kiln drying. Better to wait now then have to do the job twice.

[spiral]

Boards are being layed direct on to a concrete floor (not my idea), I think they'll cup but customer thinks not and as he's paying the bill who am I to argue.

 

.

 

No vapour barrier & battens? That will go very wrong.