Green oak building with floor.

[muttley9050]

Ok I'm doing a job for a guy who has a few nice oak butts. The job is mill them up and build a smallish open sided garden building out of the green oak. basically a social building fir bbq etc.

He sprung it on me today that he wants to put an oak floor in too. He has enough butts. But we haven't milled any of it yet. Buildings the structure is fine.

So my question is if you had to put a rustic floor in out green oak, do you think it's at all possible and how would you go about it.

I have explained that it's a no no but he seems keen to try.

Cheers

James

[agg221]

If the building is open-sided then basically you aren't building a floor, you are fitting decking which will be rained on etc.

 

If he can't be persuaded that paving/bricks would be more suitable, I would quarter the butts, cut quartersawn boards off until the remaining section was suitable for a beam and then use the quartersawn boards for the flooring, laid as decking with deliberate gaps. I would decide whether to plane them or roughly sand off any sharp bits depending on the style.

 

I would explain that air needed to circulate and that the boards would shrink in width so would need re-laying in a year or so. I would lay the boards 'frowning' and fix each board down with a single stainless screw in the middle at each bearer. I would have these countersunk but not plugged.

 

I would decide whether it was better to price in the re-laying to the job, or to add it to the quote as a line item to be taken up later, depending on the customer and my judgement as to whether they would be likely to 'forget' that I had told them it would need doing, particularly when telling their friends about me whilst standing there having a barbecue. My preference would be to price it in, as that way it will definitely get done (at no extra charge) and will give a much better impression to any viewers who may want something similar in the future. Bearing this in mind, I would hang on to a couple of spare boards from the job and store them to add in when re-laying.

 

Alec

[SteveA]

I've been thinking about what to do for our barn floor.... I quite like the cobbled look of 'end grain block flooring' or 'Cordwood flooring', maybe search google and click on images for a bit of inspiration.

cheers, steve

[muttley9050]

We have some end grain cobbles here around 100 years old very worn and half of them replaced with brick where they are worn but still stunning. Think the cutting and laying of them may be a little time consuming for this job.

I was thinking along the lines of a deck , problem is the design keeps changing in his head. We may vend up Beith some walls yet.

The customer is becoming a friend. A firewood dealer who i have done probably 10 days milling for in the past. Sleepers mostly for sale and to landscape his garden of the house he's building. Managed to cut 78 8x4 4m sleepers in one of the days. Was pretty chuffed with that.

Thankfully it's all on day rate and he will be helping so price doesn't really matter.

We're going to sit down. Over a beer one evening soon and get the design down and cutting list made. Just thought I'd check if anybody had any tricks id missed for green oak flooring.

Alec do you see a problem laying the boards with a 1 or 2 mm gap so that as they shrink you would end up with a sensible 5mm gap an then it would just need some extra screws putting in when dry.

I'll be milling with a lucas so no problem taking the beams and quarter sawing the boards out of the whole log.

Cheers

[agg221]

We're going to sit down. Over a beer one evening soon and get the design down and cutting list made. Just thought I'd check if anybody had any tricks id missed for green oak flooring.

Alec do you see a problem laying the boards with a 1 or 2 mm gap so that as they shrink you would end up with a sensible 5mm gap an then it would just need some extra screws putting in when dry.

I'll be milling with a lucas so no problem taking the beams and quarter sawing the boards out of the whole log.

Cheers

 

The only problem I can see with leaving the boards to shrink and planning not to re-lay is that they won't dry to an even width - where there are knots or any non-straight grain you will get some differences in shrinkage and the gaps could end up rather random - quite conceivably ranging from around 3mm to 12mm+ which could look quite messy. I would plan on trying to make the boards span in a single length and edging them up again when dry (ideally with a jointer if you have one but if not then with a router against a long fence). It is partly this loss of material that suggests keeping a couple of spares.

 

Thinking further, you want the boards smiling rather than frowning.

 

I think I would also want to seal the ends well to try to prevent losses from splitting. PVA should do it as then it won't show.

 

The Lucas should be ideal to achieve the cutting pattern. Obviously you won't do it in this order, but something like cutting out beams from the corners to leave a big cross and then cutting that down into boards. If it was in proportion to the building I think I would aim for 6" width boards as they would look decent but have less shrinkage than wider ones.

 

Alec

[Duncansimpson]

I cut enough oak boards to cover upstairs barn floor (6m x7m) ranging from 10" to 14" wide and inch thick, all lovely straight stuff. I sticked it all up and stacked it in the barn to dry thinking it would be really straight forward to lay. How wrong was I. Every board will need re edging, even the straightest ones must be an inch out. If I had laid them green I think it would now look a right mess. I'll have to send them off to be done unless anyone out there has a portable planet/edger

[agg221]

I cut enough oak boards to cover upstairs barn floor (6m x7m) ranging from 10" to 14" wide and inch thick, all lovely straight stuff. I sticked it all up and stacked it in the barn to dry thinking it would be really straight forward to lay. How wrong was I. Every board will need re edging, even the straightest ones must be an inch out. If I had laid them green I think it would now look a right mess. I'll have to send them off to be done unless anyone out there has a portable planet/edger

 

I did mine with a router and a straight fence (piece of aluminium I-section in my case) clamped to the boards. It took a bit of time but worked perfectly.

 

Alec

[se7enthdevil]

so far as i know old floors were scribed in not re edged on every board giving you some straight (ish) edges and some fairly wavy.

 

obviously the boards need to be 80% dry though for this method to work outside.

 

.

[delabodge]

the amount of people who bring to me 1" boards 12"-16" wide expecting me to plane the curve out on my 24" planner is unreal,they look dissapointed when I tell them there`ll be nothing left onve the curve has gone, lol, I always allow forthis when milling with the end product in mind,not that this is relevant james,but replying to duncansimpson really,

On a barn I`m building for air drying my timber(now got a mates caravan and loader in)I`m butting the boards right up /touching to allow for natural shrinkage,hence providing me the gap, they so far havnt moved as the logs where fairly dry when milled.look forward to seeing it

[Big Beech]

so far as i know old floors were scribed in not re edged on every board giving you some straight (ish) edges and some fairly wavy.

 

obviously the boards need to be 80% dry though for this method to work outside.

 

.

 

Sweet