Thoughts on plank floors

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eclecticcottage

Minister of Fire
Dec 7, 2011
1,803
WNY
Having a hard time finding inexpensive tongue and groove for the last two rooms. We've got heart pine barn wood for the bedroom and used reclaimed garage sheathing in the living room. I've found some hemlock planks (not T&G) that could get the last two rooms done for @ $130 plus materials (linseed oil, turpentine and poly-or paint). It's true 1" thick. Any thoughts on this? We can go from 4" wide to 8", and plan to vary the lengths.

This is the reclaimed sheathing floor:

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We pressure washed, brushed vinegar/water on it, dried it, brushed on a BLO:turp mix, dried it, then brushed on the poly.

this was the before

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We're on a slab.

You can get an idea of what kind of decor we've got via the blog linked below, but its a true Cottage so painted floors aren't out of the question if it would help with expansion/contraction.
 
2 rooms worth of Hemlock for $130.00.... I'd jump on that
 
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i have laid 18" wide planks of white pine, butted, and screwed to Dryloc over concrete, in effect a floating floor, finished with water based poly to preserve the natural light color of white pine. Similar with 18" white pine planks over a wood sub-floor. Not a single crack and virtually no plank separation in either floor. I used wedges to drive the butts very tight and laid the floors in winter when the humidity was low.
 
You could cut a ship lap easily on a table saw or with a router rather than just butting the sides together. Hemlock may be a little soft to stand up to furniture legs and traffic, you may want to use some good Polyurethane also.
 
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My brother put 5 or 6 inch wide pine in his kitchen and entryway and it has stood up a lot better than I thought it would.
 
Thanks for the replies! We believe the wood we reclaimed in the living room is hemlock. It is a bit soft, but we're not looking for perfect looking floors. Imperfect is perfect here, lol.

Isn't drylock a concrete sealer? Or is it something else? I was thinking of using sleepers.
 
You could cut a ship lap easily on a table saw or with a router rather than just butting the sides together. Hemlock may be a little soft to stand up to furniture legs and traffic, you may want to use some good Polyurethane also.

My thoughts exactly.
 
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