1'' x 16'' wide oak planks for flooring

[forgeblast]

I cant wait to see the project done!! Sounds awesome!!

 

[HCJtractor]

I would definitely run these thru a jointer to true the first edge then run them thru a tablesaw to assure consistent width. This should only cause you to lose less than 1/4". Then I would either run them thru a shaper or good table router to add a tongue and groove. I guess an alternative would be to biscuit each edge every few feet, but that would be a lot of work. A good tongue would really help you

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[Oaktree]

The house I grew up in was built in 1820, had boards 12"-18" wide, had gaps between the boards of about 1/4"-1/3". Dad filled the gaps with caulking because mom was tired of loosing stuff to the basement. He had to redo the caulking every 5 years or so, I never thought about it at the time but I bet it was due to the boards moving. Another issue, if my memory serves me, the caulk he used hardened when it dried and didn't remain flexible, which I bet didn't help the problem.

Yep. Same thing with my house (1830s vintage). When I re-did the upstairs, I dug out all the cracked, hardened caulk and cut strips of wood to fit in the cracks and glued them. 10 years later, still looks good.

Took some convincing of the wife to go that route...she had her mind set on overlaying this with some sort of modern flooring (it'll look like real wood!"). There's just something cool about old school wide-plank floors and to me it's sacrilege to cover it up. Not sure what kind of wood these floors are...harder than pine, but definitely not a hardwood either.

 

[HCJtractor]

I would definitely run these thru a jointer to true the first edge then run them thru a tablesaw to assure consistent width. This should only cause you to lose less than 1/4". Then I would either run them thru a shaper or good table router to add a tongue and groove. I guess an alternative would be to biscuit each edge every few feet, but that would be a lot of work. A good tongue would really help you

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[PILOON]

While T & G would be the way to go, how about using biscuits?

T & G eats up material while Biscuits do not. The possibility would, however the possibility of splitting could be greater due to the larger surface area.
With biscuits the edges would always remain even,
In fact you could possibly biscuit join up the whole flooring surface and basically let it 'float' just like with the modern composite 'floating floors'
Still I would suggest a saw kerf on the backside as earlier suggested.
Felt paper under or maybe even the backers used for composite flooring.

Also like idea of using jointer for perfect edges.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Got to sign up for pictures of your project.

 

[bobmisi]

I put my wide yellow pine floor down 30 years ago and we are just about ready for a refinish for the first time. I put down rosin paper and screwed it and plugged the holes with plugs just big enough to cover the screws ( 3/8 I think ). The boards were all milled for flooring with grooves on the underside about 5/8 wide and not very deep. 3 grooves. They were tongue and grooved and 1 inch thick milled to 3/4. The floor has held up well, but it definately moves with the weather. Sometimes the gaps are bigger than other seasons. I'm about ready to do another floor of the same material for my Son and this time we are going to using a flooring nailer to nail the tongue side and face nail the top at each I joist which are twenty four on center. I screwed the original floor every other floor joist as they were 16 on center and staggered the screws every other board. This time I called in a half dozen floor "specialists" for an estimate to pick their brain, mostly in regard to a finish for the floor as I'm not going to apply the finish myself, or sand the floor prior to the finish. The advice they gave me was no less than bizarre. Some wanted to glue the floor down. Others were going to staple it on the tongue side only like a typical hardwood floor of narrow width. One was going to put rosin paper down and glue the floor over that. (HUH ?) The craftsmen are long gone and the newer generation don"t really know what they are doing in my opinion. Same goes for the finish options. I finally found one guy who knows his stuff and he will be doing the finish for us plus refinishing my original floor. I would say with your floor you definately want the boards T&Ged with the back side grooved. The better the boards are milled in the beginning the less it will take to finish them. If you are not apt to get moisture coming through the subfloor you can use rosin paper. If you could get moisture coming up through the subfloor then use 15 # felt. Stay away from glue. The Wood MUST be able to move. As wide as your boards are I would say staple or nail the tongue edge with a floor nailer and then face nail with cut nails or use decorative antique style nails from a supplier like Tremont Nails nailing into the floor joist at least every other joist. All butt joints should come over a joist and nailed down. Make sure before you put down any boards that the moisture content of the boards is not more than 2% different than your subfloor. Let the board acclimate for a couple of weeks in the room where they will be installed, if possible. Just my 5 1/2 cents worth...............