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Furniture from used wood flooring?

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Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Robert » 19 Jul 2018, 11:58

I'm thinking about a new desk system for the computer room (smallest bedroom) and my ideas will involve a lot of wood.

The amount of oak involved set me wondering about other sources and solid wood flooring comes in around 18mm thick with one side nice and the other grooved to reduce cupping I guess. I'm thinking used and probably from ebay if the price is right.

I know the finish is probably going to be tough and I won't want chamfer joint lines so tongues and grooves will have to be modified or come off. So machining will be needed. Oak is Oak right? So flooring won't have any problems not found in sawn timber will it?

So really just asking if anyone has tried using flooring and if there are any unexpected problems..

Currently looking for a small amount locally to try it out unless I'm told here it's a bad idea. Just an idea at the moment so no rush.
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Harv-53 » 19 Jul 2018, 13:40

Hello Robert
I’ve successfully made kitchen counter tops from 150 year old oak floor boards, it took a bit of careful edging, they weren’t tongue and grooved and my client wanted to keep as near to the original width which was Around 200mm, I planed them square and popped a few dominoes in for good measure and glued it all up.
That was 6 years ago, and they’re still looking great, I finished them with osmo top oil which has proved itself to be very durable.
Unfortunately I’m not able to post any pictures due to client confidentiality agreement.
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Harv-53 » 19 Jul 2018, 13:57

Just remembered, I made a small breakfast bar last year with the left over oak, it’s not a great picture as it was a taken to show someone the finished colour.
The oak boards on this were cut down to around 130mm wide to make them usable
If you are or know anyone passing Milton Keynes shortly, I’ve got loads of t & g v nothched oak floor board off cuts your welcome too. I’ve just done out our upstairs in European oak floor boards,
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby RogerS » 19 Jul 2018, 14:45

Robert, I think that you are thinking about 'modern' oak floorboards as opposed to some old boards taken from an old house from years back ?

Nothing wrong at all with your suggestion. I've made quite a lot of odds and ends using oak offcuts from floors I've laid. Not all T&G flooring has a bevel...something to look out for. The other thing to watch out for is grade of oak used. Prime grade has very few knots, shakes, grotty bits and going down the grades to 'character' grade or 'rustic' depending on supplier where you have quite a few of them. They can be filled in but you might not want to do that.

The downside with filling in knotholes etc is that you see the filler as it's a uniform colour. In the past I've had some success by using artists oil colours and painting in detail to mimic real oak.

If you are thinking about genuine very old oak floorboards then come back to us.
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Robert » 19 Jul 2018, 16:24

Thanks for the replies and yes 'modern' solid wood flooring rather than old floorboards.

Guess I'll be guided by pictures rather than grades with second hand stuff... and avoid the ones with knots and swirls in the grain....and if possible no bevels :)

Probably be months before I actually do anything but now i know what to look for.

Thanks.
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Pinch » 19 Jul 2018, 19:05

Old oak in its natural state I say! 8-)

Have you prepared a design drawing yet?
In my previous life, I was a tree.
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Robert » 19 Jul 2018, 22:21

No drawings yet. It is going to be mainly about function. The computer...2 monitors not standing on the desk so some kind of high back for brackets...all the cables...router...speakers...network switch....printer(?)...server(?)..backup devices..power distribution...it goes on. And trying to make it easy to modify/work on.

It's going to need to tick over in my head for while just to work out what I want from it.
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Robert » 03 Sep 2018, 22:34

Finally got round to buying some oak flooring. The boards are 200mm wide and 21mm thick and generally pretty flat. There were some panel pins diagonally through the tongues on some and a few boards had snapped off screws in the middle of them but all metal is now removed. I scanned over every one with my Aldi stud/metal/ac finder and it seemed to do a good job finding metal even if it was a bit uncertain when I used it for finding studs.

Image

Said to be 21 sq m. Not going to run out of wood for a while. I paid £130 for it. Hard to work out what it would have cost as sawn 1" from the wood yard but I'm guessing £600 plus.

Image

Unfortunately it is more of a character grade with some minor and major knots but there are good plain sections too. Labels on the back are in French so I guess that makes it european oak and has a 2006 date so hopefully never sanded.

I've run some of it through the thicknesser and it looks pretty good with the varnish off.

Ordered drawer runners today so I guess I'll need to start making something soon.
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Mike G » 04 Sep 2018, 07:04

I made quite a lot of stuff from an old pub floor, many years ago. Unfortunately, it was American red oak, which isn't really oak at all........but as a source of cheap timber old floors are excellent. The downsides are that the sections can be a bit thin and there can be adhesive and fixings to damage your machines.

Anyway, nice to see a decent stash of proper wood about to be used.
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Richard » 04 Sep 2018, 10:17

Mike G wrote: I made quite a lot of stuff from an old pub floor, many years ago. Unfortunately, it was American red oak, which isn't really oak at all.......

Are you sure about that, Mike? All the American red oaks fall within the genus Quercus, therefore by definition they're all oaks.

Edit ... later. It is possible, I suppose, you could just have been joking … but I can't really tell.
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Re: Furniture from used wood flooring?

Postby Woodbloke » 04 Sep 2018, 22:03

My only experience of using this type of material was disappointing :( to say the least. The stuff I used was kilned to such an extent that 99.5% of it's life had been sucked out so it was truly appalling to use with any sort of handtool. Probably fine to use with tailed tools, but don't take a sharp No.5 jack anywhere near it - Rob
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