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OT-Virgin Antique Old Pine Floors

Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Location
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
i just recieved 1800sqft of antique old pine 5 1/2" x 7' long boards all 4 sides tongue and grooved. all that they need is to be put down, sanded lightly and stained.the guy that gave them to me has his own buisness of recovering old wood am making floor and beams out of them. These came off of the old new york pier that cought fire about 2-3 years ago. Around hear the prices for 4 1/2" wide boards is 8.25 sqft is that about rite nationally or is this just a local price. i am not ready to bukid a house yet in about 2 years and somebody already offered me $4 a sqft. that sounds good to me but wanted some opinions from you guys.

Jason
 
Personally I'd sell it. Pine doesn't wear as well as hardwood. Plus you can pull the thinner boards tight if they are bowed, wider boards don't bend and need to be almost perfectly straight.

Steve.
 
Man I wish I had this kind of offer about 6 months ago. We just finished adding about 1600 SF to our 90 year old bungalow. All antique heart pine.
Yeah, it's kinda soft but the honey red color just knocks you out.
We tried to match new stuff but it was like using a totally different species of wood, all light yellow like cheap Home Depot pine.
Finally ordered re-claimed 100 year old stuff out of Pennsylvania.
It matched perfectly.
Maybe I can get some pics tommorrow in the light of day.
 
the biggest gap between ringsis about 1/16". the most rings i can count in an inch is 58 then they just start blending together with about 9/16 left. i think that would make it pretty hard. does any body have any information related to the new york pier fire. he told em it dates back to the 1800's but i dunno. googled it but cant seem to find a date?
 
You got a good deal. If the boards are clear of knots and quarter-sawn, you got a great deal. I don't think you will have any trouble installing the floor tightly, but the wide boards will open larger cracks from summer to winter than narrower boards. Kim Steiner
 
Yes, the pine will be a little softer than oak or maple, but as far as I'm concerned old "heart pine" is about the classiest floor you can have. By the way, there is no need to stain a floor made out of this stuff. The honey-red color, as "exken" described it, is beautiful. ks
 
Hey midnight...Keep that stuff !! Thats old growth pine and that makes it much harder and durable than the new garbage they are selling today. If you have plans in the future for a floor,it will be awesome. You'll more than likely put some kind of a finish over it anyway,so why worry about how soft it may be?? Someday...there won't be any to be had !!
 
It may be Yellow Pine, which is about as hard (and that is pretty hard) as it comes when considering pine. Wonderful stuff for floors. I have some I took out of an attic in a house built around 1910. Relaid it in my wife's studio. no complaints. Summer to winter shrinkage is basically non-existant. Keep it. You'll never be able to afford replacing it.
 
It's easily worth twice what you're being offered.
Find a place to store it, and install it in your new house. That sort of material is hard to get now, and getting harder to find as time goes on.

Pete
 
One thing is for certain, "if" you want a good install, you better move all that flooring into the space it will be in and let it set there for several weeks mininum. It has to acclimate to that space, as that wood is going to pick up or loose moisture to what ever space it's in.

The longer it sets in there better...

Rob
 
The manufacturer's instructions I see say 2 - 3 *DAYS* to acclimate.

Biggest concern in a new house is making sure the moisture level in the plywood subfloor isn't too high. Never ceases to amaze me how little concern production builders seem to have for getting the roof on quickly to keep the interior dry.

Steve.
 
"The manufacturer's instructions I see say 2 - 3 *DAYS* to acclimate."
Maybe for Pergo, or some laminate flooring - I assume that is not for Solid Antique Wood... Like Rob said, the longer the better. Once the house is weather tight and has the Mechanicals running.

Sounds like from the description that it is quarter sawn. I wouldn't part with it unless I had to or had no use for it. I wouldn't sell it for $4.00/sqft though. Type Antique Pine Flooring in Google and get a quote from a couple of the companies that come up.

If you lack space to store it inside, ship it to me, I'll take care of it

One other question, since it came from a pier, how thick is it?
 
My kids paid about 5 bucks a BF for reclaimed T&G Yellow Pine.

Were sent a sample, barely sanded, didn't like it, they sent another sanded a little more. Liked that.

5 to 10 inches wide. Lots of tight knots, few knots missing. Wanted to fill 'em in, daughter says she likes it that way, let 'em go.

Some of the boards have wormy grooves on the show face, looks good, even to me.

Hated the look when we got finished nailing it down, face nailed with new cut nails, antiqued heads.

First coat of Tung oil and it looked absolutely beautiful. Another coat then 3 coats of Minwax semi-gloss poly. Holding up quite well and that with 2 toddlers dropping stuff and throwing stuff around.

Fortunately, my daughter isn't bothered by a little ding from dropping a can of beans or something. Says it adds character.

Several weeks acclimating won't stop shrink and grow. And, I don't think you are going to be much bothered if you DO get 1/8 inch gaps.

I sure like their floor more than the Masonite with Contact paper that is the big thing with the snap together flooring that seems to be all the rage, today.

Cheers,

George
 
Just snapped some pics.
This heart pine is about 90-100 years old, we just laid it about 3 months ago. 1 pass with 120 grit, 1 pass with 220 grit, hands and knees with a tack cloth, a good vacuum job and 3 coats Minwax hi-gloss. Pics don't do it justice. It looks 6 inches deep in person.
The dachshund puppy got stuck in the Minwax during the last coat. We feed her twice a day and keep a paper towel under her rear. (leave the TV on for her while at work). Kinda hard not to trip over her in the middle of the night, haha.
OOPS forgot the pic:
DSC02365.jpg
 
Maybe for Pergo, or some laminate flooring - I assume that is not for Solid Antique Wood... Like Rob said, the longer the better. Once the house is weather tight and has the Mechanicals running.
Nope, those are the instructions for solid, kiln dried strip flooring.

Don't know about your place but the humidity in my house goes from 55-60% in the summer to 35-40% in the winter with a humidifier running. I know that if you want to air dry lumber from green you need to allow about 1 year per inch of thickness. IOW, it's a slow process and the moisture content of the wood will never be stable.

So, if it's properly kiln dried production flooring, unless you are trying to get the moisture out that might have been picked up through improper storage in transport and you are going to properly set the wood out for drying, it really doesn't seem to me that it is going to make much difference.

One of these days I'll take a micrometer to some flooring, chart it and see what happens. The pine floors in my old house definitely changed with the seasons, haven't seen any evidence of it with my hardwood.

Steve.
 
P.S.
The white aberration to the right of the dog is not a scuff mark, poltergeist, or lingering fart.
It's a reflection from the window just outside the doorway.
 
Yes it is Heart Pine sorry i forgot to put that detail in before. Each board is 1" thick. He told me it was sawed on the quarter, not really sure what that is but he said it showed more grains. My friend has a 20 x 30 metal shop and i am gonig to ask if i could stack the floor above the bathroom in it. i really dont want to sell it. the guy is trying to get some authencity papers for me about the pier. he won the bid to demo it and says it has about 2 million board foot but asbestos is all over it. Should i try and get some of the beams from him also? i figured this stuff was pretty rare but didnt know it was that much. Also if i do store this stuff in my buddies shop should i shrink rap it or just cover it with a good tarp? i will post some pics soon.
Thanks Jason
 
better wood the old stuff

been slow to grow ...not managed forests etc ...
because of this it will have close grain ..be harder wearing .
done all its warping and cracking ...
so its superia to modern real wood ...good luck .

all the best.mark
 








 
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