I have received lots of questions about our floor so I thought it might be helpful to post a tutorial here. I am certainly not an expert in this kind of thing, I had to ask my husband to outline every single step for you! I am so proud of my husband for doing this, would you believe he had never done any home renovations before this kitchen? He has a very busy job and it would have been easily justified for him to ask me to choose a more standard type of flooring. Instead he spent his vacation sawing and gluing down these boards.
We did look into having the boards installed by someone else, but it was just too expensive for us. So here are the steps we used:
We did look into having the boards installed by someone else, but it was just too expensive for us. So here are the steps we used:
Steps:
1) Measure your room
2) Find a source for your barnboard - We used 100 year old barnboard from a salvage shop, but I have since seen ads for barnboard on Craigslist and Kijiji
3) Inspect wood - Ideally the wood will have minimal cracks - some cracks are okay but they will increase the amount of waste if they cannot be easily glued. We used different lengths and widths of boards which I think adds to the interest. Look for pieces with interesting features like big knots.
4) You will need a good table saw that can rip boards and a sliding mitre saw would be helpful for corners and to cut the boards at a perfect right angle. Don't forget the proper safety equipment like goggles and a mask.
5) DRY the wood very well. I cannot emphasize this enough. I know it is hard to be patient but it needs to sit in the room it will be used in for at least a few days, the longer the better, especially if it has been recently outside. If you do not dry the wood properly you can experience shifting and gaps between the floorboards.
6) Almost any type of subfloor that can be screwed into could work, ours was an old tile floor.
7) Plane all boards to approximately same height. We were lucky to find boards that were already planed, but perhaps this could be done at a lumber store? I'm not sure.
8) Lay all boards on floor to envision the final placement. Take into consideration colour and knots. We placed the least attractive pieces under our cabinets and appliances and left the most beautiful ones for the centre of the kitchen.
9) Number the placement of the boards with a pencil. Measure and cut boards to required length. This requires some trial and error. My husband would make an initial cut erring on the side of being too long, and then bring it into the kitchen and make the final adjustments.
10) Glue boards down with heavy glue such as PL 300.
11) Immediately after gluing a board screw the board down. Use a drill bit to sink screws and place two at approximately every 3 feet to prevent lifting.
12) Use wood plugs to hide the screws. We did not have the tools to make this so we got a local wood shop to make them all for about $30. You will need to know the size of your countersink.
13) Put glue on plug and tap in with a rubber hammer.
14) Use a floor sander (we rented ours from Home Depot) with different sand paper qualities. Start with a rough paper and then finish with a smooth one. Do not oversand! This could ruin the character of the old boards.
15) Wear a mask and clean the floor very well with paint thinner.
16) We used four coats of Waterlox Medium Sheen Tung Oil to finish. It has been extremely durable and we can always apply another coat if needed.
I hope this is helpful to somebody, and please email me or comment if you have any questions.
Thank you all so much for your comments and support, I have only been blogging a few weeks but have felt so welcomed by your encouragement! It was so nice of Maria at Dreamy Whites to include me in her post today, it made my day!
Have a wonderful Monday!
I'm linking this to Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Night Special!