After arguing,and loosing,with my sweet wife about our need for an additional 240 pieces of 16 foot long lumber laying in our garage, an interesting thing happened. But first, the background. A local school had pulled down the bleachers in their gymnasium and replaced all the old bleachers with newer, lightweight plastic seats for the audience. The south side was demolished one year and another party submitted a bid and won the sealed bid process. The second year, the north side of the cavernous gymnasium was getting a stage installed and the bleachers were again coming out.
The crew pulled it all apart, taking the steel to the local scrap yard but no bids were submitted! This meant the material was scrap and if we could get it off the premises by "tomorrow night," we could have it. Well, we scrambled to find a heavy duty tandem axel car trailer 18 feet long and made the 15 mile pickup trips in two loads. Some estimates put the weight of all that lumber upwards of 6000 pounds.
We found a local lumber company that would mill a tongue and groove into every board, sand them smooth and finish to 3/4 inch to turn them into floor boards. We estimated their moisture to be under 5%. The yellow pine was gorgeous to begin but when processed it exaggerated the natural patina so each board shows detailed grain and highlights. Again, we borrowed the trailer to deliver the wood then to pick it up after a few weeks of processing time.
A former student, now professional flooring installer, loaned us a pneumatic nailer or two and we cut nearly a hundred 16 foot long boards, often trimming both ends with a mitre or coping to match existing profiles. Each piece took multiple trips from the house, where we stored it to maintain the moisture content, outside to the garage/shop and back inside before near perfection was obtained on every piece. A few experienced professionals recommend we use glue and we followed that advice consistently. The subfloor was secured wherever voids formed areas for potential movement. We wanted it to "walk" quietly everywhere.
When the wood was finally ready for the install, furniture was relocated, carpets,pad and tack strips pulled and the first of many sweepings administered. We laid out the floor looking to minimize the long narrow strips along walls, ripped the first piece and began! For the next six weeks, we spent evenings and weekends, installing a single board at a time. Seems were intentionally aligned to allow the spacing for the pre-existing installation holes to appear randomly and athletically pleasing. Butt joints were inversely mitered and every piece painstakingly installed. Halls, thresholds and door jambs were all prepared. Oak and poplar dowel rods were cut to plug the holes in contracting colors lending a nod to a peg and plank installation. An orbital sander was rented and increasingly smooth paper was applied to prepare for the tung oil.
Tung oil comes from a seed of the tung tree, pressed and extracted and shipped in gallon containers to the house. Initially, equal amounts of thinner cut the oil. Subsequent coats of saw a reduction of the tung oil proportion and increase of the thinner. This allowed maximum penetration for the oil. After up to nine coatings, the curing process began taking months and not the alleged weeks as others have experienced. We feel with the original moisture content so low, it allowed a substantially greater penetration of oil which required additional drying time.
We walked on in with inside shoes only for at least one month. Gradually, we began to bring furniture in for placement. It was mandatory every leg or contacting point with the floor be protected with a felt buffer pad securely attached.
Pictures were taken along the way for documentation and historical recollections. A multimedia presentation was also created and posted on a private YouTube site using some photos to log the progress.
This complete transformation of the house, wood and floors also demonstrated the persistence and deliberate attributes necessary to visualize a difference or change, execute according to the necessary quality and workmanship, and complete the process without being distracted along the way!
Who won the argument? I know we got a gorgeous new floor, now that the process is over.
Thanks Jayne, for winning, everything.
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