Use of softwood flooring

[david.hollman]

Investigating options to redo the flooring in some of the house, I came across what seem to be traditional style tongue and groove floorboards - but made of spruce which I believe is a rather soft wood for a flooring application.

See

on the package for these boards it specifically says not to use this as a finished floor surface, but more for replacing existing floorboards.

My question is - is there not a reasonable way to finish this sort of wood so that it could be used as the finished flooring? It could certainly look very nice and I don't mind trading effort to save some money if that's what it would take. But is this a false economy somehow?

Any ideas if this is a realistic prospect?

Thanks, David

[Andy Hall]

Wickes is not really a good source of timber. With the number of banana shaped pieces they have, they would be better off being in the greengrocery business.

One thing not to do with finish is to use anything that attempts to make the wood what it is not. For example, oak stains and varnishes on these kinds of softwood look dreadful because of the different rate of absorbency.

Even the antique pine stains don't work that well and many stains and varnishes just result in an unnatural orangey mess.

The most reasonable solution I've seen if you want to leave the boards exposed is to use a satin or matt water based clear varnish - one of the hard ones. Initially, this won't alter the colour very much at all, but the wood will tend to gradually darken a little.

Waxing is another approach. I've used that on shelves etc. but not a softwood floor. It works well on a hardwood floor.

To be honest, it isn't ideal at all.

[HLAH]

Surely even if finished with a hard coating because it is so soft won't it dent and scratch with foot traffic and look poor very quickly?

Just my tuppence worth.

[The Natural Philosopher]

[avocado]

Wickes do Bordeaux Pine floor boards which i've used successfully in bedrooms and a bathroom.

[tom.harrigan]

I would definitely not use those or similar boards for a finished floor. They are extremely soft and easy to dent. They are nothing like floorboards of old!

T

[Stuart Noble]

Jewsons used to do some rather nice 6" x 1" whitewood flooring ("spruce" aka Norwegian Xmas tree). Compared to the usual redwood, it's cheaper, more bland in appearance (probably an advantage over a large area), more stable, and takes a stain better. The disadvantages are that the planed finish is not as smooth (it tends to tear as it's machined), the knots are few but may fall out as it dries, and it's a much soft timber. You may overcome the latter with a hard coating such as Rustins 2 part floor varnish. It certainly looks better than redwood IMO, but only you know how much traffic the floor will take. I would advise finishing the boards before you lay the floor and, if using the above varnish, doing it outdoors.

[Dave]

You you explain the reason for pre-finishing (other than being able to do it outside)? I would have thought it would be more efficient to to it all at once after laying it down.

Thanks

[Stuart Noble]

I would certainly advise colouring the boards prior to laying, especially t&g. Boards shrink, white edges etc

[Chris George]

Dear David If Wikes, the supplier, are unprepared to recommend their products for a purpose you can be pretty sure it is not fit for that purpose! Whitewood is a pretty unsatisfactory building timber. Cheapskates tried to use it for windows in the mid sixties and most of them had to be replaced 10 to 20 years later. It has next to no permeability to take up preservatives (unlike redwood - Scots pine). I have seen whitewood floor boards but would personally use it for all the reasons given by others and the fact that it cannot easily be treated, is classified as perishable (but as it contains much sapwood that is not relevant) and becuase I simply don't like the look. BS 8201 1987 (or its CEN equivalent as I have yet to catch up) provides data on suitabity of timbers for flooring wrt species. Sheet 46 of the TRADA flooring leaflet does "allow" European whitewood (Spruce) as a possible flooring timber as does the general sheets on timber uses! Chris