I’m getting ready to finish a small cottage in back of my house. I’d like to do woodflooring and had the crazy idea to use cedar planks for the floor. Essentially, my idea is to take fence pickets, cut the dog eared part off, sand the surfaces smooth and then lay them down to make the floor. I’ll probably use nails to hold everything in place.
I plan to cut the planks to different lengths so each row will be different. The cottage is 22’x12’, so there isnt a lot of floor to cover.
Other than the time involved in making the planks, are there any downsides to this? Will the planks warp or do strange things?
Would there be any issues pouring polyurethane over the top once everything has been placed and nailed down?
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My only concern is load bearing. If there is already a floor and the planks are just covering a floor already down, such as a plywood floor, then I think you’re ok. Cedar is not known for its ability to carry a load.
It is also notorious for splitting when anything drops, strikes or otherwise stresses it. My fence for instance was bumped into by my landscaper and it caused the gate to split several planks.
Polyurethane would work fine IMHO but a better more durable finish might be varnish or something with a little more strength.
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Don’t put too much thought into cutting the planks to different lengths. Just cut one plank randomly and start with that. Then lay full planks down after it, cutting the last plank as necessary to fit. Then take that remaining cutoff and go back to the start and begin the next row with it, continuing full planks as on the first row. Rinse and repeat. You’ll have a nice random-ish pattern without trying to figure anything out.
What you do want to avoid is having two adjacent planks whose ends line up closely. If that happens, cut a piece short to avoid it and carry on as before with full planks.
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^This, helped do a floor with cedar last century. The key was sealing it. I wish I could remember what we used. It was harder than poly. Took a while to finish properly. Looks fantastic when done.
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Oil based poly is pretty darn durable.
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I’ve been binging on HGTV Go lately. Nobody has done stuff with cedar, but several have used plain old yellow pine 1x4s with good results. An episode of HomeTown that I watched last night, the question about the crack spaces came up, and the flooring guy said that when he sanded the floor down, he’d save sawdust, and that would be used like grout for tile. (I wasn’t clear on whether the sawdust was mixed with something before being squished into the cracks, but the poly on top would def hold in place at the end of it all.
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I’ve done some thinking and investigation on this for a planned near-future home project. Cedar is going to be fairly expensive if you get anything decent you can trust (i.e. not from Lowes Depot), especially anything that has had time to sufficiently dry out to minimize potential warp/movement. Unless you have a source where you can get the pickets really cheap?.
I have pretty much decided on using the oft-written-up DIY plywood approach, which probably isn’t different from your approach except using strips of plywood. Using well-made plywood has a lot of benefits of which you are probably already aware. As Judy indicated, this is a very common, even trendy, approach and a search on something like “DIY plywood floors” will yield lots of hits.
I’d have no concerns using a good quality oil-based polyurethane; oil-based product has the benefit of bringing out the grain as well. But almost any durable clear coat – poly, lacquer, varnish, even oil-n-wax – will do the job…select for durability and look you want. Especially if you consider that a little maintenance (light sand + re-coat) every 5 or so years will make it look like new, it becomes not a huge deal with the square footage you are talking about.
If you want to practice on the room in my house I am thinking about, let me know.
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Two things you also going to want to do
- cut matching rabbits on either side of the pickets with a router. That way they fit together better. And they overlap which will help keep the drafts down
- You’re also going to want to put a fairly thick sealant coat over it. Cedar is not really known for taking damage well.
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Tongue and groove edges will resist warping/twisting as well. If you’re going to route the edges anyway, using tongue and groove is not much more work.
Thank you for all of this.
When the cottage is done it will be my office. Since I work from home, I want it to be very nice.
Yesterday, I rented a trencher and cut a trench to the cottage so my electrician can run electrical service to it. He’ll be out next week. After that I’m going to install the rest of the electrical outlets, switches, lighting and other stuff. Then the insulation and wall board will go in. Finally, I do the flooring.
The floor in the cottage right now is particle board and is ready for whatever I want to put in. Becuase I author classes for Pluralsight and will need a good studio to record in, there is an argument to use carpet. But 5 German Shepherds say no. I need a floor that is easy to clean. And I already know how to make a studio in a room with hard floors.
The comments about the durability of cedar has me reconsidering the idea. I think it would look cool, but big high energy dogs will probably tear it up in short order creating more work than I want. I like the plywood idea, I’m going to look at that and some other options.
I’ll post pictures later.
again, thanks for all the feedback.
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Online, there has been a bit of back-n-forth on this, both from a wood expansion/movement concern, i.e. if boards are fit/joined tightly, and then wood expands, more than a few folks have reported buckling; and from an aesthetics PoV…apparantly a little gap (dime’s width? whatever…) between boards is a preferred, old-school look for some. A few seem to have split the difference by using a loose tongue-in-groove approach and chamfering/sanding the wood strips a bit.
The good news with this is that you can apply a bit of adhesive and use a pin nailer (sort of a belt-and-suspenders approach). Individual strips will still come/pry up in the future failry easily this wasy, if ever needed. Also, price-savings-wise, you can use down to a 1/4 thick plywood. In fact, this exact approach is what I think I am going to do, i.e.:
– light sand, maybe stain (?), then 1 or 2 coats of quality oil-based polyurethane on some 4’ x 8’, 1/4" plywood (while it is easy to do in bulk). Maybe do a utility cut or two to get 4’ x 8’ sheets into more manageable sizes. I am considering going with 5’ x 5’ baltic birch for this reason, but I can’t transport as easily in my SUV this way. But I like the idea of 5’ strips as opposed to 8’ strips to deal with.
– cut into…~6" wide?..strips and chamfer/sand edges
– construction adhesive OSB sheets to my bare, cleaned slab
– place/fit strips on floor and affix with modest amount (single bead down the middle) of construction adhesive and pin nail to OSB underlayment; space with some small (1" x 1"?) tabs cut from soda 12-pack cartons (I have a lot!)
– final light sand and coat(s) of polyurethane.
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You can use cedar. You just need to put a very durable and thick top coat on top of that. Alternatively, vinyl laminate flooring is relatively cheap, and very durable. It’s usually about a $1.75 ft²
Also, if you ever need help with anything, just shoot me a PM and I can help you with basically everything you’ve listened you need to do.
I put tongue and groove oak in most of our house then sanded and finshed it. Very durable and easy to clean since it was sanded after installation so virtually no joints to collect dirt.
Oak is an excellent flooring choice. Durable, reasonably inexpensive and beautiful when finished. It would be my first choice for a wood floor.
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Search talk and youtube for DIY sound panels. Old towels in a frame do extremely well, and couple that with a nice condenser mic, you will be fine.
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I put in a t&g floating hardwood floor in my dining room about 13 years ago. I left a gap (3/8” maybe? It’s been a while) around the perimeter of the room (covered by the shoe molding and quarter round) to allow for expansion.
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Cedar is a relatively soft wood. I’m not sure it will hold up very well as a floor material.
I attempted to find a chart to show the relative hardness of the wood compared to other woods. I couldn’t find it listed on any of the charts. I’m pretty sure it’s softer than Douglas Fir, that sits near the bottom line.
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Janka scale hardness ratings for North American Softwoods
Cedar white 320 lbf
Fir, douglas 710 lbf
Yellow pine 870 lbf
Red aromatic cedar 900 lbf
Red cedar western 350 lbf
The Janka Side Hardness test measures the force required to press an 11.28mm (0.444 inch) steel ball to half its diameter cross-grain into a block of wood.