My Pallet Floor Project

I love wood flooring having previously install real hardwood maple and pine floors in my house. I have since done two floating floors, both replacing linoleum in my kitchen and laundry room. To put it bluntly, engineered hardwood floating floors are an eyesore. I hope to use some pallet wood to make some hardwood floors. Depending on the amount I can make, I will either replace the floating floors or the last two rooms where I have carpeting. This will be a (at least) half year project. I will post my progress here.

Wood Source

After a lot of tested various free pallets around town, I found a patch of plumbing strapping. The strapping was mixed in with a lot of oak pallets. I was free to take whatever I wanted. When I asked about the reddish coloured strapping they said "You don't want that". They didn't realize what they had. It had a beautiful grain, very straight and with clean edges and faces. They had it in abundance so I was happy. 

mystery wood

After planing a couple of test pieces I believe that it is Douglas fir. At first I thought it was a red wood. Douglas fir is common and popular in the pacific north west, not so much here. I have read that it can make a nice floor, not a hardwood but not really a softwood. A lengths are good either 4ft or 18 inch pieces and fairly flat on two faces.

Taking them apart

The beauty about the strapping is that that taking them apart is easy. Just whack them with a mallet, The nails remain in the larger pieces. Using a crowbar the nails then can come out easy with little or no damage to the wood.

acclimatize

First stop garage. I purchased a digital moisture meter ($30) from Lee Valley. It seems to work well. The wood varies from 8-16% moisture at pickup. Most pieces seem to already vary 6-12% in the garage. I may move inside after resawing.

Resawing

The pieces are 1 1/2 inches thickness. I am hoping I can resaw them to 5/8" and double my amount of flooring. It'll depending on how much I lose in the resawing and planing test I will run once I get my table saw into the garage.

Planing

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Ripping

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Tongue and Groove

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Gluing and nailing

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