Suitable oak for framing

[starman]

I want to frame the cabin and hull side panels of Nb Harry in chunky oak. I don't really want to use the rather bland American white oak but prefer the characterful European oak.

It occurs to me that I could do this by machining down European oak flooring to remove the t&g edges which would create a 110mm wide board from the stock 120mm floorboard. I can get 19mm or 14mm thick board, either of which seems potentially suitable.

Can anyone see any issues with this? Is flooring timber dried more or differently to joinery timber? The costs certainly seem favourable - flooring seems very price competitive whereas timber merchants machine from sawn inch thick boards which makes them v. expensive.

Edited May 13, 2011 by starman

[GSer]

I'm certainly no expert, but i've looked at the same solution for some of my fitout, i think in the end it comes down to what look you want.

 

For a slightly rustic lived in look, the floor boards will be fine, however you will get some nails and plenty of holes in some recycled flooring, this might suit the look you are trying to get, the quality A grade boards I looked at were priced higher than new 'fresh from the mill' oak when I was looking.

 

I ended up using a 'B' grade 'engineered' oak floor, some faults and flaws in the thick veneer but has a nice, soft, aged look straight from the pack. For the wall trims i'll machine some ash from stock that way my planer blades will stay in better shape for longer.

 

Good luck, Harry always looked a lovely boat

[starman]

 

For a slightly rustic lived in look, the floor boards will be fine, however you will get some nails and plenty of holes in some recycled flooring,

 

 

No, not planning to use recycled old oak but new 'character grade'oak t&g flooring and I'll then get the 't's and 'g's machined off for framing use.

[WotEver]

I'm no expert, but it's only wood, and if you like the look of the oak used in the floorboards then I can think of no reason why it shouldn't be perfectly suitable.

 

I gave a load of old oak parquet flooring to a mate many years ago before I had my own machine tools and he cleaned them up and fashioned them into all sorts of furtiture items.

 

Tony

[GSer]

No, not planning to use recycled old oak but new 'character grade'oak t&g flooring and I'll then get the 't's and 'g's machined off for framing use.

 

 

Most of the darker character grade stuff I've seen, already has a coating/stain/wax applied to it but if you are totally refinishing, then that should not be an issue. Other than that, I can't see a problem.

 

Paul

[FORTUNATA]

I used oak for my rubbing strakes. We did well to bend it as was it was thicker than the original mahoganey. It does tend to turn blackish after being wet and I was going to use wood stain but then noticed stain is water based (even outdoor stain).

Still, I'm happy with it.

 

I'm no expert, but it's only wood, and if you like the look of the oak used in the floorboards then I can think of no reason why it shouldn't be perfectly suitable.

 

I gave a load of old oak parquet flooring to a mate many years ago before I had my own machine tools and he cleaned them up and fashioned them into all sorts of furtiture items.

 

Tony

[Ryeland]

Just make sure that you know what lengths it it comes in. I used oak flooring to line my external doors. The packs were random lengths, which in reality meant mainly short, down to about 300mm. Only one board in each pack was the length of the box!