Working with rough lumber

Stores typically sell dressed lumber. Here is a secret however there are times where it would be better to have wood that is 7/8" thick rather than the typical 5/8 to 3/4".

How on earth do you make the wood true? Often there is nearly an inch of crown to take out.

Merv showed me a trick the other week. I was recladding a staircase with oak so I bought enough rough cut lumber from him to do the job. I had always made a cradle and tacked the piece of wood to that and ran it through the tablesaw... which is tedius and takes 2 people.

He said take the factory edge off a piece of plywood and tack that to the board... then run that through the saw with the plywood against the fence. The pieces were only a few feet long, so it was easy to do with only 1 pair of hands.

What a great method... and just 2 little nail holes to fill later!

Thanks Merv--

BTW, Merv sells dried cabinet grade lumber from the store for reasonable rates. You may have to give him a couple of weeks notice though, he starts getting pretty busy this time of year.

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Transitions and Thresholds

When a floor is a different level the pros use a transition strip. These are made from the flooring or any block of the same species of wood. The general rule is that it should be a gently tapered flush fitting piece that eases you from level to level.

There should be no sharp angles or butt edges that can be caught by foot traffic. Our goal with a transition in wood flooring is to avoid causing people to trip. It should be subtle and finished with the same color as the floor.
The upper part of this floor is Beech, and the lower right hand side is pine. We used a custom tint to make them look similar.

When you cannot match the finish... you may wish to add contrast. Give it a darker stain on the transition if that will help make it look better.

You can use countersunk screws and tapered plugs glued in to cover the screws... or PL Premium adhesive and unobtrusive finish nails to hold it in place until the glue sets.

Tapering the cuts on the butt end of the threshold will help you get the joints tight. Typically you mount the threshold temporarily, then butt the end grain cuts up to the threshold.

Shown below are samples of threshold where it meets ceramic tile... those need to overlap the tile to protect from damage from foot traffic.


This type of threshold can be milled on a table saw and sanded smooth with a belt sander/palm sander. The harder the wood, the more aggressive the tools you will need to finish it.

Wide Plank Flooring - Cupped Boards

Cupped boards are common problems after installation often due to moisture damage or flooring that was not dried sufficiently to start with.

The 5" piece of Beech Flooring is what a cupped board looks like before planing. Much of the imported prefinished wide plank flooring has moisture issues. Better to rent a moisture meter and check the ends of the boards for moisture content before putting material down from another part of the world. If it is more than 8% consider returning it for a refund. We have seen prefinished flooring measure at or above 12%.

I was skeptical when Merv told me that I could put down 1x8 boards without surface nailing or screwing--however it is true. When flooring is dried properly it lasts beautifully.

Wood Flooring and Moisture

Did you ever wonder how wood absorbs moisture?

Plants draw moisture up the stem to the leaves. Wood from a tree is just a slice of the stem.

Wood cells can be as long as 2 1/2" and they look like tubes. When the wood is alive they are full of moisture

Oak has rather wide cells and that give it a distinct grain. Mahogany is a similar shape of cell.

Sealing the end grains can prevent any wood from expanding and contracting quite so much and so quickly.

Many exterior builders seal the lumber all 6 sides.

The more wood flooring is dried, the harder it gets. When wood flooring is dried using heat the sap cooks. This cooked sap will not absorb moisture the same as air dried or partially dried floors, and it will actually deter the infiltration of moisture some species like pine.

This is why Merv dries his flooring to 6% rather than 8% moisture content.

Quite often floors are destroyed by moisture damage-- It takes considerably more moisture to make 6% flooring swell than it does flooring dried less.

What makes good Hardwood Flooring?

Sanded in place flooring will always be more even and a more finished looking. Pre-finished flooring doesn’t get sanded in place and for that reason imperfections in the sub-floor will often show through. It also normally has v-grooves or ridges so that the joints are less prominent.
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The other issue with pre-finished hardwood flooring is that it is typically not available in wider than 5” strips and the moisture content is rarely less than 8%. Our flooring is dried to 6% or less. We have seen flooring from brazil between 10-12% which is wet enough to buckle, twist and shed much of the coating in the first year. Even flooring with 8% moisture will have durability issues and movement.
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Early flooring was comprised of alternating strips between 3-8” planks to make best use of the materials. It is a very different look and it simply cannot be matched in a pre-finished product.
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They would also hand plane the rough materials while they were in place. It was always a rough, hand hewn look, charming and personalized. That can be done, however the price will be astonishingly high. Rather than $15/sq.foot it may be closer to $35/sq. foot. Finishing with sanders is far more efficient and much more quickly done.
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When you buy pre-finished flooring you don’t have control over what finish is applied. Stains and Coatings vary greatly in both performance (durability), and how they age. When it comes to price stain can be purchased for between $20-200/gallon. Verathane can vary between about $30-150/gallon as well. Factory finishes can vary wildly in which product they choose to apply. It is often lacquor which is hard, but humidity can cause imperfect finishes.
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The major difference between pre-finished and finished in place flooring is that you can create custom colors to nearly any tint and shade. From pink to green… natural is rarely the choice anymore.
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Pre-finished flooring is often small chunks between 16” and 3’ long. Twisted material is simply cut shorter and milled at the ends as well.
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Our finished in place flooring is typically between 8-12’ in length and put down by craftsmen. Working with our flooring enables patterning and borders as well as countersunk plugs. Surface screwing and installing tapered plugs adds a historical look to a floor. Alternating the species of plugs will also add character and interest as well. We can also give an antique look by just sanding lightly leaving a slightly uneven appearance to the planks. Nothing you would trip on—just an authentic type of look. Sanding happens with a large polisher rather than a drum sander.
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Speak to one of our flooring installers if you are considering solid wood floors. If you are a builder or home renovator you may wish to visit the mill and talk to Merv about improving your offerings. Typically it means buying better and building better and more often than not—increasing your profit margin.

Dehumidification Kilns.

These are drying kilns. Sort of like a garden shed with a railroad to move the lifts of stickered lumber in and out.

These kilns use heat and a dehumidifier to remove moisture from the lumber. It takes a few days to take White Pine down to 6%, and can take up to 3 weeks for some hardwoods.


The wood is always dried before being turned into flooring. Drying makes the lumber much more stable and any cracking or twisting will ocurr during the drying phase. When the lumber has "Done its Thing", we then plane it so that it is flat and true it so that it is straight.


Stickering is basically re-stacking with small spacers to allow the air to flow through the lumber. It really has to be done by hand.

These fans circulate the kiln's air through the stickered wood. Plywood is placed to direct the air to fit each load of lumber individually. If you didn't have the circulation the kiln would not dry the lumber all to the same level.


This unit is the dehumidifier--it simply extracts the water from the circulated air. There are other aspects involved, but for simplicity, we are showing you the basics.

Planing Wide Plank Hardwood Flooring

We've come a long way from the days where planing wide plank flooring was done after it was in place.

This is a 10 HP Three Phase Planer. I am not sure how old it is exactly, but she has history.

This 3500 lb machine lived at the Collingwood Shipyards for the first 35 or so years of it's life, and Merv bought it at auction.

It originally had an 8 hp, 500 Volt motor. If he tried to run it with that motor every home within 2 miles would have their lights dim for a second when it started.

This is the kind of wood planer that will remove 1/4" of material a pass and do it smooth, quickly and without slowing down. This is no handyman machine... it was designed for constant duty.

Relief Cuts - What are they for?

Relief Cuts in Flooring

These small cuts out of the bottom of flooring actually have 2 purposes.

Firstly it breaks the tension that causes wood to cup. (Cupping is when the board becomes curved across the width of the flooring).

Secondly it cuts the surface area that contacts the sub-floor. If the boards were flat on the bottom they would likely have more creaks and pivot points. Small bits of sawdust, grit or sand may cause the flooring to pivot or not sit flat after if the relief cuts did not exist. Cutting the surface area down increases the pressure on the contact points--enabling more solid connection.

Why do we need to dry flooring?

Lumber for flooring needs to be dried to prevent the boards from expanding and contracting. If you have ever noticed a dead tree standing in the forest, the trunk shrinks as it dries out... and the bark is left loose.

Trees expand as they absorb moisture, and shrink as the moisture leaves. They do this primarily through the end grains. Every type of wood expands and contracts at a different rate.

If a tree is milled into lumber and air dried for a few years it may get down to about 13%. When first milled the moisture content can be as much as 55%. We take it down to 6% because we have found that to make the most stable floor. This is the same moisture content that we use for furniture.


In this photo the wood was put down wet, and it was full width ship-lap boards. No, we didn't make this floor, it is likely about 120 years old. I'd love to see if anyone can guess what type of wood it is made of. It is the only one I've ever seen.
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This floor was typical 5" tongue and groove pine flooring available at any lumber yard. It is often leftover of lifts from different mills, not straight and rarely ever less than 8% moisture content. We mixed the stain to create a pleasing color.
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This wide plank pine flooring was dried, milled and installed by us. I am sure you can see the difference in the size of the cracks. This is a 3 year old floor made of pine just like the last one.

You may find pine flooring "cheaper" however it may be air dryed. So once you lay the floor after some time it will shrink. So don't be careful when you find deals on cheap pine flooring.