White Oak and White Cedar Shingles

Now Milling White Oak Shingles and White Cedar Shingles in the Toronto Area

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Many people don't realize that shingles were made from numerous species of wood over the centuries with varying results.
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White oak, black locust, honey locust, redwood, cedar, rock elm, yellow poplar and osage orange for examples.
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Here in Ontario we traditionally had plenty of White Oak so many historical buildings originally had them.
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This is an old school mill with Merv posing beside it. Merv has actually devised a way to do the shingles on his band saw mill. Many have tried... few have had success but he has made it work.
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Where Red Cedar may last 20-40 years depending on the grade and who installed them, White Oak shingles may well last twice as long.
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White Oak Shingles are difficult to source. They are available now from Colling-Wood Flooring mill starting at $410.00 USD per square. (FOB Collingwood Ontario).
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Merv also has a supply of White Cedar to make shingles from. These start at $200.00 per square and again, it depends on the grade. We can custom mill longer, thicker or to just about any specification. Turnaround time is 6 weeks for most orders, so please book ahead.
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Most people don't realize that White Oak Shakes or Shingles have a life expectancy of 125 years and obviously they are a renewable and Green Alternative to Asphalt and most other types of roofing.
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The other issue is fire protection in places like California. These shingles can be chemically treated to resist fire as well.
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Call Merv Directly at (705) 445-1147 for more information about shingles.

Best way to heat a Woodwork Shop

Here's the best way to heat a woodworking shop.

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This little shed houses a fireplace with something resembling a truck radiator. Water is circulated through the flooring mill-woodworking shop and the house offering nearly free heat for both.

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The fuel for this unit? Off Cuts, Mill Ends, SCRAP wood from the woodshop.

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No disposal cost, no delivery surcharge.

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This is the most efficient way to heat any woodworking shop.

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Inside the shop and showroom are 2 small radiators with fans that are controlled by a thermostat.

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Running a profitable woodworking business is about efficiency and practicality. The lower your overhead the higher your profit and the greater your ability to keep pricing competetive.
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This is the other shop unit. It is designed so that it doesn't load up with sawdust.

Is Engineered Wood Flooring Durable?

Engineered Wood Flooring is made from numerous layers of plywood and solid wood laid up perpendicular to one another with resin and has a thin layer of hardwood on top. Normally it then has the same polyurethane with aluminum oxide on top to seal it as click flooring. It is more durable than click flooring, however by the price you would think it would be real hardwood flooring.

Engineered flooring normally contains real hardwood so it will look very much like the real thing HOWEVER--If engineered flooring gets damaged you will not likely be successful in repairing it. You may be able to sand lightly and touch up with polyurethane however it just isn't worthwhile. If you tried to refinish it like real hardwood floor you will likely burn through the typical 1/8" veneer when you run a power sander over any high spots. These floors are not likely to look good for more than a few years, then it is replacement time.

Based on price, you are likely better off to install pre-finished strip hardwood which retails about the same price. It takes a little longer to install, however you have the ability to re-finish a couple of times over the life of the floor.

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Now, if you want real hardwood flooring, you can have our wide plank Oak, Maple, Ash or Beech for the same price. It takes a little more time to install, and you may want to hire a pro for the finishing, $3.00-4.00 per foot, however you should get 50 years of service from your initial investment and you can custom tint the colour to any shade or colour. If you plan to keep the home for more than 5 years, and you care about value, install real wood flooring.

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Our flooring is full length and wider boards than the standard boxed store flooring. It is a far superior looking floor and obviously has a greater intrinsic value for many years to come.

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So in summary, use click or laminant for locations where people are not going to take care of it. Rentals, investment properties.

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Use real wood for locations where you get to enjoy the durability and the better looks.

Is Click Flooring Hardwood?

Click Flooring ? Hardwood?

Here's a hint.

You cannot buy hardwood flooring for $1 a square foot.


You can likely buy 1/4" mahogany plywood... come to think of it, that is pretty similar to click flooring... but you don't have a million little gaps between the pieces. At least it comes in full sheets.

Click flooring is an architectural product that is designed for maximum coverage with minimum materials. There is typically no actual hardwood within it. Simply resins, hardboard, a photograph layer and a verathane type of product on top with aluminum oxide to seal it.

Don't use click flooring in damp conditions or high traffic areas--it will not last. Click Flooring is at best, a temporary fix for a cheap reno, rental appartment or until you can afford proper flooring.

You cannot re-finish click flooring.

Unless you like the look of raw MDF you simply tear it out... and put it in the bin.

Pine Flooring Mill Operating in Collingwood

Here's something not many folks get to see--Wood flooring being milled. Merv starts with a round log, slices it once, flips it, slices it again, and once more until it is square. There are different settings for hardwood and soft wood when it comes to width. Slicing rough boards has to be done at different widths since it takes a wider p lank to get a flat piece of hardwood than it does pine. Merv says that is due to hardwood tending to cup more during the drying process in some cuts of wood... they just cut them all a little larger. Today, Merv is cutting pine flooring.

Obviously making pine flooring on a log mill is not a DIY activity. My uncle tells a story about a guy in Huntsville l osing an arm at a sawmill...right at the shoulder. He adds horrible comments about the blood and the tourniquet and the pick-up truck ride to the hospital.

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This may look like a simple machine, and a simple thing to do however, to get a product out of something like this that is actually good enough to use takes some working out. Merv has rebuilt and reworked this machine to do what he needs it to do. And lets not forget about that under-rated thing called Experience.
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When it comes to the trades--Experience is paramount.

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We are going to look at the next step in making flooring soon--The drying Kiln.

About our Pine Flooring

Wide Plank Pine Flooring

Wide Plank Pine flooring is a rustic, character rich floor. Over the years it gets scratched, wounded and antiqued. If you plan to have coctail parties with ladies in high heels this is not the floor for you. This floor is very soft and things like high heels will mark the floor badly. Log homes often had full width tongue and groove boards. Over years paths will get worn into the floor and the knots will become raised. This is charm in my opinion.

Our Pine flooring is all mill run,which means there will be knots as well as some clear boards. We produce widths from 4"-16" wide so that more of the tree is used. The waste heats our shop using a wood fired hot water boiler.

We dry All our wood down to 6% moisture content in the dry kilns. Most other manufacturers only dry down to 8%. That extra 2% means far less shrinkage than 8%.

Heating the pine causes the sap to become solid which prevents shrinking and bleeding of knots. Once the floor is laid and finished there should be very little movement unless water is introduced through a leaky roof, a broken window, or a plumbing problem.

Our wide plank flooring is planed on both sides ,with relief cuts on the back to prevent cupping. It is tongue and grooved with a square edge so that when it is laid properly the joints should be very tight.

Our flooring is also a full 13/16"thick.

The lengths of our floors will be from 8'-16' long--rather than hundreds of 2' pieces like some of the boxed flooring you find.

Current Pricing for Wide Plank Pine Flooring

4"-12" random widths $2.85 square foot

14"-16" $3.65 square foot.

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.