Endgrain Floor - Made from scratch #3: Getting things going...

Thomas,

This is very interesting series and a unique floor. I would assume that you are cutting these to 3/4” but in the pictures the tiles just appear to be thicker.

Very nice.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I like it, and your monster saw.

• Why didn’t you remove the baseboard?
• Why did you need a new subfloor, wasn’t there one already?

Thanks man!

Looks fantastic. What do you use to fill the ‘grout’ lines? I’m sure you have enough sawdust from all that cutting to fill the voids. What finish do you apply to the floor?

-- Smile. Life can be FUN!

Interesting series. Keep it up. Also, Second to the questions above.

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

WOW great job!
Please post follow ups “grout” ect.

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

Great looking floor. I’m interested in how you plan on filing in the gaps. I assume it’s not a tile filler product because that would fill up the pores of the wood also.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Fantastic looking floor. I’m with the others, what do you plan on using as a grout?

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Here’s some answers to the questions:

1) The tiles are 1” thick. I was going to do .75 but thought, “what the hey. It adds a little more strength to the floor and doesn’t really cost much more. I’m redoing the doorways anyways.

2) I didn’t remove the baseboard because it isn’t really baseboard. My home was built in the 40’s and is textured in real plaster. That’s actually a plaster baseboard look. It’s solid as a rock, and I would have to chisel it away. It’s only about a 1/4 inch from the wall, so I’m just going to rabbit my baseboards to fit over it.

3) The grout will be made from a mixture of sawdust, acrylic and a resin. I’ll show how I do it later on. I need to finish the floor first so that there won’t be anything clogging the pores when I try to finish it. If I were to grout it in now, the acrylic would fill up the endgrain and I’d have unsightly spots.

-- Thomas Porter, Phoenix, AZ, www.thomasporter.com

This is fascinating. I can not image how it will come out, but judging by what you have done before, I bet it will be fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

-- Stevethepeeve -- I'm no rocket surgeon

What a cool idea. I’d never heard of end grain flooring before what a distinctive look. A good series of photos to document the process for us, thanks.

-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark

I think it is a very intersting idea and will look great. My questions are:

Why didn’t you square up the edges of the 2×4’s prior to starting? Were you trying to leave a little gap at all the corners for the appearance?

How did you maintain the “grout” line spacing?

-- Kevin, Wichita, Kansas

well first off… if I had tried to use 2×4’s and then planed them smaller and squarer it would have taken me years. I used 4×8’s (actual dimensions near 3.5”x7.5”). This made for a lot less cuts and an easier time laying them. I left them as they were because I knew I would be adding about an 1/8” to 1/4 of grout depending on how the spacing went. It gives it a more rustic look to leave it alone rather than square it up. The first time I did the floor I squared all of the beams and if you don’t want a lot of grout than that’s probably a good idea. But with the tolerances I had I didn’t have to and wanted to achieve that more rough look.

The 4×8’s in their finished dimensions make them look about the size of a red brick. I laid them in a running bond like brick. That’s the look I wanted. There are many other styles of endgrain floors. Google it and you’ll see some great examples.

To answer your question about the spacing and lining them up. I had marked the floor out both horizontally and vertically with a pen about every three bricks. This gave me a good enough line to follow and I was able to keep the lines as straight as I wanted. I eyeballed the gaps as they are all slightly different.

-- Thomas Porter, Phoenix, AZ, www.thomasporter.com

I really like it!

I’d like to do this myself some time.

In old North Hibbing, the town that moved, because of the iron ore beneath it,

the streets in the whole town where paved with Pine creosoted paving blocks.

They were 4 X 8 X 4” thick.

During the depression days, some people started stealing them to heat their homes

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa where my wife grew up there were a few old houses with creosote soaked endgrain driveways. They are sunken in along the tire tracks pretty heavily. They look like they’ve been there for a hundred years. Most people don’t know what it is. It would be fun to do one of those today, but I don’t know if I’d do it in as wet an area as Iowa. Here in Phoenix our biggest problem would be the extreme sun, but the creosote seems to handle that well… regular wood, not so much. I just don’t know how toxic creosote can be in large amounts like that, or like you mentioned, being burned in a stove. Ick. Glad I’m not living through depression.

-- Thomas Porter, Phoenix, AZ, www.thomasporter.com