Endgrain floor

Beautiful, I bet it looks better in real life. How thick are they ? That floor should last forever.

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

Each piece is 1” thick. It would take a lifetime of sanding to go through that floor.

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

Wow, this is incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. Didi you glue each one to the sub floor? What goes between each tile.

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/

and I was in awe by the WoodWhisperer’s end grain cutting board!! I thought that IT was a lot of work.. HA !
This is magnificent..

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I used a special mastic to adhere the pieces to the subfloor and laid it like tile. The gaps are filled with a sawdust/acrylic mixture that I made from the vast amounts of sawdust laying around after the cutting. Then, when you sand and finish the floor is smoother and sealed up.

One note, though. If I had it to do over again, I would put one coat of finish on prior to doing the gap filling, because it can seal up some of the endgrain and not allow it to be finished properly. It’s not very noticeable in the grand scheme, but if you’re a perfectionist, you’ll want to do it this way.

The largest room I’ve ever seen done is the Country Music Hall of Fame. You might be able to find pictures of their lobby in there. It’s gorgeous. There’s also a video floating around from This Old House about “cobblewood” flooring. It’s quick, but informative. I’ll try and find it and post a link.

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

What were the dimentions of the square ends of the beams, and did you try to true them up before cutting slices?

Very beautiful/

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

I’ve never seen any thing like it. Thanks

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

WOW. And being endgrain, I’l bet it sucks up everything. Good point about one coat of finish. I’m tellin y’all, the ideas that are coming out of Lumberjocks makes every other Wood Forum look like a bunch of first-graders. Every other site wants to talk about making tables, and router techniques, but I’ve never seen anything like the stuff that comes out of here.

This site is the Greatest Site I’ve ever seen. The people are all friendly, the work is 11 on a scale of 10… gets my vote for “Woodworking Website of the Year”. Way to Go, Martin

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Was this placed over cement of over a wooden subfloor?

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

To answer your questions:

the tiles’ finished size is 2.5”x3.5”. I purchased the redwood at a Home Depot and had them deliver it to my house. I had to mill them all down to the same width in the planer beforehand so that they were more exacting.

As far as a subfloor… contrary to popular belief you do not have to use a subfloor. Preferably you would want 3/4” marine plywood, but Bruce Hardwood Floors makes a mastic for adhering wood to concrete that is also a moisture barrier. That is what I had to do with this condo, because I didn’t want to rework the doors/doorjams, etc. to fit a 2+” floor.

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

Wow, that floor is fantastic…. it’s the largest cutting board I’ve ever seen :) they could host a Iron Chef style battle royale!

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

Wow! I’m almost afraid to ask: how long did it take you to do this?

-- Rookster, (http://www.robertkarl.org/woodworkingblog/)

All together from milling to final finish it took ~150-200 hours. It’s hard to say. I had some help doing the cuts (which took the longest), and I had help laying the tiles (took 3 days). The finish work was more than I expected. Because it’s endgrain, it soaked up the first coat of acrylic so fast that I used 4 times the recommended amount just to feed the thirsty wood.

A fun side note. GM, GE, quite a few old workshops, and even some cities in Florida have had endgrain floors and even streets for years (in some cases 100’s of years). The endgrain soaks up the finish so well that it becomes even harder and water resistent. I’m going to be putting it in my current workshop. It’s softer than the concrete floors, looks nice, and is very durable.

When I was first starting this floor I made a test patch out of pine, finished it with acrylic, and took a hammer to it. It was easy to repair and replace. You can replace just one tile, or a section, and because it’s just a natural color, it’s easily matchable.

Can you tell I like endgrain floors? :-)

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

One of my magazines’ had an article on endgrain floors so I ran a search for Endgrain Floors Check this out, it’s kind of interesting.
The town of Hibbing had to move, & relocate in the early 1920s because of Iron Ore beneath the town. The old town was paved with creasoted pine blocks. People used to burn them to heat there homes during the depression days. The move was completed in the early 1950s.

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

Thanks for sharing that link Dick. Wow the options and possibilities abound!

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

Since I seen this article, I’m going to make my own tiles for the top, on my fireplace mantel.

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

whew, what a lot of effort, and I am sure it is breathtaking to view in person. Great project, and an inspiration to all of us with sore knees, hips, backs, elbows, necks…....

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flinthill's Artisan

All I can say is WOW great work!

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

Sweet!

-- Jesus is Lord!

Love that.. looks like a ton of work though….

Drew

-- Drew, Pleasant Grove, Utah

An end grain floor! Just the magnitude of something like this boggles my mind. I’ve never seen one before and have to admit the idea would never have entered my mind. That is incredible.

-- I've cut that board three times and it's still too short!

The phrase “Magnificent Obsession” comes to mind. This looks like hard work paying dividends for years to come. Any chance of getting some closeups of the finished floor?

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

I’m glad that I finally have some time to go through all these old projects.

I have never seen anything like this before! Great.

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

I love end grain! I almost ran the planks front to back on my TV table, cause I like the way it shows what’s inside. Straight to the heart, man. My wife thinks I’M a perfectionist…high five, Thomas

-- Jason, AL

now that is a cool floor. I’ve never seen something like that before.

Just in case anybody wanted to see it, I found a video about this technique (may be the one that Thomas mentioned):

Installing a Cobblewood Floor

-b

Fan Tastic! That looks so nice.

-- Maplewood, MN

Thomas,

I am glad that this one came back up. I would have never, in my wildest dreams, have imagined doing something like this. This is absolutely gorgeous. I am sure it was a lot of work and effort but the end result was worth it.

thanks for the post.

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

Can you post more of these floor workings. That is fantastic. I would love to do one of them. Wow, thanks for posting.

-- so much wood, so little time. Bradford.

Outstanding. I love the idea of doing your shop floor this way! That’s the only room in the house where I don’t need approval from the boss to implement decorating ideas.

-- Check out my new blog "The Renaissance Woodworker" at www.rogersfinewoodworking.com/blog

I’m going to be doing a new endgrain floor this next month for a bedroom in my home. I’m thinking about doing a step by step photo/video project to show how I do it. Would there be enough interest you think guys?

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

That would be an interesting post. I enjoy doing flooring as I think it provides such a dramatic transformation to a room’s appearance. For me, at least, this would be an interesting project to see.

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

that is really amazing.
I can just imagine how nice it looks actually being there!
WOW!

-- ~ www.darrylmasterson.com ~ www.woodworkingdungeon.blogspot.com ~

Phenomenal.

-- Jarrod, Eagle Nest, NM

What is the “acrylic” that you mixed with the sawdust? Can we use wood glue? We are just now cutting our tiles. I understand that wood glue will not give the flexibility needed for the grouting…Can you please advise? Or does anyone know? Trifern? Scott?

-- sues

Can we apply the Maustic to the subfloor and lay the tile without adding the layer of plyboard or particle board? Or do we have to have have that second layer? If maustic acts like a vapor layer we should not have to worry about adding a layer of particle and or plyboard right? I guess I need to know if we have to have that plyboard layer because that will really effect the height of the floor…

-- sues