# Endgrain floor - Pine or hemlock



## jreist (May 6, 2011)

I am planning to use a endgrain floor in my log home, I will be cutting a 2.5 X 6 board into 1" thick pieces and gluing them to the floor with the endgrain up. The question is what wood. There is not much available in wood around here in the dimensions I want.

What I have found is 6X6 Hemlock, which I can have cut down to 2.5X6.. I estimatie that it would cost me $600 for the wood. I have been told that Hemlock can be difficult to saw and the endgrain is very rough.

Last winter a large white pine blew down and I am debating whether to making it into boards for the project or cutting it up for firewood. The wood would be free and I would be paying around $75 to have it cut up, but how long would it take before the wood be dry enough to use

Would I have problems using the Pine, the tree has been came down back in December and the log is sitting out in the open. Would I have problems using the Pine or would it have to be dried I am using 2.5X6 blocks 1" thick. If I cut them up into blocks would they dry quicker then stacking them as boards.

I was hoping on doing the floor this fall, would the pine be ready or should I go with hemlock


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

Here you go Cr1.









Around here, Tennessee, most folks would never consider pine for firewood. We use hickory, oak or ash mostly. I must admit, since I have gotten into woodworking, I cringe when I think about some of the wood I have burned in the past, feels like I have been burning money for some reason. But pine would not last long enough to be worth the effort building a fire.

I've seen some really nice old floors made from pine, but they were yellow heartwood; not easy to come by today.

I'm not clear what dimension you are wanting for the floor blocks. The 1" thick you mentioned; is that the floor thickness or the board thickness? Then 2.5×6, is that the board thickness and width? I'm envisioning a board 2-1/2" thick X 6" wide, cut into blocks that are 1" long and laid on a subfloor with the endgrain turned up. Is that what you are planning. I have never seen this done, but it sounds interesting. I would be worried about checking, or outright breaking, of 1" long blocks when they dry out.

All the endgrain floors I have ever seen in person were in factories and the floors were installed on sand and were 6" thick The blocks were 4" x 4" x 6" long. These were in areas where they got extremely heavy impact loads.

Maybe you could build you a home dehumidifier based kiln. There is a guy on another forum that sells plans for these and I think they work very well. Would probably dry your wood in a couple of weeks. I will go see if I can find the link if you are interested.


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## SASmith (Mar 22, 2010)

Here are some links on the subject. I would go 2" or more thick. Like crank49 said most endgrain floors are in industrial/factory settings. They use 4×4s or 6×6s 6"-12" thick. 
Are you going to glue them on the bottom only or the sides and bottom.

http://lumberjocks.com/thomasporter/blog/4730
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/13269
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/11756


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## jreist (May 6, 2011)

I was looking at what type of flooring to use and felt that hardwood flooring would not hold up, the floor would be marred and scratched by firewood being dropped. I looked at endgrain as being more durable and resistant to scratches. If a piece gets damaged you can chisel out the bad block and glue in another


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## Nomad62 (Apr 20, 2010)

I don't think you could dry the pine well enough to use that quickly unless you put it in a kiln. Sure would be a nice use for it tho. As moisture tends to travel thru the end grain you may get away with it if you cut it all down to blocks now and let them set wher they will dry; maybe even cut them a bit long so you can resaw them to the right length later.


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