Wide Plank Flooring Question

I think you need T&G on the ends too if the planks are over 4-5 inches wide.

Sangria

in Flooring 12 years and 4 months ago

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brooklynny | 12 years and 4 months ago

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I purchased re-milled reclaimed wood flooring and the supplier and my contractor seem to have a difference of opinion as to whether it needs to be tongue and groove on all four sides.  The flooring came without tongue and grooves on the short sides of the planks, but my contractor says they are needed on all four sides to prevent the planks from curling up (and that it is industry standard for wide plank floors to be manufactured that way).  Can anyone weigh in on this?  The flooring is 7-inch planks re-milled from salvaged antique oak.  Thanks!

brucef | 12 years and 4 months ago

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Spent all today installing oak flooring (with walnut accent strips). I am siding with the “manufacturer” on this one. Reclaimed oak hopefully has done whatever twistin it wanted to during its previous life. And if it perversely retained a desire to “curl up” after all this time, T&G on the ends isn’t going to stop it. 99% of the time, poor results on flooring have to do with improper sub-floor or moisture up from under. Yeah, all new cut down a forest flooring has T&G all around. Kudos to you for recycling, and good luck with your new floor. If this contractor tries to make you sign a pre-nup, find another contractor who is more experienced.

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 4 months ago

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It’s not standard for it to come that way.  I installed wide plank old barnboard flooring and brucef is right.   Interestingly, my house got water in it last year and the floors were covered with mud.  Cleaned up and never warped at all but mine is a much older house and we had used antiuqe style nails and face nailed all of them for an older look.

brooklynny | 12 years and 4 months ago

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Thanks for the responses.  Initially I didn’t appreciate that the contractor’s concern was due more to the unevenness of the floor than the potential for warping due to humidity changes, etc.  He thinks the tongue and groove is needed to keep the floor locked down to follow the curvature of the subfloor in places where it dips (and I don’t necessarily want to even out the subfloor; I’m fine with it as one of the charms/quirks of living in an old house).

brucef | 12 years and 4 months ago

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As an aside, if your new flooring is wide and rigid, it won’t bend over an obstacle. Even if the hump is wide and the new flooring goes up one side and down the other, the crack between those boards will open, as the boards cannot physically mate with each other. Once again none of this is effected either way by spline and groove on ends of baords.