Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion Generic How To ..... wood floors

OK so I have been driving myself crazy trying to decide what kind of wood flooring to put in my van. So far I screwed down a 1/2" plywood subfloor. For the top I don't know whether to get prefinished solid hardwood (very thick, heavy and more prone to expansion), engineered hardwood (made of different plys, much thinner, supposed to combat expansion due to the plys, need to nail or glue down), solid wood sheet (oak or maple, need to finish it myself). I already have been talkin with Bobert about this but was wondering if anyone else had any experience with it. Thanks

Brett

Guy has.... Dreamweaver... maybe give him a shout too!

I have used the oak plywood for airplane flooring, its tough stuff. In my 77, I used bead board- grooved clear yellow pine plywood 5/16s over 1/2 unfinished plywood. I stained it and put down lots of polyurethane. I like the result, but, things tend to slide around a bit more (ok ALOT more), and the grooves are kind of a pain to clean after Ive hauled something dirty. In my other 77, I used soild 7/8s barn boards. These are yellow poplar (not to be confused with northern poplar- which isnt even close to a similar thing), and 10 to 14 inches wide. I like! I wood imagine that you could get away with using quite thin oak- either in ply form or solid. With the plywood backing it up, it will not be prone to breaking, even 1/4 ply would be fine. How about checking into 1/2 inch tongue and groove, that would be tough as hell and look great, plus "take" some expansion and contraction-although oak is pretty stable. Once you get it down, hit it with a rented floor sander to get it flat flat, stain whatever color, and put down high gloss. This floor was in shambles a few years ago. Sanded down with 36 then 80 grit. The put down mohagany stain, cut 60 percent mineral spirits, the rest stain. Then, four coats minwax high gloss polyurethane. The wood type is yellow pine, tongue and groove. [ January 27, 2006, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: Vantravlrs ]

Yeah the prefinished stuff I was talking about (solid hardwood and the engineered plys) are 5" wide tongue and groove planks. I figured these would be fairly easy to install and they have a 25 yr finish warranty so they are probably pretty tough. I saw those barn boards you used those look sweet! I'm wanting to go with a real light almost white wood so probably American maple. These prefinished boards are expensive though about $150 for 25 sq. ft. What is the best way to attach the finished wood to the subfloor, glue? recessed nails?

my mid ford came with hard wood the kid that had it glued all the wood in place looks pretty god still

Generally, nails which are similar to concrete naiols are used to attach T and G- they go toe neailed ways. In a van, that wont work. How about just using screws that are countersunk and sized nicely so no more holes in the metal than are there already>? Glue would also work, but a byach if you ever have to replace one board. That seems expensive. That would be over 350 dollars for you vans floor, and thats if its a shorty! Course, you might be out in the middle of the desert, too. Shop around before you lock in on that one. Maple is nice, but is actually pretty grainless compared to oak or pine. It would prob be very similar to white oak in color, although oak- even one variety- colors differ widely. Finishing the floor your self would run well under 25 bucks total, for supplies other than wood, and is not a bad task. Arent there any old barns around your way !?

I like oak for all its grain...
I did an engineered floor in the kitchen of a house I sold. It seemed to dent easily. Did The solid oak flooring in my current and is more durable.

Suggest varathane diamond finish poly... used this on all my floors and wood projects. It comes in satin or gloss. looks milky when wet, dries clear. next to no smell, water cleanup.
Does not look yellow like most polys in the finish. Dry in 2 hrs. quick scuff, vaccum, wipedown and do 2nd coat. Used $.50 foam brush to apply...

Can always glue solid boards together.... biscuits or dowels or router board edge. THis would be the way to go in my mind and eliminate
the gaps. Then stick the whole thing in the van. To bad your so far away from NJ... or I'd pull out the biscuit jointer and clamps...
John

quiet, Ive been wondering about that stuff. All the carvers are so used to using polyurethane, spars varnish and uggg, linseed oil, that I hadnt heard anything about the water based stuff yet. The minwax floor polyurethane has been decent for me, but a van floor takes more of a beating than a house!

stay away from that water based stuff.water & wood don't mix.stay with the old finishes, you won't be sorry later.

So I bought some 1/2" engineered ply hickory the other day. 38 sq. ft. cost=$175 after tax and all. Should be here tuesday or wednesday. They had a real light Am. Maple but it was real thin and looked cheap and only had a 14 yr finish warranty where as the one i got had a 25 yr. Not like this matters though cause the warranty will be thrown out the window as soon as it goes in a van! I'll post pics when I get it.

I haven't experienced any problems with the finish mentioned above. I also have used waterlox products and found them to be durable and great looking. This is more expensive. I believe they will send you a trial size. You can test out with your wood and see if you like it.
Testing is a great idea.
They have a marine waterlox for exterior application. www.waterlox.com The thing I hate most is a product that yellows the wood finish.
I think it is worth a few dollars more to get that great look on a $175 board.
Some like satin for allowing the wood to show through. Some like gloss for that wet shiny look.

Either of the products mentions will work. If still concerned... remove her high heels on entry.

Quiet1 - John

Let her keep the high heels on and get her some kneepads!!

I hope we get some pics and a good how-to about the flooring. I need the help!!
Everything I try to do with wood ends up looking like Woodshop 101.

I actually used some kneepads today Catfish but not in the sense you are speaking of. I put in my floors today and they look great! IMHO. Here are some pics. I nailed it all down to the plywood subfloor with 3/4 in. brad nails (pretty thin nails but only thing in 3/4 in I could find). If anyone has any questions about the install please ask it was fairly simple just time consuming. Hey look there I am! [ March 02, 2006, 10:35 PM: Message edited by: malorty ]

That REALLY LOOKS NICE!

Looks great man, good work!

Looks good! I think that would look good in my old Ford.

Nice work. Also appreciate the cameo appearance.

Looks great!
A few tricks that I learned along the way:
Each board has a tongue and groove. Nail in the groove and the nail is hidden. Nail in the tongue and it only splits the tongue. You can pre-drill a smaller pilot hole in the groove if that too is splitting.
Start all boards with tongue facing starting wall (allows you to nail in groove).

Nail edge boards (the 1st floor piece you put down along driver or pass side) where wall comes down or trim molding will hide the nail.

Nail end (along back doors in your case) under where end molding will go.

Use a nail set for those last few hits... so you do not dimple the board.

Cut the end boards to proper length so they all line up. Hard to fit edge board (molding) when they are way off (I found this out the hard way as I thought they were close enough and the gaps created a weakness underneath.) I had to make a molding board from scratch as my pieces were cut short/long enough where standard molding did not cover one of the shorties.

Use the piece that is cutoff from each row to start the next row (unless 2 small). Stager the joints at 6 inch minimums. this helps randomize the joints.

To get joints tight... where the boards butt against each other (the 3" side), I took a belt sander and beveled the bottom edge of the 2 boards. you do not see the bevel from above and it gets the two boards closer. A few taps with a scrape piece of wood between the hammer and the board helps tighten the gap before you nail.

to get joints tight length wise...
You can use two wedges to hold the new board tight in place while you nail. The wedges should be made with scrap wood from the first row. The wedge is a 30 - 60 - 90 angled piece of wood (simply cut diagonal and you get both wedges from a board). The reason is you want the tongue on the scrap wood is to fit into the groove of the newest board you are nailing down.

The way this works is...
Place the new board down. Place the wedge tongue into the groove of new board down.
Place the outmost wedge next.
The outmost wedge has two nails that you nail the wedge to the floor.(Leave nail head out a bit so you can pull the wedge up without destroying it as you continue to other boards).

Tap the middle wedge into place (groove into tongue of new board down).
As the middle wedge is tapped. The outter wedge forces the middle widge inward (while it s tongue runs the new board groove).
The wedges will pull the joint tight unless the outside wedge is too far away...
Careful not to pull existing floor boards out or destroy the groove as you use the force of 10.
Then simply pull the wedge with nails out and repeat along the new board... nailing as you go.

Some folks just use screws or nails for that decorative look. distance between insert should be consistent. For screws all heads should be turned to the same position. so the x or plus sign in all the heads lines up...

BTW: Short sleeves and sun... We just got snow and freezing rain... I can t wait to get outside to work on the van.

I used bar clamps to tighten up gaps. also you might want to buy a throw rug with rubber backing to keep things in place when turing corners or hitting the brakes. wood floors clean up easy too. Looks great Brett, keep us posted.

Lets see your wood floor ... prefer in process pic's. As im startin to the White Rhino's floor also.

Was thinking of tiling the floor in a Checkered winners flag as this van chases races of any kind.