Unfinished hardwood flooring as lumber?

[Dan Bowman]

Does anyone ever use 3/4" unfinished hardwood flooring for stock? You'd have to plane off the eased back and cut off the tongue and groove, but if you could get 5" or 6" boards cheap, would you? Thanks

 

[DaveO]

It's wood ain't it. Heck yes I would use it. It would be great stock for boxes and small projects. Where are you finding 5-6" wide (minus the tongue & groove) flooring cheap ???:eusa_thin


Dave

 

[maomoonshiner]

Certainly -- especially if you've somehow found some unfinished antique flooring. I acquire wood by serendipity about 75% of the time -- only because the times I can actually afford to put money toward it are few and far between; a lot of my finds happen to be old flooring, and I've never been lucky enough to find any unfinished. Its a lot of work just to get it into working stock, but if what you have in front of you seems to be at least near cost effective (be sure to take that into consideration) and aesthetically pleasing then, by all means, go for it.


Morgan

 

[Travis Porter]

I have been there, done that, and would do it again.

Only thing is I wouldn't plane down or cut off the tongue and grooves until I knew what I was using it for because there are times they will come in handy.

 

[Trent Mason]

This is really interesting. I could build a ton of stuff out of the extra hardwood flooring we have laying around at work. :widea:

 

[scsmith42]

Yup, I've used it before too. If it's pre-finished, some of the finishes contain formaldehyde so you want to be careful with the sawdust

 

[Tarhead]

What Scott said plus some of the newer finishes have powdered Aluminum Oxide as an ingredient. Not what I would want on my nice sharp planer and saw blades:no:

 

[CarvedTones]

Thick yet paradoxically skinny veneer; I will vote yes but with the qualification that it better be really, really cheap because there isn't a whole lot to do with it that I couldn't do with any scraps with veneer (dirt cheap in this width) but it would certainly be easier to use.