wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm in the planning stages of a new home. We're building an 1800's
reproduction farmhouse and want as much as is reasonable to keep an old
look to it. So we're thinking about buying dried rough sawn hardwood -
probably hickory because we like the color variation, then planing one
side of each board (to get a uniform thickness) and cutting each to a
uniform (wide) width.

Then the idea is to run a belt sander over the top surface very lightly
to leave the saw marks but eliminate splinters and then face nail it to
the sub floor with an antique square head nail or possibly use screws
and plugs for a pegged look(a gosh aweful lot of work I know - but at
least you could sand it later if desired). Then either a poly or tung
oil finish.

We even like the look of the gaps between boards and so are thinking we
might not even rabit or t & g the edges.

Are we nuts? Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Russell Terrell


You are not nuts at all to want a rustic look. To make it more rustic don't
cut all of the boards to the same width. Only the boards in the same row
need to be the same width. Are you doing the work yourself? You might
interview some good flooring people in your area to get some more ideas.

I believe that there are many suppliers of hardwood flooring listed in the
back of Fine Homebuilding Magazine. You might want to contact them to get
some ideas and cost estimates.