On 5 Jul, 00:00, wrote:
Investigating options to redo the flooring in some of the house, I
came across what seem to be traditional style tongue and groove
floorboards - but made of spruce which I believe is a rather soft wood
for a flooring application.

Seehttp://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/124419

Now on the package for these boards it specifically says not to use
this as a finished floor surface, but more for replacing existing
floorboards.

My question is - is there not a reasonable way to finish this sort of
wood so that it could be used as the finished flooring? It could
certainly look very nice and I don't mind trading effort to save some
money if that's what it would take. But is this a false economy
somehow?

Any ideas if this is a realistic prospect?

Thanks,
David

Dear David
If Wikes, the supplier, are unprepared to recommend their products for
a purpose you can be pretty sure it is not fit for that purpose!
Whitewood is a pretty unsatisfactory building timber. Cheapskates
tried to use it for windows in the mid sixties and most of them had to
be replaced 10 to 20 years later. It has next to no permeability to
take up preservatives (unlike redwood - Scots pine). I have seen
whitewood floor boards but would personally use it for all the reasons
given by others and the fact that it cannot easily be treated, is
classified as perishable (but as it contains much sapwood that is not
relevant) and becuase I simply don't like the look. BS 8201 1987 (or
its CEN equivalent as I have yet to catch up) provides data on
suitabity of timbers for flooring wrt species. Sheet 46 of the TRADA
flooring leaflet does "allow" European whitewood (Spruce) as a
possible flooring timber as does the general sheets on timber uses!
Chris