"Mike Marlow" wrote in message
...
Sonny wrote:
Despite anyone's experience laying hardwood floor, laying thin boards
is a recipe for trouble, IMO.

You didn't say if the milled boards will be kiln dried. If they are
not, then the thin boards will be subject to even greater issues with
expansion and contraction or checking, than with thicker boards. If
they are not kiln dried, a resaw will release more tension, within the
boards, likely causing more distortion. Further dressing (planing)
would likely result in additional distortion. If they will be kiln
dried, then some of these issues may not be so pronounced.

Sorry - I thought I had included that in one of my responses. Yes - the
boards are kiln dried, after the purchase. They are stickered until the
time of purchase.


My rationale: For non-kilned lumber, if ripping a 1" board on the
tablesaw can release tension or show a moisture issue, by bowing as
you saw, then resawing and planing an 8" wide non-kilned board will
likely show similar and/or more distortion effects. There may end up
being more waste lumber, than with using thicker lumber.


Very good. This is exactly the kind of thought that I was hoping to
generate with this thread. Granted - it's wood and none of us can know
for sure how any piece of wood is going to act or react, but generating
different thoughts and considerations is very valuable. Some of the
thoughts might be "obvious", and some might be reflective of experiences,
but all are worthwhile when talking about something that is
unconventional.

Then again... if it's run through the thickness planer without jointing
first, so that you end up with parallel (co-planer) faces though not
necessarily flat faces, that is about all that matters. Why? Because you are
nailing it down every 16 (or 24 inches) to a flat sub-floor and the flooring
can be forced straight and flat as it's nailed. As such uniform thickness
and maybe parallel edges are the most important considerations. I'm not
convinced parallel edges matter all that much if the boards extend all the
way across the room without butt joints...

Look at floors in real old buildings and you will see edges aren't always
parallel and boards nailed to joists aren't the same thickness as they are
adjusted in thickness at the joists to compensate for varying joist
thickness and floor thickness.

John