Hardwood Flooring

Disrgard. rec.woodworking is right below rec.crafts.metalworking on my list of subscribed newsgroups. The rest is history.

Although if you really want durability, tongue & groove 304 stainless may be the way to go.

Polish to a _high_ shine.

Trust me, if I were single, I'd seriously consider it or some custom made stainless tiles.

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

Could change a minor electrical accident into a major one, if you are standing on stainless floor barefoot and get "zapped" due to faulty insulation or some such.

OTOH, with stainless flooring and copper ceilings, you could get some old bumper cars for the romper room.

Fastened with socket head capscrews every 12 inches.

Some thoughts:

Factory applied finishes are more consistent and don't stink up the house.

Pre-finished relies on an even subfloor for an even finish, while unfinished is sanded in place so an uneven subfloor can be compensated for.

So called "Engineered hardwood flooring" is not "fake" and may be worth considering. It is essentially plywood with the top layer the expensive hardwood and the lower layers of cheaper woods.

Other stuff such as bamboo flooring is also worth a look, it is engineered, but available as full dimensional like traditional hardwood.

Wait a few years and you'll get a great deal on hybrid cars with bad batteries. Then add you own brushes. ;-)

As a side note to this whole conversation...

I've always wanted to design stainless steel or aluminum "blocks" about the size of retaining wall blocks to be used in that very purpose. I thought it would be neat to have a steel wall for landscape rather than the concrete "rock" stuff that's out there... But I can't figure out a way to design it to look nice.

I've got a supplier who can make them and ship them, but... I don't have the design and maybe more importantly, the cash. :)

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

I think aluminum would look like crap after very little time.

Cast stainless, with bumps on the same order of size as concrete, would be neato-coolo.

But everyone would consider it trashy, unless you had a PhD in fine art

-- anything done in stainless by someone with a PhD in fine art is automatically the Coolest Damn Thing in the World.

Think "sheet pilings"...

I think it would oxidize white or close to it... In some locales, that could work.

Of course, I could ahve them anodized in some other color and move when they start to "fade"

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

I was thinking more along the lines of metal blocks... Semi-random shapes and sizes to look sorta like this:

Lay it out in CAD and have 'em cast / made, etc.

What's that Lassie? You say that Pete C. fell down the old rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue by Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:05:54 -0500:

Bamboo is not as hard as oak and will get marked up in short order. Friend of mine has it (wife wanted it for the green angle) and regrets it.

What's that Lassie? You say that Joe AutoDrill fell down the old rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue by Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:08:51 -0400:

Pre finished will have chamfered edges and leave a v groove between planks. Grooves will fill with dirt and are hard to clean.

Un finished will be sanded in place and won't need chamfered edges.

On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:13:10 GMT, the infamous snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net (dan) scrawled the following:

Hmm, it shows up as about 25% harder, 1762 vs 1260.

-- "Not always right, but never uncertain." --Heinlein -=-=-

What's that Lassie? You say that Larry Jaques fell down the old rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue by Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:34:01 -0700:

I don't know what to tell you. Just that the bamboo floor in my friends house looks like crap after two years, and the oak floor that he put in his prior house looked great after 10+years. Perhaps he got low quality flooring?

It's certainly a possibility. It's a relatively new product, so I expect there would be some early shake-out of the lower quality producers.

It was probably an engineered product which, according to your link, only rates out at 1690... and if it was carbonized at all, that further reduces hardness. At the other end of the spectrum is the stranded bamboo, which rates at 3014!

Obviously, there are a LOT of variables in bamboo flooring. Species used, glue used, vertical or horiz orientation, carbonized or not, solid, engineered, or stranded... not to even mention installation methods and surface finishes.

We have a bamboo cutting board that's convinced me I'd like to have bamboo floors some day.