Author Topic: Recycled Gym flooring  (Read 31412 times)

Spork

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Recycled Gym flooring
« on: January 03, 2014, 10:59:10 AM »

I am trying to decide whether or not to regret purchasing a lot of reclaimed maple gym flooring.  ;)

I managed to get about 1000 sqft of T&G gym flooring at what seemed to be a reasonable price.  Now I'm looking at the boards and wondering how much of it will have to be culled.

For the most part (as far as I have dug into the pile, which isn't much) the tongues and grooves seem to be intact.  It does look like it will take a significant amount of cleanup though.  It looks like "goo" (wax and/or polyurethane) has crept through most of the edges of the boards.  I'm assuming I'll probably have to go through board-by-board and clean this up.

There is also some amounts of little checks and splits here and there... edges that are not perfectly square, a missing corner here and there, etc.

Now this is a very vague question, I know, but I'm wondering exactly how perfect this stuff needs to be to look good.  I'm trying to discern what amount of imperfection is "cool character" vs. what amount is "throw that board away"  vs. what amount is "you wasted your money, toss the whole pile".

So far my google-fu hasn't found a whole lot of detail.  I did find one story where a guy spent a whole lot of time/energy/sawblades/etc ... only to compare to someone else that took part of the same floor and was much less fussy.... and her floor looks pretty damn good.

I'm not on any real time constraints and I'm not opposed to a little labor.  But this will also be the first real wood floor I've ever laid.  (I've done lots of laminate Pergo-style floors, both glue up and snap together).

I don't have detailed photos (though I can get some later today).  For now, all I have is a photo of the pile:

ArcticaMT6

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2014, 11:01:42 PM »
Watch for embedded nails when you're working with it. Metal in the wood can mess up blades real quick.

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2014, 11:30:52 PM »
We just spent a long couple of months cleaning up reclaimed maple flooring tongues and grooves.
Cleaning the dirt off by hand was quite easy (though time consuming) with a good carbide paint scraper (e.g. Bahco 625). 

We found a guy on CraigsList to process those boards that had too much finish fused with the dirt. He passed them through his router or table saw (depending on the board). They're much cleaner now, but he broke his router bit on a hidden nail. So do get a metal detector if you're going to use power tools to clean the T&G. (as arcticaMT6 suggested)

We're having this flooring installed at the end of next week by pros and will report back here on how it turns out, and how many of the boards we thought looked good had to be culled.

Close-up photos will help to compare to our batch.

Dellainacan

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2014, 01:22:06 PM »
Where do you plan on using the floor? Main living area, bedrooms,etc? I ask that because I installed about 700 square feet of teak flooring in my our main living area. You will be surprised how much you end up covering up with furniture or throw rugs. Maybe 300-400 of it visible.

Installing hardwood flooring is one of the easier diy jobs I have done. If your first row is straight you are golden. It's just time consuming. Have you considered sorting the material, cleaning best by hand, removing nails, and then installing. Once installed it would be much easier to sand, by a professional or yourself by renting, with a commercial sander.  As opposed to sanding each individual piece (I would shoot myself).  After sanding, since you would have to reseal, if you were looking to improve the look a follow up with dark stain would hide most imperfections if the floor was that bad.

Im a fan of hardwood. My whole house is hardwood, and as I said before, installation is relatively easy if you feel comfortable doing it.   


YK-Phil

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2014, 01:58:49 PM »
This looks like a great project. I have done my share of hardwood floor refinishing when I was a student in Montreal. Most apartments had beautiful hardwood floors that needed to be stripped of the old varnish, and sealed with polyurethane. As Dellainacan mentions, renting a commercial sander is the best and cheapest option. Just be careful, these things really sand and can burn the wood very quickly. You may then decide to stain the wood before either applying a polyurethane finish (oil-based or solvent borne, and water-based or waterborne), varnish, or even wax.

Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2014, 08:57:39 AM »

nails:  yes, they're there.  Lots of them.  It looks like they were cut with a sawsall or equivalent from underneath.  I figured I might have to get a metal detector and go fishing for them.

install location:  This will be my upstairs (and the stairs themselves).  Two bedrooms, a small hall and a bonus room that we don't know what to call other than "the pub".  I'm not 100% it will cover it all.  By my calculations, there is enough to do it all with 10% waste on the floor and 20% waste on the stairs.  I may have more waste than that if I have to cull a lot.  I plan on doing one room at a time and skipping closets until I know how much I'll cover.

cleanup: I haven't started yet... I've read some folks doing it with routers/table saws and I've considered trying that.  I also saw a suggestion on a hardwood flooring site that suggested running them through a planer.  As I understand: unless you put it back down in the order you pull it up, it will be different starting heights due to slightly uneven sanding and wear from walking on it.

I'll post some detail pics for comparison.

Zaga

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2014, 11:08:33 AM »
I look forward to seeing this in progress and eventually done, this looks like a really great project!

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2014, 11:26:23 AM »
I look forward to seeing this in progress and eventually done, this looks like a really great project!

I'll warn you: I'm horribly slow at projects.  I've been finishing the upstairs now for 2 years.  It's not like we desperately need the space.  I sort of just piddle at it in my spare time.

I tried to get some decent representative tongue/groove pics, but macro shooting is not my strong suit.  I'll have to assign that to the wife since she's good at that. 

I've only now busted open a couple of the banded packages.  My take is "it's probably not as bad as I originally thought" ... but "probably enough culls to not finish the whole upstairs."  The ones with lots of goo on the edges are so far not so plentiful.  Nails are in probably less than half of them.

My snails pace plan (which would easily be changed if there's better advice):

* get a planer and a shop metal detector.  (I can rationalize buying tools so damn easily).
* start going through them and sorting them into "grades" :
    - usable as is
    - usable as end pieces
    - usable to cut into trim/stair nosing
    - junk
* de-nail, clean up with table saw, plane them down 1/32 or so (whatever makes them the same height).

Zaga

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2014, 11:35:41 AM »
Eh, take your time, it'll be about the same pace we generally complete projects at.  But since I commented It'll be easier for me to find your updates :-)

ArcticaMT6

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2014, 06:21:08 PM »
I look forward to seeing this in progress and eventually done, this looks like a really great project!

I'll warn you: I'm horribly slow at projects.  I've been finishing the upstairs now for 2 years.  It's not like we desperately need the space.  I sort of just piddle at it in my spare time.

I tried to get some decent representative tongue/groove pics, but macro shooting is not my strong suit.  I'll have to assign that to the wife since she's good at that. 

I've only now busted open a couple of the banded packages.  My take is "it's probably not as bad as I originally thought" ... but "probably enough culls to not finish the whole upstairs."  The ones with lots of goo on the edges are so far not so plentiful.  Nails are in probably less than half of them.

My snails pace plan (which would easily be changed if there's better advice):

* get a planer and a shop metal detector.  (I can rationalize buying tools so damn easily).
* start going through them and sorting them into "grades" :
    - usable as is
    - usable as end pieces
    - usable to cut into trim/stair nosing
    - junk
* de-nail, clean up with table saw, plane them down 1/32 or so (whatever makes them the same height).

For the planer, I would definitely not go cheap. I tried that by buying a Rigid on sale with the lifetime warranty. I killed 2 of them in 2 weeks. One of them lasted an hour.

Bought myself a Dewalt 735 with the in/outfeed tables and haven't looked back. If you can find a used Dewalt 733/734/7351 or a used Makita NB2012 those would be your best bet.

You're also going to want to build yourself a DIY cyclone for a garbage can. The chips go EVERYWHERE.

http://www.jpthien.com/cy.htm

jba302

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2014, 06:38:07 PM »
You could probably make a bunch of medium-high quality olympic lifting platforms and make a decent buck. That looks like good wood for that purpose :).

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2014, 09:51:30 PM »
I was advised by pros not to bother with a planer, just sand the floor flat and even after installation.

We are chopping off parts of boards that are worn down below our arbitrary minimum thickness. It was pretty obvious which ones were in high traffic areas. They were worn down to 1/8" above the tongue.

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2014, 04:21:13 AM »
A frugal millionaire buddy of mine did this. He bought a fabulous old 2 bedroom house in a tiny north Texas town for like $10,000. Then he paid a guy $3,500 to drive it about 300 miles to West Texas where he had a nice plot of land in the desert near Fort Davis.  He somehow also bought a used high school basketball court floor and had it installed for next to nothing. And he left all the painted lines on the floor so there was random bits of red and white all over the house.  It was fabulous and the whole deal cost him like $20,000 for the house (purchased, moved, finished and installed), $80,000 for a couple acres of land, and $15,000 for septic.

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #13 on: January 16, 2014, 12:22:51 PM »
OK, install is done!
Here are some photos

Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #14 on: January 16, 2014, 12:27:48 PM »

That looks like it will turn out pretty nice.

Did you have to do any preprocessing on it?  Enough of my boards have gooey or ragged edges that I've started taking about 1/64th off of each side, which is going to take me a loooong time to process.  I'm also doing stairs, so I will be manufacturing stair nosing.

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #15 on: January 16, 2014, 12:49:47 PM »
Preprocessing: some yes, some no.
For most of the boards, we scraped with a carbide paint scraper.
For some, a pass with a router- we hired a guy from CL to do this, he didn't take off any wood, just the crud layer,
if any was uneven and left some crud, that was removed by hand with a paint scraper.
I don't know if the installers did any further processing. They did the whole install in two days, so probably not.
We have a bunch of boards left over, it's likely they decided to use the ones that needed the least attention.

The installers bought the stair nosing. We didn't need much. 3 pieces.

We still have some more drywall and priming and painting to do before we do the sanding and finishing.
But it's nice that it looks so good even without the final step.

Anyone need any leftover reclaimed flooring? We prepped more than we needed.  :-)

Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #16 on: January 16, 2014, 01:25:32 PM »

Anyone need any leftover reclaimed flooring? We prepped more than we needed.  :-)

That's going to depend on your location and how far mine stretches.   Where are you?

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #17 on: January 16, 2014, 03:25:49 PM »
Madison, WI

Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #18 on: January 16, 2014, 03:27:40 PM »
Madison, WI

ha... well, shipping to Texas is probably more than it's worth, huh?   

I think I'm close on having enough, depending on how big my cull stack grows to.  I'm relatively sure I can find some similar graded stuff locally to fill in an additional 10% or so if I need it.

kendallf

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #19 on: January 16, 2014, 07:06:05 PM »
I'm interested to see how this turns out.  Maybe even if it takes you two years.  Maybe.  :-)

I think I'd try to install it and sand it in place; we refinished our 65 year old floors this summer (I have a buddy who does this professionally, which was invaluable).  Seems like that's the easiest way to end up with a flat and consistent surface to stain.

I am left wondering, how hard is the gunk left on the T&G portions?  Can you mate a couple of pieces and tap them sideways to "slide clean" the joint?  You'll have to tighten the joints every few boards anyway.

Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #20 on: January 17, 2014, 08:11:13 AM »

I am left wondering, how hard is the gunk left on the T&G portions?  Can you mate a couple of pieces and tap them sideways to "slide clean" the joint?  You'll have to tighten the joints every few boards anyway.

It's hard as a rock.  It seems to be a mix of (variable by board) dirt, stain, paint and some sort of polyurethane type stuff.  When you run it across a table saw, it throws sparks.  I'm pretty sure I'll be going through several blades in this project -- both with this stuff and the occasional hidden nail.

I originally thought I'd de-nail all of it.  About 10 boards in I realized that wasn't remotely possible.  The nails were cut flush underneath with a sawzall (or equivalent).  I finally decided to de-nail ONLY the boards where the nail stuck up significantly above the tongue or when the board has to be ripped for width.  I'm 100% sure I'll miss a few and hit them with the saw.

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #21 on: January 17, 2014, 08:53:05 AM »
Pneumatic denailer.
We found that the most essential tool. You have nails, not staples, right? This wouldn't work for staples.
It'd take you about two days to denail all of your pile.

BUT... on edit, I reread your last post, that the nails were cut flush. I don't know how well it'd work with stubs of nails. The denailer needs something to grab on to. 
« Last Edit: January 17, 2014, 09:00:45 AM by monarda »

Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #22 on: January 17, 2014, 09:23:37 AM »
Pneumatic denailer.
We found that the most essential tool. You have nails, not staples, right? This wouldn't work for staples.
It'd take you about two days to denail all of your pile.

BUT... on edit, I reread your last post, that the nails were cut flush. I don't know how well it'd work with stubs of nails. The denailer needs something to grab on to.

I may have to kiss you.

I have a mix of staples and cleats.  It seems (where I am in the pile right now) to be mostly cleats.

Does this push them out from the back?  What I've actually been doing is hitting them from the back with a nail punch.  I start with a big-ish one to get it moving, then move to a tiny one to try to create less damage.  It generally works ok, but it is slow.

jba302

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #23 on: January 17, 2014, 10:13:59 AM »
Anyone need any leftover reclaimed flooring? We prepped more than we needed.  :-)

We just made an offer on a house and I live in the Twin Cities. I might be getting in contact with you on this one...

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #24 on: January 17, 2014, 10:17:00 AM »
Cool. I just posted an ad on Madison Craigslist.

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #25 on: January 17, 2014, 10:21:00 AM »
Pneumatic denailer.
We found that the most essential tool. You have nails, not staples, right? This wouldn't work for staples.
It'd take you about two days to denail all of your pile.

BUT... on edit, I reread your last post, that the nails were cut flush. I don't know how well it'd work with stubs of nails. The denailer needs something to grab on to.

I may have to kiss you.

I have a mix of staples and cleats.  It seems (where I am in the pile right now) to be mostly cleats.

Does this push them out from the back?  What I've actually been doing is hitting them from the back with a nail punch.  I start with a big-ish one to get it moving, then move to a tiny one to try to create less damage.  It generally works ok, but it is slow.
'

Yep, it pushes them out from the back.  You put the pointy part of the nail in the shaft, and hold the board upside down. If the nail is bent over at all, you can use this tool to unbend it, too. Hold it over a garbage can with a big cloth in the bottom to prevent ricochets. Pull the trigger and pfft, out it goes. Sometimes (~10% of the time) it doesn't make it all the way out, then you have another tool to pry it out. I'll have to get back to you on the identity of that tool.


Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #26 on: January 17, 2014, 10:34:22 AM »
I didn't even know such a thing existed.  It's on a slow boat from Amazon now (since it seems to not be Prime eligible).

If I can get the cleats out a little bit, they'll pull right out with electricians pliers. 

Thanks for the suggestion.

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #27 on: January 17, 2014, 11:14:53 AM »
I didn't even know such a thing existed.  It's on a slow boat from Amazon now (since it seems to not be Prime eligible).

If I can get the cleats out a little bit, they'll pull right out with electricians pliers. 

Thanks for the suggestion.

Yeah, I was stoked when a friend told me that this existed.
It's actually pretty fun to do the denailing.
Oh, and check the Q&A on Amazon's site. Someone asked about a year ago if it'd work to remove cleats from  maple gym flooring, and answered their own question with some usage tips.

The pliers I used are meant for extracting nails and are curved.
This isn't the one I have, but looks good.

Ah. found it.

Curious what you mean by electrician's pliers? These with the rocking action make them easy to pull.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2014, 11:22:13 AM by monarda »

Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #28 on: January 17, 2014, 11:21:26 AM »

No question the pliers you posted are "the right ones for the job".  Lineman's pliers became my "default/goto" pliers several years ago.  They're just heavy, can grab/hold anything and can cut almost anything.  The end is slightly curved (not nearly as nicely as yours) -- and you can somewhat roll the nails out with them.

example: https://www.channellock.com/electrical.aspx

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #29 on: January 17, 2014, 11:44:39 AM »
A hard drive magnet is a very cheap and effective ferrous metal detector. 

Personally, I'd install it as-is and then sand the floor in place.  Our last house had ATROCIOUS oak floors (they were rough and abused to the point of being BLACK in some high traffic areas) and after we had them sanded and re-finished, they looked damn good.  You might need to hit up some edges with a block plane or paint scraper as you install them if there's crap sticking out and interfering with the fit, but I think you might be surprised at how effective those heavy floor sanders are. 

Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #30 on: January 17, 2014, 01:00:34 PM »
A hard drive magnet is a very cheap and effective ferrous metal detector. 

Personally, I'd install it as-is and then sand the floor in place.  Our last house had ATROCIOUS oak floors (they were rough and abused to the point of being BLACK in some high traffic areas) and after we had them sanded and re-finished, they looked damn good.  You might need to hit up some edges with a block plane or paint scraper as you install them if there's crap sticking out and interfering with the fit, but I think you might be surprised at how effective those heavy floor sanders are.

I actually already got a reasonably inexpensive metal detector.  I aim to eventually do wood working in my retirement, so I think it's a good thing to have.

I'm still leaning towards planing this stuff.  One reason (other than the obvious: they're quite variable thicknesses) is that a good chunk of this will go on stairs where they'd have to be hand sanded.  I will, of course, still sand them before staining... but I'd like to avoid as many passes as I can.

ArcticaMT6

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #31 on: January 17, 2014, 06:16:12 PM »
A hard drive magnet is a very cheap and effective ferrous metal detector. 

Personally, I'd install it as-is and then sand the floor in place.  Our last house had ATROCIOUS oak floors (they were rough and abused to the point of being BLACK in some high traffic areas) and after we had them sanded and re-finished, they looked damn good.  You might need to hit up some edges with a block plane or paint scraper as you install them if there's crap sticking out and interfering with the fit, but I think you might be surprised at how effective those heavy floor sanders are.

I actually already got a reasonably inexpensive metal detector.  I aim to eventually do wood working in my retirement, so I think it's a good thing to have.

I'm still leaning towards planing this stuff.  One reason (other than the obvious: they're quite variable thicknesses) is that a good chunk of this will go on stairs where they'd have to be hand sanded.  I will, of course, still sand them before staining... but I'd like to avoid as many passes as I can.

For the stairs, you can always fasten them together for each stair tread, and flatten them by hand with a belt sander. Use 36 or 50 grit at first, and work your way up to 120 grit. After that, sand it with a Random Orbital sander or palm sander to whatever grit you are going to with the rest of the floors. When using the belt sander, sand with the grain of the wood, as it will make the sanding grooves less noticeable.

And it takes a while to get all the equipment you think you'll need. I've basically got 1 more machine (jointer) and then I can consider myself good enough. I may need more hand tools after that, but as far as power tools go, I'm good until it breaks.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2014, 06:24:32 PM by ArcticaMT6 »

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #32 on: March 24, 2014, 01:59:05 PM »
Update/Progress Report.

As I warned: I'm slow.  But first progress report...

Preprocessing takes a painflully long time.  I'm starting at the bottom of my stairs and working my way up to the floor that will be installed.

I'm taking a hair's width off of both sides of each plank.

For example, here's a sample tongue side coated in goo:



...and the same board after a swipe through the saw:




I then manufactured some stair nosing by cutting up some of the throw away boards and glueing strips onto some longish floor planks.



I rounded those top and bottom with a 1/4 inch roundover bit... and glued up several strips to make stair treads.




I am waiting on some door trim that is on order, but I've been able to at least cut and dry fit the first 4 steps.  I can't nail/glue them in place just yet as the first step will have to be cut to fit the trimmed opening.  Eventually the wood will be darkened slightly and the risers will be painted to match the trim.



It looks like it will mostly work out, though there is quite a bit of waste (15% or more of the boards are throw aways).  I am not sure I'll get full coverage on the whole upstairs.  I think there will be a handful of boards that won't seat absolutely perfectly flush (probably due to my sawing "skills").  But I think it's going to look pretty good.  I am not sure I'd recommend the whole recycled floor process.... I think it's going to be a lot of work and it might be better to just buy new milled wood.   But I've started and by god, I'm going to see it through.

Zaga

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #33 on: March 24, 2014, 03:29:42 PM »
What I see so far is lovely!

kendallf

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #34 on: March 25, 2014, 01:31:30 PM »
Looks good!  What sort of stain are you going to use, and how dark?  I love seeing raw wood and then stain and finish; it really brings the color and grain to life.  :-)

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #35 on: March 25, 2014, 01:37:02 PM »
Looks good!  What sort of stain are you going to use, and how dark?  I love seeing raw wood and then stain and finish; it really brings the color and grain to life.  :-)

I've got so far to go that... I haven't really experimented yet.  I had considered trying Linseed Oil/Waterlox as has been kicked around in a couple of other threads.  There is quite a lot of variation in the wood and I'd like something that highlights the variation instead of making it overly ubiquitous. 

I've got a ton of scrap ends and pieces and broken bits already to experiment with.  I'll probably do several mockups and see what looks best.

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #36 on: March 25, 2014, 04:47:35 PM »
I've never had good luck with Linseed Oil.  One thing I did on my stairs as well as built-in bookcases is that I convinced the wife to go with polyurethane only and I used the older stuff that creates a yellow-looking layer.  By doing this without putting stain on if the wood if it ever gets scratched or dinged I can touch up with the polyurethane without worrying about matching the underlying stain.  Should be a huge benefit in the future and for now I am very happy with the very-natural look to the red oak that I used for both.

And I used wood-flooring polyurethane as I figured it would be more durable.  I used this on both the stairs and bookcases.

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #37 on: March 25, 2014, 05:11:29 PM »
Looks nice!
(or as they say in Colorado, niiiiiiiicccccce)

There's a water based polyurethane called "Traffic" made by BonaX, that's really tough and doesn't look plastic-ey
Our floor guy uses it. It's pretty expensive by the gallon, but really lasts. Sold in fine wood flooring stores (not box stores). It's a two component system, so once you mix it up you have to use it all.




Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #38 on: June 16, 2014, 03:15:05 PM »
just a status update here...

Yeah, it's been 6 months.  I said I was slow.  God am I slow.  Snails raced me to work this morning and I came in a close second.

I did finally finish the stair install.  It's still unpainted/unfinished ... but it was my proof of concept.  I figured that was the most demanding part and if I could get that to work, the rest would fall into place.

I've also gone through the entire stack of flooring -- board by board and sorted it.  I've run the entire stack through the table saw on the groove side to knock off the crud and I'm about 10% through with the de-nailing process.  After that, it'll all have to go through on the tongue side to degunk that side.

I'm determined to finish, but with the amount of hours required on the clean up and the amount of waste I am seeing in the boards: I'd caution anyone that maybe, just maybe, new wood is the way to go.  Certainly this will be cheaper in dollars, but the labor is pretty gosh darn high.







Zaga

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #39 on: June 16, 2014, 06:46:23 PM »
Those are stairs you can be very proud of!

monarda

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #40 on: June 17, 2014, 12:32:11 AM »
Looks great, spork!!

How long are your throw away boards? I took the ones I had that were longer than 3 feet and sawed off the tongue and groove, and planed down the back side. Then I glued them together to make a small butcher block countertop.  We bought an electric hand planer from Harbor Freight for evening out used door frames. We had fun learning to use it on this butcher block. Not quite sure where we'll use it.

Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #41 on: June 17, 2014, 02:05:54 PM »
Looks great, spork!!

How long are your throw away boards? I took the ones I had that were longer than 3 feet and sawed off the tongue and groove, and planed down the back side. Then I glued them together to make a small butcher block countertop.  We bought an electric hand planer from Harbor Freight for evening out used door frames. We had fun learning to use it on this butcher block. Not quite sure where we'll use it.

The throwaways vary greatly.  ...and I'm keeping them until I can figure out what to do with them.   

I also have a lot that are missing (or have broken) ends or tongues or grooves.   I'm hoping to try to maximize use of these on the end of runs on the actual upstairs floors.

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #42 on: July 12, 2014, 03:46:35 PM »
Wow, new to this site an stoked on all the info.  Thanks all!

Just picked up (yikes) approx 1600sq ft of .... you guess it... maple hardwood gymnasium flooring.    Cleats in, wax on, goop on the edges. 

Tried planing a few boards w a Delta planer - looks great, but 20 board feet and I had to clean the wax out of the planer which took a loooong time.

I'm planning to do most of the house, any suggestions?  The material is in great shape, looks like the same stuff as you've been using (Muskoka Red Deer Brand Maple). 

This is what my garage looks like...

Would love some thoughts on how this might go if I finish on site.   Anyone try a big drum sander board by board?


Spork

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Re: Recycled Gym flooring
« Reply #43 on: July 14, 2014, 07:18:24 AM »
My plan (so far... this is still ongoing) is to only plane the stairs.  On the wide open areas, I'm planning on just renting a drum sander. 

I had the same problem with goop... mostly on the rollers.  They start slipping after a pretty short time.  Even worse: this stuff is so damn hard that it's hell on the knives.  In just planing enough for my stairs, I got the knives very dull (both top and bottom surfaces) and got a couple of very small nicks in them.

The other issue on my part was that it takes MANY passes through the planer... all starting at different heights.  My floors were very uneven.  To keep from taking loads of material off of this, I would have to take 3 or 4 passes through on each plank.   When I was done, they still were slightly varying heights (probably due to my inexperience.  I guess I didn't perfectly get the planer at the same height on the final passes.)  The result was I still had to sand the stairs (though I did them with a belt sander... I wouldn't try this with an entire floor.)

Anyway: at the rate I'm moving, you just might finish before I do.  ;)

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!