Our reclaimed pine: junk or fine? Need help ASAP!

15 years ago

There is much sorrow in our home. We are to the point of installing our 7" reclaimed pine floors in the new house, but the floor guy (FG) (who has 50 years experience) says it's "junk" and won't use it! Apparently when the underside was cut (this is FG's guess) w/ grooves to help it not buckle b/c of the width--they used way, way too much lubricant. I do know that the guy is very new at doing this. FG says the wood would have been great, but the smell is so strong that we wouldn't be able to bear it, and that a finish won't "take".

I want to use pure tung oil. We sanded down a piece and then put different things on: water-based stain, water-based sealant, oil-based poly sealant. (Didn't have tung oil). The others were fine, but the poly did not dry, and ran off when picked up the wood ~2 hours later, after leaving in very hot sun. Smell doesn't bother us, and the other sample spots look pretty.

Very different opinions about using it or not. Can any of you help?

Thanks.

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Comments (4)

sb345
15 years ago
What does your "floor guy" think they used to lubricate the moulder? Usually mineral spirits are used, since mineral spirits are also used to thin the first coat of Tung oil this really shouldn't be a problem. If your manufacturer was an absolute moran and used something like oil, lacquer thinner, etc. you may have some issues.

What your installer is probably smelling is the pine resin from the freshly milled pine, its intense and its totally normal.

The other possibility is the heart pine is oily from the timbers it was made from being located under machinery you could always seal it with Shellac which will coat almost anything except wet (h20) or alchohol (which evaporates anyway) then finish with Tung Oil or Poly.

What does the flooring manufacturer say?
buddyj
15 years ago
Installing sanding and finishing antique heart pine is about 60% of our business. Most of the pine we have been buying lately is reclaimed from textile mills in the CarolinaÂs and northern Georgia. As sb345 said the oil is probably light machine oil that was used on the machines in the textile mills. This oil would cover the wood floors in the mill and soak down into the large beams below the flooring. These beams are now sawn into flooring so some of this flooring will have only a few areas of this oil but others can be completely saturated with this oil. A photo of this flooring would help.

I have never seen oil on flooring from milling but I guess it could happen.

Tell your finisher to do some test with different finishing systems on the oily areas before trying to finish the entire floor. It would be best to get a finisher experienced with this oily pine but if your finisher does his homework he can be successful.

If your are going with a natural finish, Zinsser SealCoat or Parks Universal Sealer (both dewaxed shellac) will almost always seal in the oil and blend the color of the oiled areas to the areas with no oil. We have never had a failure using this sealer under an oil or water-based finish on this oily wood.

My favorite finish system for this oily pine is tung oil. After sanding we use two coats of Waterlox Original Sealer and two coats of Waterlox Satin Finish.

What ever finish system you use try to get the first coat on as quick as you can after final sanding because the oil will work its way to the surface of the flooring and mix with the finish.

Good Luck
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landp
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks a bunch for those tips. We're checking it all out...
Elaine J
8 years ago
I had antique heart pine installed and there are oily areas coming through the finish. Finisher said its the sap or resin from the pine, they are not discolored at all. Did he wait too long to seal? I Think he did it right away.

Our reclaimed pine: junk or fine? Need help ASAP!

Comments (4)

sb345

buddyj

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Our reclaimed pine: junk or fine? Need help ASAP!

Comments (4)

sb345

buddyj

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landpOriginal Author

Elaine J

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BUSINESS SERVICES

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landp
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