Nothing idiotic about it. I have a wooden breakfast bar that I bought at Ikea and finished with BonaKemi Traffic waterborne polyurethane. It is years in use and still looks good. However, hair dye will stain if it is not wiped up immediately.

Were I to build one from flooring, I would attach the flooring to a good plywood panel base. The straighter and stiffer the plywood the better. Another way this could be done is by making two layer hardwood flooring crossply assembly by running each layer perpendiclar to the other. A urethane flooring glue might be a good choice for bonding it all together. You would have to clamp it all up real flat and tight until the adhesive cured.

I'd like to hear ideas that others might have for this.

"Another way this could be done is by making two layer hardwood flooring crossply assembly by running each layer perpendiclar to the other."

Aigh, no! This would be especially bad if glued. (No offense, Glenn; I always look for your flooring advice). The problem is that the layers would expand and contract perpendicularly to each other. The urethane glue might be elastic enough that it wouldn't actually come apart, but this would be a recipe for a breakfast bar that tried to become a potato chip with every seasonal humidity change. Plywood works because the layers are thin so the forces are smaller, and there are odd numbers of perpendicular layers so that the forces are always balanced.

Since I've beed critical I should probably suggest an alternate idea. What about using a ladder-like frame for the flooring to be attatched to, as if it were a miniature system of joists? I'm thinking that could be, maybe about 2 1/2" high. Let the flooring overhang the edge a bit and run a big bullnosing router bit around the outside... Something like that, maybe?

BTW, is this flooring prefinished?

I figured that the forces of the crossply assembly would result in an equilibrium within the assembly and there would be minimal movement. However, you've given me something to think about.

How about an assembly with 3/4" X ? perpendicular supports every 8" or so all held together with a hard setting glue. Any better? Or, as I have dome to construct sample boards, how about a 1" X 2" every 12" inset 1/4" into the underside of the flooring and glued up? Or do you think that the two ply concept would still be a problem? Can you think of a way to construct a three ply that would work with 3/4" flooring as the top ply?

How about a hard setting adhesive? Would that help to give a good crossply assembly, or is the the hardwood crossply itself that you don't like?

It's the glued crossply over large areas, hardwood or soft, that's the problem, and the best glue in the world won't compensate for it. It might be possible in flooring (where my expertise falls away) but then flooring is attatched to big, honking joists to keep everything flat. With furniture the members are more delicate, so it's more important that the structure be balanced, without a lot of internal stresses.

For supporting the counter and whatever's put on it, I do think the '3/4" X ?' supports would be adequate, even at spacing wider than 8" OC. With that underlying frame constructued, I'd be inclined to just nail on the flooring as you would ordinarily, except I'd predrill the nail holes to avoid splitting. Gluing those 3/4" members into dados will make the joint stronger, but also builds in the same sorts of stresses; still a bad idea.

The principles of good structural design with wood all revolve around the fact that wood shrinks and expands considerably across its width, but hardly at all along it's length. Therefore you can build a rectangular frame and expect it to stay pretty much the same size, but a single wide board or several boards edge-glued into a unit will change size considerably as the humidity fluxuates. It's futile to try to prevent this movement; the idea is to design a structure that allows the parts to move without causing damage.

For a breakfast bar I would want to avoid having cracks open between the flooring boards during dry seasons, so I'd be inclined to glue the flooring boards together. However, since the frame (or plywood, though I like the frame idea better) beneath will be dimensionally stable, I would look for a way to allow some give and take between the surface piece and the supporting piece. In other words, no glue between those two parts. The nails are probably a soft enough connection that they'd allow sufficient movement. There are also special-purpose metal table top fasteners with slots through which the attatching screws are driven. The slots allow the moving surface to be attatched, yet shrink without pulling itself apart and expand without pushing the frame apart. There are other ways to tackle it, but the point is that you want to have the stable supporting frame hold firmly, but not rigidly, onto that moving surface -- no death grips.

Howdy! I am jumping in here because I have a dream of doing the same thing in my kitchen. Only over the whole length of my counter. When it comes to the expanding/shrinking of hardwood flooring: If you live in a mostly arid place and have a humidifier on your heat/air system to keep things on an even keel year round, does that drop the worries a notch? I am years away from doing this, just gathering info for now.

Climate control can certainly reduce movement, but the whole point isn't to worry; it's to understand and act sensibly. Wood counters aren't inherently destined to fail, but they can be built to fail. That's what you want to avoid.

Wow,
Thanks for all the help folks, the expert advice is very much appreciated. In answer to your question jon1270 yes the wood is prefinished.
I was thinking along the same lines with the overhang and the bullnose, but I have to admit I hadn't thought that much about taking account of the movement of wood etc due to heat and humidity. I will definitely bear all you advice in mind. Glad it's not a dumb idea as the cypress is really beautiful!
Thanks again, will keep you posted if I decide to tackle the project
L