This past winter, 2018, I finished installing reclaimed Douglas fir from my grandmother’s house into my new family room. It was easy and hard at the same time. What was hard:
- Getting started;
- Three trips to the farm to get more wood; and
- Calculating board feet exactly, so that I did not have to trim length from any piece.
What was easy:
- Installing it (despite my many complaints about a sore back).
It still needs to be sanded and refinished. I was going to do shellac and wax, the way it was done traditionally, but after seeing what my dog has done to the finish with his nails, I am going to go with something stronger and more durable.
It is by no means perfect. But I did it, and I was able to reuse my grandmother’s flooring, which makes me very happy.
And, obviously, it needs to be sanded and refinished. Someone else can do that part.
Here’s a close up of the old growth fir, tongue and groove – over 100 years old and it has never been sanded.
And, some historical information about the flooring – it came from a mill in Vancouver owned by John Hanbury. He had started out in Brandon, Manitoba, and eventually bought out other mills in British Columbia. This flooring is stamped from Vancouver.
Here is some math done by the original installers:
I can’t tell what they were figuring out. Do you know?