maple carload & flooring adhesive

So, I went back to that dumpster a couple more times and ended up with all THIS hard maple 4" T&G flooring:

Now all I need to do is figure out how to put it down with all this adhesive stuff on the bottom.

It feels kind or like dried rubber cement and when you rub it, it sort of comes off in little rubbery bits.
OH, and it smells pretty awful - but I figure that will go away when it dries completely.  Anyway, maybe all I need to do is put a rotary brush attachment on an angle grinder and hit it lightly to blow most of this stuff right off.  I'll give it a shot.
The smell, we'll just have to see about.

Lumber Van!!

We started the day early picking up a 12 foot cargo van way out in Queens.  We had reserved a 10 footer, but they were out so they gave us a 12, which was a good thing because we used every inch of it.

Our first stop was the garage in Williamsburg where we picked up the 500-600 square feet of reclaimed maple factory flooring that Lou and I bundled a few nights ago (that is the carefully stacked and tied stuff on the bottom of the van load).  This was a super cheap find on Craigslist - less than 55 cents per square foot.  Oh, and the seller threw in an old factory cart with big cast iron wheels on it - that thing weighs another hundred pounds easily.

Then we drove up to Greenwood Lake, NY and picked up about 220 square feet of reclaimed douglas fir flooring in one inch thick boards, three inches wide all in 7 foot and 8 foot lengths. Looks to be porch flooring. (This is the bunch of similar boards sitting right on top of the maple flooring). We also got a couple fat beams made of fir and oak. This was a free find on Craigslist.

Finally, we zipped up to Walden, NY where we picked up 25 pieces of 2"x4"x8' cedar decking along with a number of big cedar posts (including a 12 foot long 6"x6" post).  This was also a cheap find on Craigslist - the guy had leftovers from his own deck project. (This is all the stuff on top.)
So here it is, the parfait of lumber:



Oh, and we also had the disassembled Hoosier in there behind the driver seat.  And remember, this is a 12 foot cargo van - meaning that the cargo area is 12 feet deep.  Huge!

We had some help waiting for us at the house when we finally arrived so unloading was relatively painless.

There it is.

design idea - reclaimed maple flooring

I have no idea what the pile of flooring I picked up last night (see my last post) will end up looking like so I googled "reclaimed maple flooring" and I found the Crossroads Lumber site.  I love what they did with recycled gymnasium basketball court flooring ($3.50@sq. ft.).  Although our floor was not treated as gently during its former life.

And here it is below sanded.  I wish there were a way they could have kept the paint while getting rid of the yellowish finish.  Bummer.  In fact, I sort of wish they had just left it alone.
But still, it ends up looking pretty nice after sanding too - just not as much character.

One thing that seems clear is that we don't need to plane it before installing it.  Sanding will be just fine - although our flooring is a bazillion times more wrecked than this stuff.  Our flooring lived under the watchful eye of a very different sign than the gym flooring enjoyed (ours and theirs, respectively):

What else did I find for recycled maple flooring?
Well, here's a good example of what I expect ours will look like installed - I found this at Longleaf Lumber:

The Longleaf Lumber website warns: "Expect character: nail holes, cart marks, and color variation."

These guys want $5.25@sq. ft. for reclaimed maple factory flooring!! and the stuff in the picture is very like what we got, though not as grimy. (suddenly I feel pretty smart)

And here is a site (BrownDogBuildingSupply) that sells "reclaimed foundry maple" floors:

The shot on the left actually looks worse than ours looks.  Their description says:
"it shows the kind of honorable scars and marks you might expect from a life of service in a cotton mill, aircraft factory or pressing plant".
Thoughts?

Recycled / Reclaimed Maple Flooring

I picked up about 500-600 square feet of lovely and heavily abused maple factory flooring on Craigslist tonight. Lou helped me bundle it all. V and I will pick it up on Saturday morning.

It isn't tongue and grooved except at the ends - which is odd.
Anyway, the big question is whether to plane it first and then lay it down or lay it down then sand it well and seal it up. And how to put it down? Top nailed? Glued then top nailed? Screws countersunk into pilot holes that are capped off with endgrain plugs? I dunno.
Anyway, it was cheap as can be and I think it should look great.
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