Pallet wood for hallway

[GSEninja]

I have a hallway in my house that i would like to replace the old 80's tile and install wood flooring.

I work at a place that is constantly throwing out wooden pallets and i could easily grab some without anyone caring

I really like the rustic look of an old wooden floor.. what I want to do is take apart several pallets, stick the board through the planer so that they are all equal in height (.5-.75") and then cut a tongue and groove on each board so that they somewhat 'lock' together

My questions are:
AFTER doing a vapor test on the concrete (even if it comes back negative) is there some kind of vapor lock that I can paint on the floor to prevent anything coming through the concrete?

I'm sure I will have to use some sort of leveling compound on the concrete, what have you found works best with the above vapor sealer?

What type of bonding agent can i use to adhere the wood slats to the concrete/leveling compound?

After the floor is set and the adhesives are all dry... what kind of stain and sealer will I be looking for? (polyurethane? etc?)

Thanks in advance! and if the answer is extremely obvious then please excuse me... I have some experience with laying tiles and pennies (here:http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=220212 ).. other than that I'm fairly new to flooring

 

[Jagmandave]

Is the hallway on a slab then?

I'm not sure about the moisture problem, but I would think just good old construction adhesive would work to attach the planks, then a good poly eurethane sealer would do the trick....

 

[Alchymist]

Something like this?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Custom-B...lf-Leveling-Underlayment-50-lb-LQ50/100192482

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Roberts-...ree-Superior-Grade-Adhesive-R1530-4/202672047

 

[GSEninja]

Is the hallway on a slab then?

Yes, the entire house is on a concrete slab.. So-Cal home

Something like this?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Custom-B...lf-Leveling-Underlayment-50-lb-LQ50/100192482

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Roberts-...ree-Superior-Grade-Adhesive-R1530-4/202672047

Those are what I'm looking for in regards to leveling and adhesion..

anyone have any idea for the vapor barrier?

 

[malibu101]

Sounds good, but; Have you ever taken a pallet apart?

I swear the nails they use are coated with the worlds best glue ever made. Pulling all the nails out of a pallet while trying not to splinter or damage the wood is NOT an easy task at all.

I fully understand that you may have alot of time to invest into free material but first grab a pallet or 2 and break them down. You will see what I mean.

 

[gpalmer77]

What about the red/pink paint on stuff they sell at Home Depot, I forget the name, but I used it under the tiles in my bathroom. Paints on like a really thick paint.

 

[GSEninja]

Sounds good, but; Have you ever taken a pallet apart?

I swear the nails they use are coated with the worlds best glue ever made. Pulling all the nails out of a pallet while trying not to splinter or damage the wood is NOT an easy task at all.

I fully understand that you may have alot of time to invest into free material but first grab a pallet or 2 and break them down. You will see what I mean.

Yes sir.. I like to mess around with wood working (shelves, tables, night stands) and have found that pallets are an excellent source of free wood! And don't ask me why but all of the pallets here are screwed together

What about the red/pink paint on stuff they sell at Home Depot, I forget the name, but I used it under the tiles in my bathroom. Paints on like a really thick paint.

Is that for water proofing? I've never seen it.. anyone?

 

[NUTTSGT]

I can't offer advice on what to use for the install but I did see a pallet floor in a kitchen last night. I'll admit, it looked pretty damn neat.

Make sure to take some pictures of it when it's in progress and done.

 

[Alchymist]

Yes, the entire house is on a concrete slab.. So-Cal home



Those are what I'm looking for in regards to leveling and adhesion..

anyone have any idea for the vapor barrier?

From the second link:

"Roberts R1530 is a solvent free 100% moisture cure urethane adhesive glue that performs as an all-in-one, single application adhesive, moisture vapor barrier and sound reducer for wood and bamboo flooring installations. It helps to protect against unforeseen moisture vapors that can destroy a wood flooring installation. It also provides crack isolation for cracks up to 1/8 in. thick".

 

[GSEninja]

BAM! Thank you Alchymist!

 

[Pointbock]

Is it wrong to think about sealing and leveling the slab but doing the wood as a floating floor?

 

[GSEninja]

what do you mean by "floating floor"?

 

[rieferman]

Your pallets are screwed together? That's a gold mine because pulling them apart otherwise is indeed no fun.

Just for fun/info purposes, if anyone needs to pull a pallet apart, here's the most effective method I have used:
Cut (w/ circ saw) just inside the nails on both ends, and then manually pry away from the middle runner and remove those nails. This loses you about 2 inches of material length but greatly eases the pull apart process.

Also, not all pallets are created equal. Pallets that carry a lot of weight for far trips are often made of better/stronger/harder wood (say, oak) than "junkier" pallets (usually pine). As an example, imported beer often arrives on nicer pallets than a delivery of sneakers from central US to a store in Maine.

I find it somewhat sad that I saw a pallet thread and was pumped about it.

 

[GSEninja]

Your pallets are screwed together? That's a gold mine because pulling them apart otherwise is indeed no fun.

....

I find it somewhat sad that I saw a pallet thread and was pumped about it.

So far, they all have been.. I've taken about 20 home so far and nothing but screws!

and trust me, pallet projects always excite me too!

 

[erok01]

I'm not 100% keen on the details but I do believe that not all pallets are created equal. Some are treated with chemicals and would assume they would be suitable for what your looking to accomplish. I think there are special codes on the pallets to inform the public.

 

[stitan06]

If it has a ht on it its heat treated I have made cutting boards outta this other than that theynare chem treated with formaldehyde ( embalming fluid ) at lest some are

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Tapatalk

 

[theoldwizard1]

Tools for pallet dis-assembly.

This first one is made from ... disassembled pallets !

Re-claiming Pallets Made EASY!! - The Pallet Pal


Re-claiming Pallets Made Easy!! - Pulling Nails!

 

[theoldwizard1]

A friend of a friend has done a lot of pallet dis-assembly. He recommends 2 things.

• Get a hand held metal detector. The smallest amount of metal will ruin a set of knives.
• Even without nails, the hard woods are tough on the planer knives.

 

[GSEninja]

If it has a ht on it its heat treated I have made cutting boards outta this other than that theynare chem treated with formaldehyde ( embalming fluid ) at lest some are

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Tapatalk

Good to know, thank you!

Tools for pallet dis-assembly.

This first one is made from ... disassembled pallets !

Re-claiming Pallets Made EASY!! - The Pallet Pal


Re-claiming Pallets Made Easy!! - Pulling Nails!

Great little tool! That's gonna come in handy for sure!!

A friend of a friend has done a lot of pallet dis-assembly. He recommends 2 things.

• Get a hand held metal detector. The smallest amount of metal will ruin a set of knives.
• Even without nails, the hard woods are tough on the planer knives.

Thanks for the heads up! The hard wood of the pallet only enforces my plans for the floor hahaha

 

[theoldwizard1]

what do you mean by "floating floor"?

A "floating floor" is NOT attached to the sub floor. Your sub floor is concrete so it would be difficult to attach it anyway. Therefore, it "floats". The boards are glued together, but there is a gap of about 1/4" at all walls/transitions so that the floor can expand and contract. The gap is covered by quarter round or a special cap at a transition.

 

[steve308]

Be careful - You have no idea what the pallets are treated with or what they may have carried in the past! Also there is no uniform thickness so you will require a planer to bring them into a level working thickness. I remember when Norm of this old house built a table or two with pallets - looked great but the amount of additional work negated the savings of the "free wood".

 

[Sureshot]

Just an FYI for the pallet lovers. Check out a hot tub or Jacuzzi place. They have large pallets and often have large pieces of plywood etc.

 

[OJ Bartley]

I took apart the pallets we had our patio stone delivered on, and there were at least a few boards that were still oozing sap. Lots of mess that was not fun to clean up!

 

[theoldwizard1]

I took apart the pallets we had our patio stone delivered on, and there were at least a few boards that were still oozing sap. Lots of mess that was not fun to clean up!

Not surprising !

Another source of "reasonably" priced hardwood, at least around here, is mills that cut boards for trailer floors. These are random widths from 8-12" and roughly a full 2" thick. They are un-planed and are green.

You can dry them outside, but it will take more than a year. You can stack them with sticks for air gaps. You need to rotate the boards every 2 to 3 months and the top board need some serious weight.

 

[Zeke]

Where do the pallets come from? I have seen oak pallets and some stuff from Italy that I swear I'll never know what wood it was. There's stuff from Asia and South America. Some is not bad wood.

I don't like the feel of the thin foam looking material used under floating floors. I use something more solid like a tar paper but you have to get the kind that will tape together. In a hallway maybe one strip down the middle will do it all, provide the moisture barrier and provide the underlayment.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Where do the pallets come from?

From a pallet factory ! (Sorry, I had to say that !!)

The wood comes from the same place they get pulp for toilet paper, the forest. Oh, you don't have any of those in So Cal. Still a lot of trees in the upper Midwest and Northeast.

I have seen oak pallets ...

Pallets are a mixed bag. One board could be one species, the next a different one. Some softwood (cedar, pine, poplar) some various hardwoods. None of it is considered good enough quality for anything else.

I don't like the feel of the thin foam looking material used under floating floors. I use something more solid like a tar paper ...

Rosin paper.

 

[RedBKM]

I have a friend that handles bulk car batteries and those pallets are the best. The decks are usually full 1x4 inch oak and the runners underneath are 4x3 oak. They are screwed together which makes them a dream to dismantle. I made a nice coffee table out of just one of them.

 

[James-W]

A buddy of mine works at a place where they get a lot of stuff on pallets. He takes some of the better looking pallets home with him and he makes small projects out of them. He likes to make spice racks and cutting boards, stuff like that, and he gives them away as presents. Pallets can be pretty useful and a cheap source of wood for some things, but because of the nail/screw holes I really don’t think they would be all that wonderful for larger projects. I realize you can fill in the nail/screw holes, but even so, I think it would be much better without the holes.

I have a surface planer and I don’t care to plane pallets, or any other kind of “used” wood. If you hit a nail it screws up the planning knives and it just isn’t worth it. The knives can be sharpened again, but it costs me just shy of $30 per set to have that done. If I screw up just one set of knives I, more or less, lost any savings I might have gotten from using the “free” wood from the pallets.

You can make hardwood flooring yourself, that isn’t a real big deal. But it is quite time consuming to make it and you need wood that has very few knots. You can have small knots, but they must be fairly tight ones and you really don’t want a whole lot of them. I am sure if you have enough pallets you can find enough good boards to do the floor, but it may take quite a few pallets before you have enough for the job.

I wish you all the best in your project. As a final thought, perhaps you should look into some of these discount hardwood flooring places. You may find some hardwood flooring at a really good price and save yourself a lot of work.

 

[GSEninja]

Ended up finding a real nice 'wood tile' at lowes... it was being discontinued so it sold for .25c per tile... the entire entry and hallway for <$100

Before

Linen closet/hall by GSEninja, on Flickr

During
This tile refused to come up!

Untitled by GSEninja, on Flickr


Untitled by GSEninja, on Flickr

After
Not bad for $100 and a few days labor

Untitled by GSEninja, on Flickr

 

[navin]

^whoa.. I'll def have to keep an eye out for those type of tiles, would love to do those in my garage

 

[jmlcolorado]

^whoa.. I'll def have to keep an eye out for those type of tiles, would love to do those in my garage

I thought so too

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=191366

 

[Jere]

Tools for pallet dis-assembly.

This first one is made from ... disassembled pallets !

Re-claiming Pallets Made EASY!! - The Pallet Pal


Re-claiming Pallets Made Easy!! - Pulling Nails!

As much as I wanted to see something that works I am not so sure those ideas will, at least not for hardwood. Looks like he is just using those on soft wood. Worth a try though I guess.

My method at least for hardwood is to let the pallets sit out in the rain for a month or two. Make a large wood broad heat mallet and wack the boards close to the nailed sections from behind and hope they dont split and hope the nails pull through the board. Sometimes using a flat style crowbar and hammer if there are awkwardly positioned boards that explode and leave bits nailed in.

For nails I switch between a couple different styles of crowbars for the loose nails. For the rest of the nails that loose their heads or bend I use a large set of slip joint adjustable pliers for the medium stuck nails. Then for the really stuck nails or brittle rusted nails I drill couple of 1/8in holes next to the nail, and pull them the rest of the way out with the adjustable pliers.

Get some heavy leather gloves and some thinner ones to go underneath, and where some thick long sleeves if you can. Nothing like the feeling of getting stuck with rusty pallet nails. Doesn't hurt to get a tenuous booster shot either. Ear and eye protection is a good idea too.

As far as planing goes my planer so far has done hundreds of passes of hardwood pallet boards and is still going strong. I haven't had to sharpen it yet, but it's getting to that point. Make sure to dry the boards for a couple weeks if they are damp. I like to go over the boards with wire grill/paint brush to clean off the dirt from them to spare the blades some agony. And double check all the boards have the nails out

 

[sleepjeep]

I know this is off topic. (flooring) but it is related sort of. Taylor guitars actually built a guitar out of old pallets. They say it sounded good too. If you look at the pictures you can see all the nail holes. The inlay on the neck is of a fork lift.

 

[Sneeze357]

I take apart a lot of pallets for the lumber. I got a place across the street from my shop that gives them away by the truckload. The best way I have found is to use a very long metal cutting blade in a recipricating saw, just cut all the nails. It's amazing how fast they fall apart when you know exactly what to do.

On the other hand, I've calculated that I'm better off taking the pallets back to the pallet factory where they buy them for $3 each...and go buy fresh lumber at the lumber yard.