Fir Vs Pine Flooring

Our house was built in the 1920 s and our top story has raw fir t g floors with no sub floor.

Fir vs pine flooring.

While softwoods such as fir cedar and cypress are also lower in cost than most hardwoods they lack the combination of properties that makes pine so popular. Yes you can use pine subfloors as primary flooring. Pine is often half the price of hardwoods such as oak maple and mahogany. Green lumber will weigh significantly more than kiln dried boards due to its higher density.

How to estimate how much wood weighs. The weight of wood varies by the species of wood and the moisture content of the lumber. Drawbacks include a thinner less insulated floor and a less durable surface than other flooring types. I d like to finish the floors with something both to decrease wear and to make them easier to clean but i don t want to use any sort of top.

Two groups of pine are used for the majority of pine flooring heart pine and standard pine varieties. Tight grained douglas fir boards from older trees are increasingly rare due to over harvesting and demand. Fir cypress cedar spruce and hemlock are other commonly available softwoods and you will find. Uncovered pine subflooring appeals to recycling enthusiasts as well as fans of distressed wood.

It can even cost less than luxury vinyl tile lvt which is often designed to mimic the look of wood. Sourcing douglas fir vs. Many people tend to confuse pine and douglas fir. In many older houses the pine subfloor was the only floor and it held up well.

This is understandable because both are softwoods harvested in the northern hemisphere and are used extensively in the building trades to provide lumber and plywood for homes and as a base material for cabinets flooring and other woodworking projects. The soft wood between the grain lines shrinks and expands making the wood cup or twist. Pine has broad grain lines that wander making it far weaker than fir. Another source of heart pine comes from reclaimed lumber such as beams or structural lumber.

Heart pine is milled from the center of very large trees that are becoming scarce and hard to find. One problem you may run into with both douglas fir and yellow pine is locating truly high quality lumber. Choosing a penetrating finish for fir floor.