I am building a new home in NH and will hire an installer to put down 850 sqft of 3,4&5" County Sugar Maple planks. The wood comes from a mill in Conn. called Hull Wide Plank Flooring. My concern is that the planks (which average 8' in length) do not have finished ends. What is the correct procedure to finish or prepare the ends and does my installer have to route T&G into the butt ends? If T&G is not required at the ends, should the plank be blind-nailed within 1" of the ends? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Bogey

Custom milled flooring will often not be end matched. There are various ways to handle this:
First, each end needs to be "squared" up. Then, choose a method below.
1) rout a groove into every end and insert a spline.
2) Use a biscuit joiner on the ends.
3) Do not use felt and glue, as well as nail/staple, the flooring down.
4) face nail the end butts (least favorite)
5) drill 1/2" holes 1/4" deep in the end butts ( two on each side for 8" planks ) and screw down with 1&1/2" wood screws. Then plug the holes.

Carslile did that to me too, Sent me 3200 feet of walnut 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 the endos of some of them looked like they broke the board over there knee. It was 2 sided beveled, pre sanded. The customer wanted to finish it with 4 coats of tounge oil per carlisles preferred method.

After showing her what the floor would look/feel like with nothing done to the ends (except cutting them square) She decided that my idea of not listening to carlise, and cutting, routin, and glueing spline in also was the way to go.

They also told me not to glue the flooring, not even the 5 6 7 and 8s. I couldn do this either.

Long story short, set one guy up for 3 days, cutting routing glueing beveling all the wood. All that walnut made him sick LOL damn toxic wood. Then we used bostics best (carefully) and stapled it in. Been a few years now, and every christmas she still sends me cookies and cards, thanking me for giving her the option to do it the right way. (her neighbor had someone else do it, they did it carlise's way. And hated it, catching thier toes on boards etc. and all the crackling you hear walking across the floor (on the wide planks) I believe they are still battling with them over it. 3years later

Jay,

I also installed some Carlisle flooring. 4500 ft of antique heart pine 6-8-10-12. In their installation instructions, they recommended either face nailing the flooring into the joists, along with blind nailing. OR, blind nailing and GLUING with PL400 with 1/4" beads of adhesive every 8" along the backside. We went with the glue and nail method. Very solid floor. I can't imagine them recommending NOT gluing their walnut flooring. Did they say why? BTW, after squaring up every end, we eased those ends to match the side "treatment" and applied stain and four coats of waterlox, per Carlisle's recommendation. Floors look great and hold up very well.

yeah they didnt want us to glue it, they wanted us to nail every joist, and the ends. But didnt not want us to use glue. No liquid nails no trowel glue nothing. We were as shocked as you. It was a random pattern so if we were to glue only the wide planks we wouldnt have been able to paper any of the floor. Thus the descion for the trowel glue.

They did say that if we really wanted we could top nail into the joists, with those rail road ties.

Im not sure why they didnt want to glue it, this was in 2004ish. Maybe because it was american walnut, maybe because t was presanded, maybe because they didnt sell carlise branded glue, but did sell the spikes, maybe the rep was a moron. But the directions didnt suggest/approve the glue method. I/my coworkers/My boss/The builder/ Everyone from great western were all shocked that such a good/expensive product didnt want to do it the way we did. But then again right in the instructions there was the infamous "the installer has final judgement line"

I looked at Carlisle, but too expensive for me. They did recommend using adhesive for their planks 6" or wider. It sounds like no one would recommend just blind nailing close to the butt ends and calling it good. We do want a smooth floor and my concern is that the ends wont stay flush over time. What additional expense can I expect to pay if I require the installer to biscuit or route and glue in a tongue? Thanks for the info guys.