not normal flooring......has anybody ever tried making flooring by gluing a 3/8" thick veneer to baltic birch in a vacuum press? my thoughts are to laminate 3/8" cherry to 12mm baltic birch in 15" squares using urea formalhide glue, surface the glue-up in a widebelt sander then t&g the whole assembly.....install would be directly to advantech using mastic and staples.....then sanded and finished in place.....
does this sound like a doable process? or an exersize in futility?
thanks, tod

I guess I have to ask, WHY? Because you cannot get it elsewhere? Because you believe you could do it for less? There are a few custom flooring mills that can pretty much make anything you want. And I'd bet they could do it for less than you could. Just my opinion.

hi gary,
my thoughts are that being as i`m doing my own house and not a customers i can possibly manufacture a better product than what is available commercially......by using an exterior rated grade of baltic birch, a high grade of uf glue and shop sawn cherry veneers i figure that i`ll have 3/8" of sandable flooring on a very stable backing....for about 2 bucks a foot...material....
in my shop i`m set up to do fairly large scale resawing,shaping, moulding ect. so the labor involved wouldn`t be excessive....i can buy moulder run cherry at wholesale through my regular supplier but i think i`d get a lesser quality product by going with solid than the laminate i asked about? that`s why i posed the question to this board.....wondering if anybody had made or used a product like i discribed? as an added bonus by resawing and laminating my own veneers i`ll be able to bookmatch grain which is unheard of in moulder runs.....
anybody have any reason why this wouldn`t be a doable thing for my own home? thanks, tod

I have bought and have had made flooring similar to your description. 1/2" marine grade baltic birch backer with 1/4" solid sawn veneer. This was available in a strip format years ago through now defunct Firebird industries. This design and product was bought by Bruce (who actually imported it) and called Studio B. It was a prefinished floor. Expensive but very nice. There are some custom mills who will make a similar floor or ANYTHING you want using the same process. But if you can do it for $2.00 a ft, WOW, you otta go into the business because you could make a bundle. THere is NO reason why you cannot make your own flooring IF you have the equipment to acturitely mill it. Some folks fell trees on their land, air dry them, and have portable mills come to their property to mill that lumber into flooring and other wood parts for their homes. I say, if that is what you want to do and like the challenge and potential savings, then go for it.

thanks gary! the milling part isn`t an issue.....do you know of a higher quality, more durable floor? if not then i`ll proceed with my plans, and if you like i can document both the process and installation here for folks to see?......i`m about 4-6 months away from starting the floor only having weekends to do my own stuff but the material is bought-n-paid for, just waiting on me to finish ceilings, wainscoating, hvac,ect, ect... tod

Like I said, ANYTHING can be made by a couple of custom flooring mills I know of. Whether it is of higher quality will depend on what YOU produce, right? Durabilty is a complex subject. One needs to factor in environmental issues and use. Wood species factors in as well as finishing quality. And the all important installation quality. So the same flooring could perform dramatically differently in different settings. Quality control over the size and thickness would seem to be the most difficult to manage. But since your planning on sanding and finishing in place, this is less of a concern.

you cant hardly buy the cheapeast eng floor out there for two bucks a foot. Sounds alot like some of the upper end eng floors that go for closer to 6.00 bucks. One thing sticks out, if you are looking for durability, american cherry is not the hardest wood out there in the flooring world by any means, one of my favorites, its just not for everyone. Not a wise choice if you have two 80lb dogs like myself.

kevin, thanks for the response! i realize that cherry isn`t in the same league as ipe of jatoba as far as density, but i`m doing the wainscoating and stairs out of cherry also......and the determining factor.......it`s what the wife wants ....
i`m hoping that by assembling it myself using good stuff i`ll be able to have a higher quality floor than what`s available commercially....there`s absolutely no way i`d be able to sell what i intend to make for 4-6 bucks a foot! i get my material wholesale but the labor involved would quickly over-run those figures.....the beauty/and curse of self employment....tod