I'm new to the forum, so I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I am installing a 4" t&g hickory floor at present. I ordered the material from a mill, and am concerned about the quality I received in terms of material dimensions.

Here's my issue. I'm getting a lot more waste than I anticipated. Generally speaking, I'm losing 18 -24" every board (regardless of overall board length) to millwork irregularities: snipe and planks wandering at the end or beginning of rips. Snipe on the face is typically minimal, around 3-4". This is consistent with material I've worked with before and seems acceptable to me (Read: I planned for this and included that square footage in my overage). On the edge of the boards however, the unusable section ranges from 12 - 20". The difference in width is between 1/8 and 3/16 from the 4" wide stock.

It seems to me that I paid for a lot of square footage that I can't actually use, unless I want to be constantly correcting for the extra width on the left side of my boards. This would open up gaps that I am not willing to have. In addition to the above-mentioned issue, a number of boards are not the full 3/4 thickness. The tops are planed, but there was not enough material for the bottoms to be fully shaped.

Since I didn't account for this amount of waste in my overage (I typically allow 15%), I am not going to have enough material for the area I intended to floor. Lead time from the mill was 2-3 months when I ordered before, so ordering extra material (at least from them) is probably not an option.

I need the experts to weigh in - am I being unreasonable in my expectations with respect to the material dimensions/ quality of milling? I'd like to get some different perspectives before I take this up with the mill.

Thanks for your input!

what grade is it and what mill.

"Clear Grade" from Direct Flooring Mill out of Mississippi.

If its a clear grade then most defiantly call them. It sounded like a third grade from the description. Clear grade is a tall order and seldom sold, I think I have one clear floor under my belt in 20 years of distribution. I often see boards wider on one end due to poor acclimation. If you set it in a neat stack it will dry out more on the ends that are exposed giving you some variance along the length, and being wide plank hickory it could do it in a few days no problem. Check the moisture content along the piece and see if you get a lower reading on the narrow end.

Thanks for the response, Kevin. I checked the moisture on a few boards, and there is no drying trend toward the ends of the boards. This flooring has been on site and acclimatized for over a month.

The problematic variation in width only occurs on the left end of each board (groove facing away), which to me suggests the plank wandering away from a cutterhead or blade as it is run through a shaper/router/table saw at the beginning or end of each pass.

Thanks again for your help.

Best,
Matt

Funny how many complaints/concerns get posted about Hickory..

Hickory is tough.