Victorian floor ID

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AngieC
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Victorian floor ID

Post by AngieC »

Brand new to the site. Trying desperately to identify my newly refinished floor. I've been told vertical grain fir and vertical grain Heart pine. They seem almost indistinguishable. I'm in Iowa and my home was built in 1881. Please help!
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Olson185
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Re: Victorian floor ID

Post by Olson185 »

Of the "wood people" I've met, I'm the worst at identifying wood (not sure what that really says about me).

I suspect both pics are pine. Top pic: distinct grain vs pore colouration and the colours themselves. I've never seen such consistent parallel grain in doug' fir. If I could sand a small spot I could tell the difference (I'm weird that way).

Bottom pic: Again, I suspect it's pine...distinct colour variation within individual boards (can't see the grain) and, again, the colours themselves. The patch is definitely knotty pine.

The "variation" in the bottom pic looks to be calico Felis catus but I know even less about such things.
Last edited by Olson185 on Tue Apr 11, 2017 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~James

Fourth generation in a family of artists, engineers, architects, woodworkers, and metalworkers. Mine is a family of Viking craftsmen. What we can't create, we pillage, and there's nothing we can't create. But, sometimes, we pillage anyway.

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Lily left the valley
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Re: Victorian floor ID

Post by Lily left the valley »

Welcome to the District! :wave:

I would have said smell them, but now they're refinished. There are some woods that you find stand out in their own way even when not wet. In my family, when our eyesight starts to slip, our noses become more keen. So I'm a bit more attuned to smell ID when I can.

I'm terrible at visual ID. I'm not even guessing on that front.

Where you told those two names by the refinishers, or someone else?

I see a patch along the one wall that is not like the rest. Was there an issue there that caused the need for that?

Although I'm sure one of our resident wood folks will pop by soon enough and sagely name them, if you have a local historical society, there may be someone among them who might as well be Treebeard, they are so knowledgeable about all things woodly.

Although my home is much younger, I recently found a written county record of where the lumber to build our home came from, and that business happens to still be in business. So one of the things on my To Do list is to see how far back they keep records just in case they could give me a copy of the stock pull.

Also, if you know the builder or architect, sometimes you can find out what was most typical with them as to homes they designed and/or built. It takes digging, but folks have found the most marvelous details and trivia through research.

I see your friend is learning the ways of catouflage. Just another step more, a tuck of the tail, and one would wonder if the sun was throwing dappled shadows through trees on your lovely floor. :D
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

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Neighmond
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Re: Victorian floor ID

Post by Neighmond »

They look like good old fashioned long-leaf yellow pine from here. where in IA are you?

1918ColonialRevival
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Re: Victorian floor ID

Post by 1918ColonialRevival »

Looks to be yellow pine. This was a very common choice for flooring in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, particularly in the Southeast and Midwest.

AngieC
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Re: Victorian floor ID

Post by AngieC »

Olson185 wrote:Of the "wood people" I've met, I'm the worst at identifying wood (not sure what that really says about me).

I suspect both pics are pine. Top pic: distinct grain vs pore colouration and the colours themselves. I've never seen such consistent parallel grain in doug' fir. If I could sand a small spot I could tell the difference (I'm weird that way).

Bottom pic: Again, I suspect it's pine...distinct colour variation within individual boards (can't see the grain) and, again, the colours themselves. The patch is definitely knotty pine.

The "variation" in the bottom pic looks to be calico Felis catus but I know even less about such things.

Thanks for the input on the wood... and also the cat! Made me chuckle!

AngieC
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Re: Victorian floor ID

Post by AngieC »

Neighmond wrote:They look like good old fashioned long-leaf yellow pine from here. where in IA are you?


I'm in western Iowa. Thank you for your thoughts on the floor!

AngieC
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Re: Victorian floor ID

Post by AngieC »

I apologize if I'm not responding properly to everything - still trying to navigate to the site, which is amazing by the way! Since I'm new, I should've elaborated more on my house/situation. My home was built in 1881, but a wealthy and prominent attorney who spared no expense and it's a very historic home in my town. The floors and woodwork are all quarter sawn oak, bud sadly prior owners have painted and carpeted this beauty. After 15 years of ownership, my husband I decided to pull up the carpet and refinish the floors ourselves. The parlor floor was 3" wide quarter sawn oak and turned out beautifully. Much to our surprise, we pulled back the carpet in the formal dining room to find linoleum tiles - ugh! But hiding under that we discovered a parquet perimeter, followed by a width of quarter sawn oak, and the interior rectangle of this "mystery" wood. I posted these photos on a woodworking Facebook page, where it was the prevailing identification of heart pine - a very historic and rare type of wood; however, a lumberman friend of mine guessed Douglas fir, which is a lot less interesting :) Thus my dilemma and plea for help here. It's only an issue because it may determine how we proceed with finishing - we just wrapped up sanding and are ready to proceed with stain and/or poly coating. I'd love to add a photo of the parquet border to this thread but I'm not sure how. At any rate, thank you for adding me and for your insights.

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Re: Victorian floor ID

Post by phil »

I think I was caught by jumping tot he conclusion that it's fir by the grain pattern which is similar to fir. It's funny because fir is a softwood technically it is a coniferous tree whereas pine looses it's leaves. fir is one of the harder sodftwoods. You know those were from big trees because the grain is so straight and knot free, so probably old growth pine? hemlock also looks similar to fir and can be easily confused.
all my flooring is old growth fir. west coast 1924 there was lots of it here so that's what most of the west coast homes are made of. in general it is tighter grain than that but specimens vary a great deal. tall trees that are crowded grow tight together so they tended to grow taller and grow less each year because they had to compete for light.
most floors are a mixture of the sapwood and heartwood. I'd say the more red sections are the heartwood and that you have a mixture so I dont' think I'd call it heartwood.. see what others think. here's a shot of an old fir floor I just uncovered. it is worn and has some finish so it looks quite different but this is fir.
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Mick_VT
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Re: Victorian floor ID

Post by Mick_VT »

AngieC wrote:I apologize if I'm not responding properly to everything - still trying to navigate to the site, which is amazing by the way! Since I'm new, I should've elaborated more on my house/situation. My home was built in 1881, but a wealthy and prominent attorney who spared no expense and it's a very historic home in my town. The floors and woodwork are all quarter sawn oak, bud sadly prior owners have painted and carpeted this beauty. After 15 years of ownership, my husband I decided to pull up the carpet and refinish the floors ourselves. The parlor floor was 3" wide quarter sawn oak and turned out beautifully. Much to our surprise, we pulled back the carpet in the formal dining room to find linoleum tiles - ugh! But hiding under that we discovered a parquet perimeter, followed by a width of quarter sawn oak, and the interior rectangle of this "mystery" wood. I posted these photos on a woodworking Facebook page, where it was the prevailing identification of heart pine - a very historic and rare type of wood; however, a lumberman friend of mine guessed Douglas fir, which is a lot less interesting :) Thus my dilemma and plea for help here. It's only an issue because it may determine how we proceed with finishing - we just wrapped up sanding and are ready to proceed with stain and/or poly coating. I'd love to add a photo of the parquet border to this thread but I'm not sure how. At any rate, thank you for adding me and for your insights.


This was commonly done on a room that was to have a large (not wall to wall) carpet - think large oriental rug or similar.
Mick...

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