# How to mill red oak for flooring



## reprosser (May 19, 2010)

I have a number of red oak trees that I have taken down, and more to come. Most are less than 24" diameter. I am thinking they may be best suited for flooring when I build my house. I have a band saw mill and a couple questions:

Are these logs big enough to quartersaw?
Should I quartersaw or flatsaw?
How thick should I cut the rough boards?
Is the sapwood normally used, or just the heartwood? (I may loose most of the sap wood making cants anyway)
Anything else I should consider?


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

I have never milled for flooring so I can't answer most of the questions from that angle. But sitting here looking at my 120 year old oak floor I see mostly flat sawn with a little 1/4 sawn mixed in. So that tells me it was just flat sawn. I would not 1/4 saw anything under 20'', I've done smaller and was not happy with the work/waste vs lumber. I just did a walk around and found sapwood on a couple pieces, but not much.




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## Mizer (Mar 11, 2010)

I would plain saw for the best grade with no regard to sap wood. We make a lot of flooring at the mill I saw for. I would saw regular 4/4 thickness (1 1/16). The only other thing to consider is what width you are wanting your finished floor to be and then saw for that width plus a good inch to allow for shrinkage and manufacturing. You might want to check with whoever is going to make your flooring what width to shoot for. We normally saw 6" for flooring.


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