I live nexth to a wood recylcled factory mostly hardwood an I am thinging of useing tongue an groove as a floor in my boat any thoughts on this? thank's Donnie
Heavy! Every piece would need to be air dried for at least several months. Every inch of its surface should be stained and then finished before assembly in the boat. Finishing only the top surface would leave bare wood exposed to inevitable water intrusion (and spills) which would cause warpage. If this installation was in a cabin it's probably less of an issue. But boats get wet inside from dripping bodies to spilled drinks. It would certainly look nice though. Leave a gap at the edges and expansion will not be a problem
Well I am going to put my 2 cents in here given my carpentry past. T&Groove and boats are oxymorons. Oak or mahogany or teak it is irrelivant. Even letting it air dy for a year will not make it suitable for exterior use. Humidity and temp are going to be your demons, I hard wood floored a parlor of a 52' Viking for a guy and for the first year it looked beautiful. Needless to say the next year it had to come up and be scrapped. When you see a planked or wood floor you mostly or often see caulk or chinking in between the planks (that is where the expansion happens) There is a procedure for planking a floor in a boat and T& groove is not it !!!
Quick side note....nothing saying you cannot throw it on thr table saw and remove the tounge and reserch the chinking or caulking process (these terms are not correct terms but research should clarify) Planking is a neat project and will look great "IF" done correctly!!
