Wood Block Floor

We guarantee every block to be suitable for the application but you or your installer will bear the final responsibility for the integrity and suitability of the floor. We will replace any block for up to two years from date of shipment, but our responsibility is limited to cost of materials and shipping costs of up to $50 and we do not cover cost of replacement or any ancillary costs of construction or damages caused by any failure or losses due to or arising out any claim.

GUARANTEE:

We will price your floor in line with conventional pricing in the $4-$8-$12 per square foot range depending on what you have in mind and of course, volumes. Hexagons and Octagons are of course more expensive and the center block on the Octagonal pattern can be very inexpensive or very dear'. Lead times can be from one month to three months depending on the size of the job and how special it may be. We take a 50% deposit (if outsourced materials are used for center tiles or wood species, deposit may be higher).

Ordering and pricing:

This is a tough one. Streets were paved with blocks from 3-4 and up. Modern homes are generally designed for flooring material ? thick but often this could include another ? for underlayment for normal hardwood floors. Given 1? to work with, Id say use a 1 block on a half inch sub-floor or use full thickness blocks.  Given a normal ? to work with, Id say bump it to 1 if you possibly can. A one inch block just has more strength to it and a really soft but rugged feel under-foot. If you must use a ? block, we will be glad to work with you of course, but some additional care must be taken, particularly in the installation phase as there will be more tendency for blocks to break up. Thinner blocks are not recommended.  

THICKNESS: 

We can make blocks as large as 8 but we recommend trying to stay under 7 for structural and manufacturing reasons. 
Hexagons will generally be 6or smaller as will Octagons. 
Octagons allow for extraordinary flexibility in choice of center block material: wood, differing species of wood, tile, stone, glass, what would you use? Octagons come in 6 as standard.  

SIZES: 

We are extremely specialized in material from at risk western forests at this writing. Primary products are Douglas Fir and Ponderosa Pine blocks. These are proven and good looking work horses in the wood block world and their use contributes to healthy forests in a way that paper work cannot begin to match. See the article on elsewhere on this site!  Red Oak, Walnut and Mesquite are available for significant orders. All our woods are dried to New Mexico dryness levels at a measured 6% or better, even imports from out of area. This truly sets us apart as acclimation becomes a much less significant challenge. In most cases no acclimation will be necessary other than re-humidification in wet climates. 

SPECIES: 

The Forest Floor Project by Old Wood LLC.

Wooden block floors, also known as end block, butcher block and parquet floors have been around as long as someone has had a cross cut saw to cut a tree into rounds or a square beam into blocks. The resulting slice is true, perfect, vertically grained wood with the annual rings being the evenly distributed wear surface. Even soft woods become much harder, so hard in fact that Pine was and is used extensively as a paving block for streets in major cities around the world. New York City at one time in the early 1900s had millions of feet of wooden paved streets as did Boston, Paris, Tokyo and many other world capitols. To this day, remnants of these bitumen treated blocks can be found on streets and bridges of towns in Florida and elsewhere. Edgar Allen Poe wrote a paean of praise to the marvelous, quiet character of the wooden streets of his day! 
Today, wood blocks are considered excellent, durable and beautiful materials and are used all over the world in custom applications, generally being specified by upper echelon architects and designers for fine lobbies, commercial, museums and better homes.  The Highest Best Use for small and at risk trees.
There are many reasons wood blocks have not come into common usage and Old Wood LLC strives to address most of these as we grow our level of expertise and knowledge. Solutions such as stress relief sawing and slow but thorough drying help greatly as we seek to move this product to the forefront of a new wave of applications which showcase its significance as the highest best use for woods from at risk western forests and problem woods elsewhere in the world such as the beetle killed forests of Belize. Your blocks are made on a custom basis in various shapes and sizes as well as thickness, from stocks of slow dried cants.  We are eager to make the right block for your specific application, so please, work with us to find the perfect synthesis of design and function for your custom job. We have Squares, Rectangles (generally based on either a 1-2 ratio to allow for brick patterns and herringbones or the Greek Golden Rectangle). Hexagons and Octagons are available in both Pine and Douglas Fir. All our wood is from certified forests being either FSC or better grade harvests (ALL of our harvests far surpass FSC criteria but FSC is expensive and extremely paper work intensive at present). We are all about great forestry solutions in all we do.