I do not have antique but I have 12- 20 inch pine planks, butted & face nailed throughout over radiant heat. I have only one board at the connecting of our 1870 - to new addition that slightly cupped. It is noticable to the eye but you can feel it with your hand. Contractor said he could fix it but unless it got much worse I wouldn't bother. Our contractor has a variety of flooring to include pine over radiant heat and his house is about 11 yrs old. He also did a variety of oil finishes.

If it's in the budget specify quartersawn (AKA Vertical Grain) which will have the least possibility of adverse shrinking and swelling, and be free from cupping. And acclimate as long as possible.
Casey

Our floors are Eastern White Pine(not antique though). I knew they would be soft, and wanted the aged look so was willing to accept the dents and dings, but it's a little more than I expected. I've had to cover up certain scratches with stain. Heart pine may be harder though but I would try to get a sample of your wood and test it out a bit. Here is a photo, which doesn't really show the scratches, etc. but maybe it will help you picture this type of floor.

Hello.

We ordered 10 inch planks of heart pine to be installed over the next month or so. We were told it was pretty hard and that if we went with a more natural finish (we're doing Tung Oil), the inevitable scratches & dings are easy to repair. Also, they add to the character/patina. Some words of advice we were given: get an installer familiar with wide planks & face nailing and also let the wood acclimate with the house's heat/moisture for a good bit.

IMO, totally worth it. I fell in love in the showroom. The antique heart pine was FABULOUS (but we are doing about 3,000 square feet so it was totally out of our budget!)

Good luck!

Thanks all. The antique heart pine we are looking at is vertical grain, so hopefully that will help as Casey mentioned? Casey - how long would you recommend acclimating the boards? I'm not going to rush it so we can take our time and do it right. And it's not really wide (only 3-5") so I've heard the cupping isn't as much of an issue (in contrast to the 7"+ wide planks). Katieob - I fully understand the budget issue - we started off looking at 1600 sq ft of the antique heart pine, but after working the numbers have cut that sq ftg in half and are looking at other options for the other areas. Blakey - that is one GORGEOUS kitchen, and I love those floors. We have a sample on the way so I'm planning on abusing it. All - I keep hearing about Tung Oil - is that the best way of finishing these floors?

Thanks!

We put Carlisle pine floors (not heart pine) in our Vermont house, and installed them ourselves, and finished with a satin-finish tung oil. Sister in law got the same pine floors, installed them themselves, had them professionally finished with poly.

Aside from preferring the mellow sheen of our tung oil, I love how durable the floor is, even though it's a softwood. Our floors have dings and scrapes, yes, but they add character to the wood. They haven't passed character and gone on to yucky. Also,the tung oil is easily repairable (with a brush or q-tip, though mostly I don't bother) and the tung oil is applied thickly, three coats, and penetrates, and actually hardens, the wood fibers. Poly is applied in multiple thin coats, and sits on top of the wood and does not penetrate the wood. Now their floor looks pretty awful (mostly compliments of the dog), because scratches in the finish lift the finish and leave bare wood exposed, to catch dirt. A scratch in the finish on our floor just exposes more treated wood, so it's not as damaged.

This is as close to a side-by-side comparison that I can think of, and I would never go back to a poly finish on a soft wood.

The original oak floors in my other house are finished with oil-based poly, and that's a whole different ballgame. Those hard floors do just fine with the poly.

But for pine, and I'd think even heart pine, the tung oil is the way to go. And while some finishers won't use it (they think that tung oil rags and applicators are more combustible) even if you did it yourselves, it's a total piece of cake. You take a lambswool applicator, pour tung oil out on a section of floor, and spread it slowly with the lambswool applicator in one direction, leaving a thick coat. Cover the whole floor, back out of the room, leave overnight. Do it all again, but apply on a direction perpendicular to the first (this prevents humps or streaks in the finish, because it's in different direction). Sand lightly. Do it once or twice more. Piece of cake.

We have random-width antique heart pine flooring in our kitchen ranging from 8"-12" wide. Some is vertical grain, some not. It has been in for a just over a year now. I noticed the cracks between boards got a little bigger over the dry winter, but no cupping or any other kinds of problems. We do not have radiant heat (which I sometimes regret). Ours is finished with 3 coats of oil based poly and has held up well to our 85 pound dog. The color continues to develop slowly over time, and we think it's beautiful.

{{!gwi}}

"how long would you recommend acclimating the boards? I'm not going to rush it so we can take our time and do it right."

You might post this over on the flooring forum. The amount of time needed to acclimate wood floors is moisture dependent and could take a few days, or a few weeks. My GC checked moisture often and wouldn't rush it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardenweb flooring forum

If your installer has a moisture meter and knows how to use it to advantage in your climate, use his judgment. A week's acclimation with the boards unbundled and spread out is a sure bet.
Casey

We have Carlisle pine floors in our kitchen and throughout much of the home we built 2 yrs. ago. Our home is lakeside in New Hampshire, so we have every variation of tempurature and humidity over the course of a year.

We have not experienced any shrinking or warping in the year & a half that the wood floors have been down. We don't have radiant heat under the wood floors. In retrospect, wish we had gone that route. We have it in our mudroom, beneath tile, and in our finished basement family room, under polished/scored concrete, and I just love it! So cozy, so clean!

We did our own staining and finishing. We used tung oil, and I echo everything evilbunnie wrote about it in her post above.

Lots of people, including my GC, tried to dissuade us from using pine for our floors. After seeing how beautiful it is and how well it's held up, they are all converts.

True Heart Pine is very hard. We've been cutting studs that are Heart Pine in our house and they give the saw a work out. Cutting regular Pine is like going through butter.

I'm sure they'll dent and scratch but not to the extent that regular Pine does.

We have Heart Pine in our house but it's still in the renovation stage and I haven't put it back down yet.

Wow. All these beautiful floors are truly turning my head! Definitely feeling better about the heart pine decision - though I do wish someone had radiant under them. Anyone else out there? Thanks so much for the help everyone!

True antique heart pine is about the spendiest floor around aside from true teak or rosewood. It's around $30 a foot because the only source is salvage from buildings being torn down. It's also pretty hard---MUCH harder than the "heart pine" being sold today. You just can't replicate the durability of old growth woods. But....solid wood and radiant heat don't exactly play well together. There are darn few manufactureers who will warranty their floors for install with radiant. Most will recommend that you use an engineered product. If having a warranty on your floor is important to you, then engineered should be your choice. If having true antique heart pine is more important, then choose another heat source.

Like Trailrunner, we have original heartpine floors in our 1890s townhouse. Actually, they are subfloors, as the prior owner took up the original oak parquet, which was painted and in bad shape, and re-finished the pine. Trailrunner's side-by-side pic above is very close to the color and condition of our pine (and even the oak looks like ours!)

We did cover the pine with new oak parquet on the parlor/living floor of the house, primarily because we wanted a more formal look but also because the pine had some deep scratches and gouges from furniture being moved. We never noticed dings or dents from high heels or dropped items but furniture legs really did a number on the floors.

For now we are keeping the pine on one level of the house, an area that includes the kitchen and a full bathroom. That floor has been used and abused by our workmen since we've been under renovation and it seems pretty impervious to dropped tools, muddy salty boots, plaster being ground into it, etc. The bathroom is not at all well ventilated and we have no shrinkage or warping problems even with us being less than vigilant about wiping up random sink and tub splashing.

No radiant heat to tell you about, sorry!

Mine are heart pine & were laid 151 years ago so no radiant heat. My carpenter said they are quartersawn. Although they're a very hard wood, they dent easily which is why an oil finish works well. I don't know how that compares to the antique flooring being sold today. I love my floors & wouldn't trade them for the world. Admittedly, I baby them a little but they deserve it - they're old & were badly abused by 60+ years of slum tenants!

Thanks for all the feedback everyone - antiquesilver - that is a beautiful shot of the floors - you are very lucky!!