Endgrain Floor in Bathroom

very unusual looks nice hope it doesn't absorb water later. good luck Alistair

Looks really good.

That is beautiful. Im going to check out your blogs on this.

Im a contractor who does mainly bath/kitchen renos, and people ask me all the time for something "a little bit different". This is something i would consider telling them.

I also may do it in my bathroom upstairs. I just love it. I really do.

A beautiful, & excellent job.

The streets in our town years ago, were paved with end grain blocks.

That really looks good. I'll bet it feels good on the bare feet, too.

does the changes in humidity in the bathroom do anything to the wood? cracking? swelling? did you let it acclimate?

I saw your blog on this, and saw that you used real grout in one of your rooms ( idk about this one), does the grout ever crack with the wood expansion?

OK - just read your blog - very interesting - Must try this - will probably have to settle for a corner of my workshop first before my wife will let me try it in the house.
Your finished floor looks great

This would look great in my Wood themed Bathroom lol.

All I need to do now is add some real wood for the paneling and then do the floor like that and I will be set.

My Toilet, it has a Wooden Cabinet Build around the tank with a Wooden top and an Antique Handle to give the illusion of having an Old Fashioned Wooden Tank on my Toilet.

Will submit some pictures soon!

In Arizona the climate is super dry. We do have evaporative cooling which has a tendency to swell the wood, but remember that wood warps differently when it's on the endgrain and when the endgrain itself is sealed up on both sides. There isn't much movement that I've noticed from the floor that was adhered directly. The floor that I installed in my blog is on a subfloor and the subfloor had some shifting in it originally when I grouted because the plywood curled when it soaked up the moisture from the grout. It came down gradually over the next few weeks and is again true and flat, but as for grout cracks, etc. The bathroom is going to be prone to them only in the areas near the bathtub because the bathtub is a plastic material and doesn't bond well to the grout. That's the only area where I've noticed any hairline grout cracks. I will go over those cracks with a dark silicone that matches the grout.

If you live in a place where there is a lot of moisture you may find that the endgrain floors are actually better suited. The stain and polyurethane soaks in so deep into the endgrain that it would be nearly impossible to sand it away and refinish. I took a block of the endgrain out to the shop that had been finished and polyurethaned and had to remove over 1/8" to get to the old color, and there were spots where the stain had nearly gone all the way through. The top of the blocks bead off water like a windsheild becuase it's an oil-based finish. I'll let you know if I have any problems in the future. It's a constant experiment because the real craftsman of the end-grain floors from 100 years ago are no where to be found. I have found very little information on traditional installation. I have the advantage of technology and new adhesives to work with, but 100 years ago they didn't and the floors are still around to be seen in great shape. The only floor like mine I'm aware of is at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. It's what inspired me to do mine. I chose to use a regular grout as an experiment and because I wanted a dark charcoal grout that was easy to match since I was doing rooms individually. Now, I think I'm getting the process down pretty good and the production is much faster than the first floor I did.

Bring on the questions. I'm sure you'll think of many things I haven't yet. I'll post more pictures of the rest of the rooms as they come to fruition. Right now I'm busy getting ready for Christmas and have no time or money to be throwing at more remodel projects.

Thanks,
Thomas

thanks for the answers.

Thomas…love the floors you've posted…they are definitely unique. Ok a bit of trivia. The Martin Bomber Plant in Omaha (on Offutt AFB) has two and a half inch thick engrain flooring over concrete from the 40s. It has held up quite well. Of course it would have sucked to lay the floor since the building is 1.2 million square ft. The coolest thing about the building is that they used to build B-26s and B-29s there during WWII. Well and the endgrain floors are cool too.

Nicely done! I really love with what you did on the flooring.