Wide Pine Replacing Wall-to-Wall Carpet

As per the photos, the top row shows how the bedroom looked when we moved in - all wall-to-wall carpet.

We knew we wanted wide eastern pine to match the rest of our mid 19th century cape's flooring.

After some research on how to lay it down we opted for shiplap. Then the question was how wide and long.

The Bedroom measures 16 x13 feet, so the math was pretty easy:

For those who might not know, the 1 X 10 actually measures 3/4 x 9 3/8", with the lip on the shiplap, 1/2", so figure 9 1/4" on the "face". So we needed a total of 17 boards, with no cutting necessary!

Easy-Peasy, Lemon-Squeeze.

Getting them in the house was a bit cumbersome. we had to lift them in one by one through the bedroom window, which is thankfully on the first floor!

We let the boards lay and acclimatize to our house and temperature a full week, and then the fun started:

Once we laid them down, we used Hard Cut Floor Nails to simulate a look more authentic to the 1800's.

We nailed them on with a hand set starting 1" from the edges on each side catching the 16" on-center floor joists.

Then the laborious but extremely important art of sanding starting with 80 working up to 100.

We vacuumed and wiped the boards down with a moist cloth, and then started in with the poly, 2 coats in all. (first we'd tried with linseed oil only, but we realized that was not protective enough for us, so once it dried thoroughly we switched to oil-based poly.)

(We chose Not to stain, on the recommendation of flooring experts here in Maine where this pine is plentiful* and naturally colors with magnificent yellow/red hues.)

The selection, laying down and setting of the boards took about 1 1/2 days (not including the week we had them laying down to acclimatize) The sanding another 1/2 day. And the finishing, two mornings. Cost? $450! (*Pine is very reasonable in Maine where it's plentiful; using local woods is always your best option, and usually more of a sustainable practice)