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We bought this house several months ago, and was told that it has heart pine for the floors. It also has wood on the walls, and ceiling. Although all of the walls are covered with either old paper wallpaper, or new sheetrock.
We live in Eastern TN, (Chattanooga) and the house was build in 1941 from old barns around the area.
So, I guess I was just wondering what kind of wood this looked like?
The photos are not the best, but if you need more i can roam around taking photos.
I wet the shots on the wall, because it had old old paper on it. It also shows the grain a little better.
Replies
Pretty hard to say. Around here (Central FL) people always say you can't pound a nail into old heart pine. You can probably answer your own question if there's end grain to look at. From the size of the cathedrals in your pictures, I'd say it isn't true heartwood. Maybe a local could answer your question best.
Yep, looks like Southern Yellow Pine to me of which the heartwood is called heart pine, rich pine and other. It's difficult to tell from your pictures but, the pine wood looks more like sapwood. Southern Yellow Pine normally consist of longleaf, slash, loblolly and shortleaf. I'd guess you being in SE TN it would be either slash or loblolly pine....Dale
The wood is pine, but calling it heart pine may be a bit generous. Real estate agents love the colorful names!
Woody
Oh Woody..are you implying that Real Estate Agents ...........embellish? Pashaw!! No way....cant be true. Then again, there is the Salesmans Credo ( coming from someone who has been selling for nigh on to 30 years) "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."Wicked Decent Woodworks
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
One of my many bosses (one of those modern matrix organisation thingies that is not neary as reliable as the torsion box it is supposed to represent) used to say "never confuse selling with delivering" - is that the same? LOL
Our real estate agent wouldn't have known the difference between wood and tile.It was our neighbor who said it was "heardwood pine" I beleived him....but wanted to check.I think it's a mix of wood. no way I can tell really. on the first floor, nothing is tounge and groove.. but upstairs it is. in the basement it's painted, so ...meh... can't tell.
Hey, it's pine, and looks nice, just enjoy what you have. This is like the difference between a woman and a pretty woman. Sure, there are some technical things you could dig into, but it's mostly in the eye of the beholder. I've perhaps thought of a few ladies as "heartwood" when others may have considered them just "sapwood", but who's to say, right? Perhaps your neighbor was just saying that it looked nice to him.
It's Pine. Looks like from 1900s to 1920. Before 1900s finer grain than your photos show. If you split it every time you drive a nail it's the real thing. Age is what makes it so hard. The resins just keep getting harder and harder.
BTW will be tearing down a old shed about 30x20 in a couple of weeks. House with it built in 1889. Shed before that..... looking for some good stuff here.
Jimmy
as always I wish you enough
There is a way to tell, is there any place where you can see the endgrain of a couple of boards?Possibly at a threshold or stairwell, you might have to remove a molding to see. If the grain lines are very close together in a plain sawed piece then it may be heart pine.The grain lines should be 1/16" apart or less with most of the boards. Sometimes in a few boards the grain lines will be as much as 1/8" apart, due to a very favorable growing season, each line represents a year of growth.Heart pine grew large and slow in the north, not positive about your area , I doubt that there is much difference.The yellow pine we see today is not heart pine, will be if left uncut for a couple hundred years.
I kind of doubt it as your home is only 60 some years old.Most of the heart pine flooring I have seen is in homes older than 100 years.
mike
Yep, I'd agree about it being less than 100 years old - grain looks too far apart. If you were a little to the north and east (say the hills between Knoxville and Kingsport) the wood would have more likely been oak or chestnut; possibly poplar - at least that's what was in the dismantle jobs I did in that area. I'm guessing there isn't much of that left - it's been 25 years now. Now that was some pretty wood!
Regardless, the patina of age can't be beat. Enjoy!
I'll vote Southern Yellow or Doug Fir.
John
Some heart pine / southern yellow pine pictures and discussion here.
http://forums.prospero.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=22245.1
More pictures.
http://images.google.com/images?q=%22heart+pine%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
Also check out flooring suppliers' ads in Fine Homebuilding and other building magazines.
I would bet on Southern Yellow Pine (heartwood is called Heartwood Pine and is very hard) is on the floors. Older growth SYP typically has few knots. The walls appear to be a different species possible a white pine. Both woods were very prevelent in the Southeast.
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