Floorboards - What's this timber?

[dizzle]

I live in an ex-war veterans cottage in inner west sydney, and I will get rid of the carpet in my house for alergy reasons. I am tossing up between either doing a floating floor or repolishing my existing floorboards.

Can someone help me identify what timber this is? I had someone tell me that it's cypress, but i am not sure.

After reading about all the problems with floating floors, i am leaning towards re-polishing, but the wood doesn't look to be in great condition and I will have to repair some parts because they've being replaced with chipboard. After reading about all the experiences people had sanding their own floors, I will definitely get a professional in to do it, anyone recommend a good one in sydney?

[Wongo]

Cypress but again I am not sure. Sorry.

[Vernonv]

I'm with Wongo ... I reckon they are Cypress. Do you have a pic of the top side (I assume the top side is smoother)?

[SilentButDeadly]

I third the vote for cypress....a very common floor in post war housing in Sydney.

[dizzle]

Here is a picture of the topside.

[Wongo]

Cypress floors have lots of knots. It is hard to tell but I still think it is cypress.

[glock40sw]

Either Cypress or Baltic Pine.

[Dusty]

I'm gonna run with the Cyprus crowd too.

It should look something like this (http://clintfudgefloorsanding.googlepages.com/testtwo8) once it's been sanded and polished.

[namtrak]

I'm not sure its cypress, the older timber I think would have been a lot knottier. Maybe Baltic? Does it have a distinct smell?

Try Larry McCully on these threads, if he cant help he'll put you in the right direction.

[rowie]

the absence of knots has me wondering too! Diz, go back under the house with a chisel, dig away at one of the knots a bit, and then have a sniff. If it has a really strong, sweet, spicy smell, you can bet it'll be a callitris of some sort!

[Vernonv]

Yeah, the lack of knots has me wondering also. Cypress has a pretty distinctive smell, so try what Rowie suggested.

[SilentButDeadly]

In the old days (ie. before we all got too greedy and numerous), the cypress (Callitris sp.)that was logged were some fairly titanic trees.......not the spindly little fellas you see these days.

Not so many knots and faults in the lengths from some of the bigger trees......those were the days.

That said I suppose it could just as easily be something Kiwi too....

[Bloss]

Even the larger older planks of cypress from that period would have many more knots than those pics show. Even though they were from larger trees it is the nature of the tree and as they were felled and milled from native forests they were not subject to silviculture practices like trimming of lower limbs as they grew.

Two tests:

1. As others have said the distinctive turpentine/ spice smell of cypress when cut or shaved (if old) to see what that is go to Bunnings or a timber store and smell the new cypress fencing palings they have.

2. Cypress is also quite a hard timber and dense - more likely this would be baltic pine (that will be softer).

In any case it looks OK and would come up well.

[Dusty]

Well....Dizzle are you gonna sand a bit and put us all out of our misery???

[Riley]

My vote is Baltic over Cypress, just too clear

[dizzle]

I have no idea what cypress smells like so I think i'll pop down to bunnings and have a smell of some fence posts first.

[Bloss]

Make sure you only sniff the posts - people might think you are a WA pollie!:U

[Studley 2436]

Gosh when I looked at it first up my thought was mix of NSW hardwoods. Could be a Northern Beech mix I thought, which might include stuff like Mesmate Black Butt and various others. The Cypress I had and made a floor from is much much knotier than that. It also has a pungent aroma, it stinks. You would expect to see some strong grain running through it with decent width in the light and dark runs of colour.

There might even be some Spotty Gum in there too but it is really hard to tell looking at an internet picture. Wongo who has had stacks of experience with NSW Hardwood says Cyprus which surprised me, so you can see how hard it is.

It still looks like decent timber that would love to have a sander run over the top of it and polished up.

Studley

[glock40sw]

Studmeister.
You have to remember that the Cypress back in the 40's and 50's was cut from larger trees than it is today. That is why the knotts are large and few.

I deal with most of the NSW hardwoods every day and none of them look like the timber in the photos.

[Studley 2436]

And I know enough to know that Glock has forgotten much much more about Aussie Hardwoods than it is possible for me to learn in my lifetime.

Studley