This parquet pattern crafted from waste became the showpiece of the customer's home.
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This parquet pattern crafted from waste became the showpiece of the customer's home.
I once had a conversation with a good friend of mine in the hardwood industry, Wayne Lee, regarding waste. We both agreed the term “waste” is an ugly term used to describe material that is not used in the floor you’re installing. He prefers the term “cut-allowance.” I agreed, cut-allowance is a much more accurate term because there is no such thing as waste when we are talking about wood.
Wood is probably the most versatile building material known to man. The number of things you can do with leftover wood pieces is limited only by one’s imagination. Many parquet and border patterns can be created from pieces most people would consider waste; here are some things I’ve done on jobs to eliminate waste and even profit from it.
1) Create parquet patterns. I recently installed a floor for a customer I had done work for in the past. This person had a real appreciation for wood flooring; she planned on never moving again and she wanted a unique floor. I explained I could make a parquet floor designed specifically for her home using the shorts and off-cuts left over from the other rooms I was installing. This meant I didn’t have to intersperse the shorts in the field of the rooms, which created an appearance of long lengths.
She was very pleased with the notion of not wasting any material, and she loved the pattern I came up with. The entire installation was 3,000 square feet of red oak installed in the living room, dining room, den, hallway and bedrooms. The entry hall and family room received the parquet-patterned floor, and those areas became the feature of the home. This pattern did not require pieces larger than 12 inches. Shorts culled from the living room, den and the long hallway combined with the off-cuts was all that were required to produce this parquet floor.
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Making my own stair treads ensures I can choose boards with uniform color.
2) Craft stair treads. Another way I make use of my cut-allowance is to make my own stair treads. I will quite often cull pieces of approximately 42 inches. I laminate these pieces together and attach them to a plywood backer by screwing them from the underside. This process is very quick, and attaching them to the plywood backer keeps them flat until they are ready to be installed. I also make nosings by ripping 1¼-by-1/4-inch strips, laminating them to the bottom of one of the pieces and routing them to make a bull nose.
Making my own stair treads saves me money because I don’t have to buy treads for the job. Also, the treads I make are completely compatible with the floors I’m installing because they’re made from the same material. They’re the same thickness and grade, and I’m able to choose each board for the tread so they are all uniform in color.
3) Plan ahead to minimize waste. One way I minimize the amount of waste or “cut-allowance” is to plan how the installation is going to finish before I start installing. A balanced layout helps you plan the width of the last board and minimize ripping narrow pieces.
Small rippings can be eliminated by purchasing wider material. If I’m installing a floor with a board width of 2¼ inches, I’ll purchase a bundle or two of material that is an inch wider, 3¼, so if I have rippings of under 1 inch, I just use one of the wider planks.
4) Use small rips to make slip tongue. Speaking of small rippings, I don’t throw those away, either. Instead, I cut them into spline or slip-tongues. Slip-tongues are always necessary—you use them on every job—and I have never purchased a slip tongue, because I always have small rippings at the end of every job.
I used exotic wood from pallets to make this custom border.
5) Consider those pallets. I will even save the pallets that the material is shipped on, especially the pallets made from exotic materials. Once the pallet boards are cleaned up by running them through a thickness planer, they are surprisingly attractive, and I will use them as feature strips in a border, or I can use them in a medallion. All of this wood is usable, and I find it a shame if it were to just end up in a landfill.
I might be considered frugal or a wood hoarder, but I prefer to think of myself as resourceful, and creating beautiful floors out of material some people think of as “waste” gives me a sense of pride. I know I am not being wasteful, and it also gives the end user a story when their beautiful floors have recycled or re-purposed components. Best of all, putting waste material to use is profitable—I am able to charge more money for material I didn’t have to purchase.
