Cash Pyle’s childhood home was filled with hardwood floors installed by his family.
“I guess it's kind of a family tradition to do our wood floors,” says Pyle, a fifth-generation wood floor pro who owns Pyle Legacy Floors in Modesto, Calif. It’s a tradition he’s continued in his own new home, where he installed this white oak and walnut handbasket weave in the master bedroom last year.
Pyle knew immediately that the existing floor had to go regardless: “It was all bamboo!” he says. The bamboo also had moisture issues, with the RH in the slab reading at 98%. After the house was purchased, Pyle and two of his workers got to work tearing out the glued-down flooring in the bedroom, then used 7-inch grinders on the concrete and applied two coats of moisture barrier.
He chose the handbasket weave pattern for the room to challenge himself—he’d never done the pattern outside of wood flooring classes.
“All of my floors are a result of me looking around and seeing something, a pattern that I like,” says Pyle. “I say, ‘Well, if I get an opportunity, I’m going to try to do it.’”
He purchased the ¾-inch rough-milled white oak for the weave and mixed it with leftover walnut. He then set up a jig saw, table saw and chop saw outside his bedroom to cut the pieces. He routed the grooves on all sides so the pieces would be more versatile during the installation of the weave. “You could end up having pieces where tongue could hit tongue, so by having it all grooved out and just slipping the [spline] in, you don’t have that issue,” Pyle says.
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When all the pieces were ready, they began the glue-down install in the center of the 190-square-foot room at a 45-degree angle, making “Ts” by putting the oak pieces and walnut together as they went. "I did one half of the room, and once that was done, went and did the other half,” Pyle says, noting that they slipped the splines in as needed. It was a smooth process, done during evening hours, that took under two days to wrap up.
When the floor was in place, they sanded using 40- and 60-grit with the big machine, then 80-, 100-grit and 120-grit using a Bona Multidisc. They also wire-brushed the floor before troweling on Bona Craft Oil 2K with a mix of Neutral and Frost colors and buffing it.
The resulting floor is a gem among numerous other custom floors he’s since installed throughout his now bamboo-less home, where each room has its own theme.
“I like doing things I haven’t done, or things that you don’t see every day,” says Pyle of his family tradition. “For me, the favorite part is just creativity."
Suppliers:
Abrasive: Norton Abrasives, Bona US | Adhesive, Moisture Barrier: Wakol | Buffer: American Sanders | Edger, Big Machine: Lägler North America | Filler: Woodwise | Finish: Bona US | Moisture Meter: Wagner Meters | Palm Sander, Router: Festool | Saws: DeWalt
