Chestnut prices

[MBH]

I know this question is going to be relative to a whole host of other factors but was wondering if people had some historic prices of what they have paid for chestnut wood.

I am looking to replace my exisiting first floor flooring and wanted to get a sense of pricing, the current wood is ok in parts but has detoriated in several sections which makes me want to consider replacing it in its entiruty. What I can salvage I will resue for in various ways, from coffee table tops to shutters to shelves depending on the quality of the sections I can salvage. If I can salavage enough good lengths I may even create some basement doors...

any past experince appreciated.

[Charles Phillips]

Chestnut is usually sold by the cubic metre. The price per cubic metre will vary considerably depending on how seasoned the wood is, how regular the planks are, and how 'good' the wood is. I haven't bought any for about ten years, but at a wild guess it could cost anything between €60 and €600 per cubic metre. (So not much help there, then!)

Another problem is working out just how much wood (how many planks) you need. If your floor is made using planks which are not parallel sided - a very traditional way of doing it which looks fantastic, but is a long winded on-site process - then you can get away with many fewer planks. (Planks are often tapered, because trees get thinner at the top, so if you lay a floor with the thick end of one plank alongside the thin end of the next plank, and so on, you only have to saw straight edges onto the planks. If you want parallel edged planks, you waste a lot of the timber from the wide end of the plank.)

I'm talking above about 'raw' timber. Many big timber merchants do sell 'tongued and grooved' parallel chestnut planks - these are generally imported from the Balkans. There is nothing wrong with this planking - at a guess it will run out around €40 -50 per square metre, 30mm thick. It does tend to look a bit modern, and the planks are rarely more than 125mm wide, but it is easy to lay so you would save on the labour element.

Look in your yellow pages for legnami, or legno, compensati e profilati. If you can find a professional version of yellow pages you will get a better selection, also you'll find segherie (sawmills). Unfortunately these sort of places are not very web friendly, so I haven't trawled up any useful sites.

Where are you located? Any pictures of your current floor to upload for our interest?

[MBH]

Extremes in prices for sure but a useful best and worst case scenario.

Am located north in Friuli, attached are a couple of photos, realised I have been neglecting the history of works being done by not taking before and after photos but they do show some of the reasons I am looking to relay some of the floor.

[Charles Phillips]

That floor looks lovely in the photographs!
I would think very seriously before disturbing it. I can see there is a bit of damage under the window - probably the wood got wet in the past, and the woodworm feasted on it, and perhaps it's worth cutting out a small portion of the plank and replacing it. If you do that, you'll have to find something you can apply to match the new wood to the old in colour - but for a small area that should be possible. (I think I'd just place a tiny oriental rug over the bad bit!)
Then wax polish (which will fill in any worm tracks, maybe use a coloured wax for this) and enjoy the ancientness of the floor. You can see it's all made of planks which have been finished with hand tools, and it is genuinely characterful - regard it as a patinated piece of antique furniture, and any minimal works which you do you maybe could regard as art-restoration rather than joinery. (Save yourself lots of money as well, never a bad thing).

[MBH]

I agree and am loath to disturb it as well, however, what the photos don’t show is a general deterioration in the stability of the wood. I had thought to replace the flooring with a fiber board and relay the existing flooring over the top but then I lose the chestnut ceiling I would have down stairs. I guess I just want it both ways. Perhaps I investigate repairing the patching with reclaimed chestnut rather than replacing it all. As I have no experience would a wax polish help mask the colour difference between the existing and replaced planks?

[juliancoll]

I know nothing about the subject - but that floor is fabulous! I can just imagine how beautiful it would be if sympathetically restored. I'm quite jealous.

[Charles Phillips]

Yes, you can get coloured wax polishes (or more heavily pigmented wax 'sticks'), or you can use stuff like strong cold tea (!) or even synthetic spirit stains are okay - it is all a matter of experimentation.
Are you saying that these floor planks show their undersides as ceiling planks? That probably means they are quite thick. It is going to be difficult to colourise the ceiling (just that the stain will drip down your arm!). Does the ceiling look good from the underside? How 'unstable' is the floor - (a bit of bounce on a timber floor is much more acceptable than when you have tiles on top of timber).

[lotan4850]

Charles is right about most things - cost is related to how seasoned the wood and is nearly always sold by the cubic metre.

As an example we bought last week end some seasoned timber locally to make a large rustic farm house table for the portico, it came in at €650/m3 for rovere/guercia/castagna and €800/m3 for cherry.

I'm sure you can work out which my wife chose!

[MBH]

Correct, the floor boards double as the ceilings downstairs. Alot of the character I think comes in the hand cut thickness but in parts the wood is defiantly deteriorating to the point where you can feel uncomfortable movement in the center of the planks. I spoke briefly with the neighbours and they mentioend years ago this section of the house was used to dry straw hence this may have added to the damage that occured.