Has anyone done this? We have enough leftover hardwood flooring from our house to finish off the tack room floor which is currently plywood. I think it would look amazing, but is this a terrible idea? Private barn for just me, myself and I, and only 2 horses, so it won’t get a lot of wear and tear…
Well, how bad will you feel about tracking mud and dirt onto it and scratching the floor?
If you’ve got the extra and no more important use for it, why not?
There is some value in keeping some flooring in reserve for repairs for the house, or maybe you will have a closet or something that didn’t get done before.
If you have enough, why not?
You might need some stashed away for repairs in the house, but since you already own it, use it.
You can hit it with another couple of coats of poly urethane to protect it, but it should be completely fine (you probably abuse it more in the house anyway!
Agree with Alagirl.
A flooring guy once told me “When you walk on the floor, you’re not walking on the floor. You’re walking on the surface.” What he meant by that was that you are walking on whatever coating you put on the wood. If you keep that in good shape, recoating periodically, the wood should be more or less fine. (Although anyone wearing Vibram soles that are chock-full of gravel might cause damage that shows.)
Also a carpet runner here and there might look esp. nice.
There’s a wood product I learned about here on COTH which sounds pretty cool, Eco-safe. It seems to bond into the wood instead of coat the surface. May need to embrace a more rustic look with it:
http://www.amazon.com/ECO-SAFE-Wood-Treatment-Preservative-Non-Toxic/dp/B00LWF09XA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436982344&sr=8-1&keywords=eco+safe+wood+treatment
Alrighty then,
Humidity levels?
Is the tackroom on a slab (under the plywood)?
All wood will expand/contract, solid hardwood will expand up to 1/8 inch per running foot.
You should not glue down solid hardwood, it does not give it enough room to move. Glue/staple only.
I would not put hardwood anywhere I cannot control humidity 100% of the time. Period, would not do it.
If your tackroom is heated in the winter, and air conditioned in the summer-and no chance that there will ever be standing water in, on or under the floor. Go for it.
Otherwise, no. You are going to ruin the flooring, be unhappy with the product and blame the product. Whereas the application is not correct.
[QUOTE=Vindicated;8367956]
Alrighty then,
Humidity levels?
Is the tackroom on a slab (under the plywood)?
All wood will expand/contract, solid hardwood will expand up to 1/8 inch per running foot.
You should not glue down solid hardwood, it does not give it enough room to move. Glue/staple only.
I would not put hardwood anywhere I cannot control humidity 100% of the time. Period, would not do it.
If your tackroom is heated in the winter, and air conditioned in the summer-and no chance that there will ever be standing water in, on or under the floor. Go for it.
Otherwise, no. You are going to ruin the flooring, be unhappy with the product and blame the product. Whereas the application is not correct.[/QUOTE]
Maybe you wouldn’t but I would and have. There’s no problems when installed correctly. Wood flooring has been used for centuries. “Climate control” has only been around for around 75 years or so.
One section of our house was built in 1691 and has the original oak flooring. It is warn and has character but no issues.
I have not found as a rule that properly cured hard wood will expand 1/8 inch per running foot. That would mean that a 10 foot board will/could expand 1 1/4 inches. I have never encountered this. I don’t install flooring by “trade” but I have installed enough to know what I am doing.
When I have installed over concrete I glue and screw down “nailers”, wood “strips” every 12-18 or 24 inches depending on what is being laid and how “lively” I want the surface. I leave a 1/2 gap on the ends and sides which is covered by baseboards on the walls. This has worked fine on a number of “remodels” pine or oak. In very humid areas with and with out A/C.
The most import step to do before laying the floor is to “acclimate” the new material to the room/house. In other words bring all of the flooring into the room/house and let it sit for a week or two before installing. Ideally with “average” humidity levels say around 45% in humid locations.
I have pretty much always used “recycled, salvage” flooring so it has been “aged” for quite some time. Depending on width I have encountered minimum “movement”. Nothing unexpected and nothing that took away from the look.
I have some left over salvaged flooring that I plan on laying in my tack room over concrete. It is 3" pine from around 1930. In a tack room I would stain it dark and use a deep penetrating tongue oil and “build up” to a “dull” sheen. So dirt and “abuse” won’t show much.
Gumtree,
I do install flooring as trade, and I have dealt with customers all over the country when their floors perform exactly as I have explained.
The board will expand and contract around the grain, which would be width-not length. So if your planks are 6" wide, you can have up to 1/16th of expansion or contraction on each plank.
Yes, if you follow Gumtree’s instructions you should be fairly safe. You will need sleepers (which eludes to the never direct glue comment I made earlier).
The more aged the wood the better, I also agree with that.
Does not change my opinion that it will not be worth the potential hassle.
Is there any chance you might some day need that left over flooring to patch the hardwood in your house?
I have had hardwood floors in tack rooms before. Both ‘store bought’ home types and inch thick pine wood that was put down, sanded, and stained.
I personally loved the inch thick stuff more. It could handle anything, and was over 60 years old when I was using it. It was still completely fine. And it was not climate controlled.
The store bought stuff worked well too, and lasted well the whole time I was there. I expect it to have a life of about 5 years, maybe more if the new owners take care of it well.
We don’t have hardwood in our tackroom, but we did install an all plastic laminate flooring - which is a fairly new product and looks really nice! We do not have an air conditioner in the summer but do heat it in the winter and the room is spray foamed all around. The flooring was layed on plywood and we have had no issues.
We have even used laminate flooring in our live in quarters in our horse trailer (for over 8 years now) with 0 issues. It goes through extreme cold (as we dont use it in the winter) and the heat in the summer, plus it goes down the road and shift etc. No problems!
Our hardwood is over 200 years old in our house and we don’t have a/c either and the flooring looks perfect.
I can’t see why it wouldnt work in your tack room. I think it would be a good idea to add a coat over the flooring to help protect it, and perhaps add a floor mat when you first walk into the room to take mud etc off of your boots (thats what we did).
Post some pictures! I bet it will look beautiful 
Thanks for all of the advice, guys! Yes, we have more than enough left over for any repairs in the house down the road. The tack room will have heat and A/C, Gumtree thank you for reminding me to let it “acclimate” to the room before we install it!
The tack room is small, but will be “fancy” (cool light fixtures, beadboard walls, big area rug) so I think the hardwood would really look awesome! I’ll share pictures once its done
Thanks again for the help!
Can’t wait for pics. Tack room sounds like it will be a show stopper!
if your tack room becomes like ours the floor is well protected with all the stuff in the way
Not hardwood but I bought some laminate on sale at Lowes and used it to finish my tack room floor, and it looks really nice! Way better than what it was before (bare plywood). It does show dirt, shavings, etc, but it’s very easy to sweep out.
Picture here (scroll all the way down): http://thesmallhorsefarm.blogspot.com/2014/04/staining-tack-room.html
I joked/noted when we put laminate in my daughter’s room that it was cheaper than the flooring we put in the horse stalls. “Literally cheaper than dirt,” I said. 
[QUOTE=Libby2563;8372577]
Not hardwood but I bought some laminate on sale at Lowes and used it to finish my tack room floor, and it looks really nice! Way better than what it was before (bare plywood). It does show dirt, shavings, etc, but it’s very easy to sweep out.
Picture here (scroll all the way down): http://thesmallhorsefarm.blogspot.com/2014/04/staining-tack-room.html[/QUOTE]
Your tack room is gorgeous! I love the walls/ceiling. Beautiful!
I’ve put hardwood flooring in a number of such utility spaces. Mostly, we’ve used cheap utility grade 2-1/4" unfinished Oak, and left it unfinished. Nail it down using pennies on top of the tongues for every tenth board, and then pull them up after that part of the floor is laid. The penny leaves enough of a crack that the floor can expand and contract in most conditions and not buckle. After the floor is installed, it’s sanded as usual, but that’s it-no finish.
It looks, and lasts, a lot better than plywood, and is pretty cheap.
It’ll last a few hundred years with nothing more than sweeping, but it can be resanded a bunch of times if you want to during that time.
Anything but tile!
My tack room was tiled by previous owner. It looks very nice. It is slippery as hell in the humid tack room and downright dangerous from May- september, then then humidity dries up and it’s alright.
Wood sounds lovely!
