In my area I see old beds thrown out pretty regularly. I try to collect the bed rails since they're usually made from a single piece of maple or oak. I've made a few thresholds from them.
I picked up a piece of hardwood that was 5/8 inch thick. Just measure the gap under your door so you know how tall the threshold can be. I went with a 3.5 inch width to cover the floor's expansion gap with room to spare. I just cut that down to the width of the door. Then I used a router to put a 45 degree chamfer on all 4 sides.
The 45 degree angle goes down about half way, I just ran a scrap piece through the router and progressively raised the bit until the angle felt right, then did it on the final one.
Gave it a light sanding to remove any splinters and then I just stained it to match the floor and used a rubber mallet to get it in place. It's pressure fit, so it's a little tight to hold it in place. Some people opt to screw them into the floor below instead.
Dropping a few brads/nails into it to hold it into place is a good idea. As time goes by, wear and expansion/contraction of the flooring will have it popping out.
I picked up an airgun to put in 2 1/2" finishing brads on the floors I did (engineered hickory). Turned the air pressure up to the maximum the gun was rated for (150psi) and sunk the brads into the board
I also hope you did 5+ coats or so of polyurethane or shellac on it. Jams tend to take a beating. The slight rise means that everything hits them. I had to learn that one the hard way.
That was my issue too! With the floor's expansion gap, it needed to cover about 2-2.5 inches in width. Everything in that range was more for industrial or exterior use. The S4S oak plank I used was $16, with pre-made thresholds being $25+. Of course, tooling is a limitation. You'd at least need access to a router to make this.
Yeah, I put mine in 8.5 years ago, and with a large dog, 2 cats, and 3 kids, it's held up remarkably well. The only problem I've run into is some of the tongue-in-groove connections have pulled apart over time creating small (maybe 1/4") gaps, but the planks themselves have been great. And frankly, that is probably a combination of installation error (by me) and us living in a pretty harsh environment with a huge number of freeze-thaw cycles and lots of snow every year (with a shitty insulation job in our crawlspace).
Nice! Mine is probably around 8 years old now. I had one section pull apart like you were saying, so maybe not user error. I ended up pulling up that section, replacing any price that seemed suspect, and glued the joints during reinstallation. That's actually what drove me to replace all the old T mold thresholds. But yeah, just that one defect across 900SqFt (84 SqM) isn't bad.
23 Comments
phughes@lemmy.ca · 23 pts · 1y
In my area I see old beds thrown out pretty regularly. I try to collect the bed rails since they're usually made from a single piece of maple or oak. I've made a few thresholds from them.
Atom@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
That is brilliant!
phughes@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 1y
Waste not want not.
dditty@lemm.ee · 10 pts · 1y
Looks better than anything you could've bought at the store; nicely done!
Atom@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
Thank you Friend!
CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
Showing any type of skill at craftsmanship is veering way out of dull territory.
I may have to go lie down for a bit.
witty_username@feddit.nl · 7 pts · 1y
not dull at all!
MajorHavoc@programming.dev · 6 pts · 1y
Nice work!
Mr_Blott@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 1y
TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 1y
These thresholds are usually about 1-2cm raised and have sloped sides to specifically avoid catching toes.
They're very common in north America
DragonsInARoom@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Very nice
PoorYorick@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Very nice! How did you go about it?
Atom@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
I picked up a piece of hardwood that was 5/8 inch thick. Just measure the gap under your door so you know how tall the threshold can be. I went with a 3.5 inch width to cover the floor's expansion gap with room to spare. I just cut that down to the width of the door. Then I used a router to put a 45 degree chamfer on all 4 sides.
The 45 degree angle goes down about half way, I just ran a scrap piece through the router and progressively raised the bit until the angle felt right, then did it on the final one.
Gave it a light sanding to remove any splinters and then I just stained it to match the floor and used a rubber mallet to get it in place. It's pressure fit, so it's a little tight to hold it in place. Some people opt to screw them into the floor below instead.
The_v@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
Dropping a few brads/nails into it to hold it into place is a good idea. As time goes by, wear and expansion/contraction of the flooring will have it popping out.
I picked up an airgun to put in 2 1/2" finishing brads on the floors I did (engineered hickory). Turned the air pressure up to the maximum the gun was rated for (150psi) and sunk the brads into the board
Atom@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
That's a good idea, thanks!
The_v@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I also hope you did 5+ coats or so of polyurethane or shellac on it. Jams tend to take a beating. The slight rise means that everything hits them. I had to learn that one the hard way.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I'm curious about this too, I've been trying to find an aluminum threshold I can modify but this might be easier.
Atom@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
That was my issue too! With the floor's expansion gap, it needed to cover about 2-2.5 inches in width. Everything in that range was more for industrial or exterior use. The S4S oak plank I used was $16, with pre-made thresholds being $25+. Of course, tooling is a limitation. You'd at least need access to a router to make this.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 1y
It could be done with a saw and a block plane.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I've been looking for an excuse to buy one for a while.
NielsBohron@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Is that treated/engineered bamboo laminate flooring? I think I have the exact same stuff from Home Depot.
Atom@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
Sure is! I got it from a local flooring store and installed it myself years ago. It's hard to beat the price and hardness.
NielsBohron@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Yeah, I put mine in 8.5 years ago, and with a large dog, 2 cats, and 3 kids, it's held up remarkably well. The only problem I've run into is some of the tongue-in-groove connections have pulled apart over time creating small (maybe 1/4") gaps, but the planks themselves have been great. And frankly, that is probably a combination of installation error (by me) and us living in a pretty harsh environment with a huge number of freeze-thaw cycles and lots of snow every year (with a shitty insulation job in our crawlspace).
Atom@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Nice! Mine is probably around 8 years old now. I had one section pull apart like you were saying, so maybe not user error. I ended up pulling up that section, replacing any price that seemed suspect, and glued the joints during reinstallation. That's actually what drove me to replace all the old T mold thresholds. But yeah, just that one defect across 900SqFt (84 SqM) isn't bad.