I’m considering finishing the interior of my garage shop with rough cut 1″ pine. I have a stash of several hundred b.f. – air dried, 12′ lengths with some as wide as 18″ (my father-in-law’s neighbor has a saw mill in his back yard). I initially intended to just leave it unfinished and run the boards virtically, but I recently I came across an interior design website which had shots of rough cut installed horizontally with a penetrating oil finish.
I still expect I’ll go vertically – maybe w/ battens – not looking to win any interior design contests. But I wonder if anyone has any experience with applying penetrating oil to rough cut lumber. I was already a little concerned about the rough surface acting as a dust magnet and I wonder if oil will make it better or worse. And I expect oil will need freshening up from time to time.
I’d be interested to have the forums thoughts. And just for the record, I don’t intend to squander any of the 18″ wide boards on a garage wall.
Cheers-
Replies
Fuzzy walls
I think you'd end up with fuzzy walls, as dust collects in all the tiny nooks and crannies. But, I'm sure the shop spiders would appreciate all the extra anchor points for their webs. ;-)
Beware of darkening
Unless you are really attached to the rough cut look, a trip through the planer wouldn't be a bad idea. It will make the wood a consistent thickness for application and use, and make finishing easier. It also prevents getting slivers from the wall for the rest of your life:)
Finishing isn't absolutely necessary, but not a bad idea to help keep the wood clean. Watch out for oils that will darken over time, because, depending on the species of pine, the wood itself may darken considerably, and the combination can get quite dark. A single coat of 2lb shellac sealer (the Zissner stuff in the gallon cans) works well over planed wood, same with a coat of regular varnish, and they don't stink as long as oil does. Watch out for fire with shellac though, that is a lot of alcohol to put in the air at one time. With a single coat, shellac and varnish won't shine/gloss, but they will give better protection than the oil.
Whatever you do, test it on a couple scrap boards to make sure it has the effect you want, and not the ones you don't want.
Shop Walls
I would put sheetrock - save the wood for something else. But if you must - I would tongue + grove the ends - apply horizontally and paint with latex.
SA
I'm glad I checked. Lingering oil smell, spiders and dirty dark walls are not what I'm looking for. Afraid my inexperience is showing. Haven't decided, but the revised plan looks more like one wall of pine, planed & finished w/ a building varnish and the other walls brightly painted wall board. I'll post photos.
Thanks all -
Consider OSB
Hi,
Give OSB a thought. I drywalled my previous shop; my current shop has OSB, and I much prefer the OSB. You can put a screw in the wall anywhere you want, and there is no taping or sanding. I even used OSB for the ceiling to make haning dust pipe easier. I screwed noise-eating ceiling tile over that and put strips of wood over the joints.
I painted my walls white; doing it all over again, I would use a light tan instead. The whilte walls, white ceiling tile, and fluorecent lights are just a little too much put all together.
What ever you use, don't forget to insulate:)
If the boards are not too wide you should consider running them through your table saw with a 45 degree miter on both edges, install them horizontally with a 1/2 inch or so gap and you will have french cleats everywhere, similar to the stuff you see in retail stores.
Also think about having a 48 inch high wainscot of plywood or OSB since everything at that level gets beat up from rolling carts.
Definitely plane them and shellac. do both sides so they don't cup.
If you install with finish screws you can take them off to add wiring.
pine boards
I would save the pine for a furniture job they sound that they are of goog quality and just plasterboard the walls....
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