Wide plank pine is not just for rustic cabins
By Lee Burnett
WIDE PLANK refers to boards wider than 12 inches. It is a product unique to pine. No other wood can be milled to extra-wide dimensions and still retain its workability. Wide-plank pine has another calling card: a heritage rooted in pride of place. It dates to Colonial days when big pine trees were a strategic resource, fought over by colonists and the British crown. If you want a conversation starter in your home, wide pine is a good choice.
But beware: not all wide-plank pine is the same. There’s a big difference in looks and performance between $2.75 per-square-foot pine and $20 per-square-foot pine. Each is good in its own way, but only if installed properly. If you go the affordable route, you may be disappointed when joints between floorboards grow into gaps. On the other hand, if you go for a high-end option and fail to follow installation instructions, you may be equally disappointed. This buyer’s guide should help.
Wide-plank pine with a white-washed stain fits the casual, contemporary and 18th-century look of this ocean-front home in Rhode Island. COURTESY CARLISLE WIDE PLANK FLOORS.
Above: Pine ceiling panels undulate overhead in the Big Room at Friends School of Portland in Cumberland Foreside, the first Passive House-certified school in Maine. PHOTO: DAVID KURTIS.
You won’t find true wide-plank pine in most retail lumberyards, where pine boards typically top out at what they call 12 inches, but which actually measure 11.25 inches. But wide-plank pine is available. Maine has two primary sources of wide-plank pine: The Wood Mill of Maine in Mercer and Robbins Lumber Company in Searsmont.
Robbins is a fifth-generation company operating the third-largest pine sawmill in the state. For Robbins, wide-plank pine is a by-product of running a very large operation. The mill is geared to produce large volumes for the biggest markets—regular boards, paneling and trim. It’s all sent to regional distributors and sold throughout the East Coast.
Robbins’ wide pine is the best choice for affordability and availability. It is sold through The Wood Mill, AE Sampson and other retailers. Another plus: Robbins’ high-speed planers leave the boards silky smooth to the touch. To stabilize the wood, Robbins recommends full acclimatization to the temperature and moisture in the house before installation. That should reduce gappage through the seasons.
By contrast, The Wood Mill is a boutique operation. Owner Bjarki Gunnarsson, an Icelandic native, individually inspects logs in the woods (only during winter months when log-care requirements are easier to meet) and buys only logs that exceed industry grading standards. The Wood Mill pays a premium for these logs and contracts for milling and transportation to Mercer, where boards are kiln-dried, planed and cut to size. All sales are custom orders, which can take many months to fill.
The major difference between The Wood Mill and Robbins is price, which relates to the finish quality of the pine. The Wood Mill starts with logs with fewer and smaller knots and spends more time finishing the boards. The boards are kilndried to a lower moisture content and planed to a closer tolerance. The Wood Mill claims that the boards “won’t move” if installed as soon after delivery as possible and quickly finished with a sealant. These installation instructions stand in contrast to the predominant advice from other flooring companies, which is to allow wood to acclimate for three weeks or more in the room before it is installed.
Pine has some downsides. Pine is a soft wood that scratches and dents easily. Pine proponents say the worn look gives pine its homey charm, although most flooring companies will warn you about putting pine in high wear-and-tear locations, such as mudrooms and kitchens. Pine also has an image problem. Pine, especially knotty pine, seems quaint and rustic to homeowners attuned to HGTV and the designer-driven ethos. I say that pine can fit nicely in contemporary homes, if the boards are knot-free or stained to diminish the color contrast of knots. And there are many locations, other than underfoot, that showcase the beauty of pine, such as accent walls, window seats and interior barn-style doors.
Wide pine in particular has several strong story lines that should resonate with consumers looking for deeper meaning.
Pine is grown primarily in the parts of New England where family landownership prevails. Studies have shown these small woodlot owners tend to be motivated by values other than financial return. Of higher priority to them are the many environmental and community benefits woods provide, such as recreational opportunities, wildlife, beauty and privacy. From that perspective, buying pine is a vote for your neighbors’ values, as opposed to corporate bottom lines.
Big pine is also the product of longterm, patient forestry. Virgin old-growth pine stands still exist in New England on conservation lands protected from timber harvesting. That is not the big pine that comes to market. What we see is the result of a century or more of stewardship. Typically, that means the landowner has conducted several interim thinning harvests to cull less desirable trees and encourage more vigorous trees to thrive. Big pine is the payoff for good forestry. And wide-pine boards are the tangible evidence, perhaps more so than a green certification label!
Wide pine is a conversation starter. You decide what that conversation is about—our colonial heritage, family landownership values or good forestry. Or maybe all of the above.
This article appeared in the Fall/Winter 2021 edition of Green & Healthy Maine HOMES. Subscribe today!