Cedar Flooring for Dummies

Cedar board and batten

Some might say that we here at the Antisocial Network "harp on" the necessity of seeking information from people who are qualified to give it instead of freelancers with unrelated education (especially English and "communications" degrees). From time to time, however, we run across freelancers who claim a pertinent background, yet are still... incompetent. Today's DotD is, supposedly, a "contractor and full-time writer" using the name of Glenda Taylor (aka Glyn Sheridan), although her LinkedIn profile says zip about being a contractor. She visited her version of an answer to "Can You Put Knotty Cedar Planking Down for Flooring?"¹ upon Hunker.com...

Glenda's M.O., according to the original at eHow.com, was to look up cedar (not "knotty cedar") at the flooring database. That's her only reference, and it doesn't say most of what Taylor barfed up on eHow.com. We'll get the answer out of the way right up front. Yes, you can, but you may not want to.

Taylor's opening salvo, unfortunately, is borderline ridiculous. According to Glenda,

"Unlike hardwood flooring with tongue-and-groove technology, planks made from cedar, a softwood species, have blunt ends and edges..."

...which is rather strange, since you can certainly buy T&G cedar planks if you want. Apparently Taylor's thinking of the cedar planks used for siding, which are unsuitable because of a rough finish; or the cedar planks used for decks, which are unsuitable because they are finished with a radius edge. In other words, while you can use cedar for a floor, you have to use cedar flooring. Taylor goes into exquisite detail, regaling her readers with such advice as, "...install the boards with construction adhesive [to] minimize knot pop..." – Really? Glue down your flooring? "Cedar planking requires a subfloor... installing the planks over furring strips can lead to warping..." – Who uses furring strips under flooring?

"Two fasteners, evenly spaced, should be inserted through the planks over every joist. Cedar splits easily, so pre-drilling the holes for the screws is essential." – Wait, what? We're laying flooring with screws? Is Glenda conflating a floor with a deck?

"If you want a sleek look, you can attach the flooring with finish screws or nails..." – A "finish screw" is still a screw, Glenda...

"...use decking screws... and countersink the heads... After you sand and seal the flooring, fill the holes with a shade of wood putty that is darker than the wood. Then you can finish sand and apply a topcoat finish to the boards." – She's gotta be kidding!

Taylor says essentially nothing about why cedar isn't always a good choice for flooring: it's soft! It's prone to scratches and dents and makes a pretty poor choice for high-traffic areas. Not such a good job there, oh Dumbass of the Day! Especially since your choice of images [see above] was of tongue-and-groove beadboard...

¹ The original has been sent to the rewrite team by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/info_12200381_can-put-knotty-cedar-planking-down-flooring.html

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