Wood Stock: Charred and Charming

A frustrating termite situation led to a fresh start with a truly unique floor in the office space of Willie Short, owner of WJ Hardwood Designs near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Termites had destroyed the existing floors, so they had to be ripped out. But when Short saw some live-edge yellow pine slabs for sale, a creative spark was lit.

“The smallest point was 2’ in width and I thought I could do something with that,” he recalls. “They were different thicknesses, so it went from 1¼” to 2½” inches thick. We had to cut them down a little bit to make them the same thickness. I ended up having to cut the live edge off.”

With a total of 160 square feet, Short has seven pieces of wood in the office. He scribed them into one another and dry fit and cut it outside, then brought it inside to install. He used a ½” by ½” square notch trowel to get the proper coverage for this type of floor. Short says Wayne Highlander with Bona sent a vapor system, adhesive, and everything needed for the project.

The floor’s elevation was a challenge. Since the planks were different sizes, Short had to handscrape the edges to avoid having hard edges that would be a tripping hazard. The loose knots were hit with a router and epoxied.

“Southern yellow pine is a very tricky product and can be as ugly as it gets,” says Short. “It doesn’t take stain right. That’s why I went through three different stain processes before I found a method that worked. It’s so splotchy when you’re staining it, and no matter what you do, it looks horrible.”

Short ended up burning the wood using a traditional Japanese method of wood preservation, known as shou sugi ban, which had been taught during a session at this year’s NWFA Expo. Before doing that, he did a deep wirebrushing on it.

“This method helps with the moisture, the insects, and gives it cool character,” explains Short. “I had tried several different methods of staining and I didn’t like them, so I decided to do shou sugi ban. I charred it really hard, and then I lightly sanded it to smooth it out. Next, I did a darker grey Bona Chroma. Then I went back on top of it with Bona Traffic to get the look I wanted to achieve.”

One of the most unique parts of the floor is also the most special part to Short. “The areas that I scribed-in have a blue epoxy, kind of a like a little river flowing,” he shares. “I’m a very sentimental person. My brother passed away in November 2020, and he had the most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen. I went with this color to remind me of my brother because he helped me install the original floors in this office.”

Continuing to try different processes until finding the right combination of technique and outside-of-the-box approaches allowed Short to complete this one-of-a-kind project successfully.

“I couldn’t do anything else with the Southern yellow pine, so I figured I may as well burn it. Sure enough, that’s what worked. As we were doing that, you could see the oils and sugars boiling out of some of the knots because there was so much sap in there,” he says. “Everything about it was interesting because it’s such an unorthodox way to do a floor.”