best wood for wood floor

[novapower]

we are rebuilding a truck with a wood bed floor and this will be a everyday truck.the truck will have a fiberglass flat topper on it to keep out the sun and rain.we was thinking of oak or mahogany.

[BluTrukker]

really its personal preference. I have oak, it looks good. Some people on this site use some crazy exotic woods that look awsome. It also depends on the paint color.

[bruceman1968]

oak is a great choice looks good holds up well and not to pricey. If you want to see pricey check out this website http://www.bedwoodandparts.com/

[Sub-versive]

Originally Posted by bruceman1968

oak is a great choice looks good holds up well and not to pricey. If you want to see pricey check out this website http://www.bedwoodandparts.com/

Great link. And they have bubinga, awesome!
Although it would only be installed if I never used the bed again, at $2700.

[cdowns]

over the years the stuff i've found that was"best" was the free stuff

[72BlckButy]

Check in on Mar-K.com. They have a review of different woods with different stains and how well they held up.

[1970greenc10]

Maple, Oak, Hickory, and Cherry are all good for a bed and not too expensive depending on where you get it.

[coloradosean2009]

If you are looking for the "best" wood for a bed that will be used, I recommend teak. It is the only true outdoor grade hardwood. A little pricey though.

Other hardwood options will work great also but you will need to apply oil to the wood on a regular basis. I do not recommend varnish or any other film type finish on the wood. They always fail resulting in peel, scratches etc. Not to mention when you go to refinish the wood it is a pain in the ass.

I also would like to see someone use composite decking like trex for their bed. I think it would work great. The weight may be a problem for some people.

[capev86]

i know lots of materials have been used.....but i'm a history/technology buff. the USS Constitution (Boston) was made largely of super dense and rot resistant Live Oak that was originally harvested in the area of Georgia i believe. it wouldn't look more impressive than many of the exotic woods out there, but it would be a unique touch!

[Chevyman680063]

The guy I bought my '63 from had a red '70 GMC stepside with cherry wood in it, so sweet looking.

[Sammy]

There is a guy on ebay ftom Sikeston, Mo that sells for the most reasonable. He has some oak floor bed. I haven't ever dealt with him but by volume I think he sells a bunch.

[hotrod 80]

When i bought my kit i was also offered reclaimed oak paneling from a plantation home of the 1900's . The guy said it had been oiled over the years to protect it and would look great as is just varnished . Might go that route with this truck .

[John Fabris]

If any are interested in Teak, I would recommend East Teak in Washington. I was a personal friend of the owner Ted, (now passed on).

They shipped my teak to my door for under $750 while two differnent places in the Bay Area wanted to charge me $1100 and $1600 for me to pick it up.

East Teak worked with me to get me the right lenght, width and thickness leaving me to do the finish work. Oh, and this was mostly knot free with only two knots that i had to deal with.

[gkesseru]

Teak is absurdly expensive anymore (25-30 /board foot). I do not recommend red oak: it is porous and will rot. White oak is not porous and will hold up well, but will turn gray/blackish. One good exterior wood is Ipe, starts out chocolate and used a lot on decks. I see you live in Florida. You may be able to find some local cypress, which will hold up well in the weather.

[gkesseru]

P.S. : Mahogany is way too soft for a truck bed. All of the furniture woods will eventually rot. My favorite is white oak. They used to use it on docks in this area.
If this is a work truck, pressure treated deck lumber is also a choice. Make sure you have enough room for the boards to swell and contract. Also, make sure you use the same finish on the bottom as on the top. It will reduce cupping.

[redbaron69]

the oak or cherry would be great choices. guy here in town had a 68 with a wormy chestnut floor. man that was a thing of beauty. but i hear thats hard to find now a days.

[68shortstep]

Originally Posted by gkesseru

P.S. : Mahogany is way too soft for a truck bed. All of the furniture woods will eventually rot. My favorite is white oak. They used to use it on docks in this area.
If this is a work truck, pressure treated deck lumber is also a choice. Make sure you have enough room for the boards to swell and contract. Also, make sure you use the same finish on the bottom as on the top. It will reduce cupping.

Been there before with this one. I built decks professionally for many years: Look at the tree's growth rings on the ends of the boards & put them down "bark side up" & they will never cup. Most people want them "prettiest side up" but that's the wrong thing to do.

Bark side up = water runs off.
Bark side down = holds water, because it "cups" with the rounded tree rings, & then it eventually rots.

Look at a deck sometime, ten minutes after it rains. Some boards will be holding water on top of them, and some will look like they're already drying off. Go to the end of the board & look at the tree growth rings.

[68Stepbed]

Originally Posted by 68shortstep

Been there before with this one. I built decks professionally for many years: Look at the tree's growth rings on the ends of the boards & put them down "bark side up" & they will never cup. Most people want them "prettiest side up" but that's the wrong thing to do.

Bark side up = water runs off.
Bark side down = holds water, because it "cups" with the rounded tree rings, & then it eventually rots.

Look at a deck sometime, ten minutes after it rains. Some boards will be holding water on top of them, and some will look like they're already drying off. Go to the end of the board & look at the tree growth rings.

That's some good info. I'll be sure to check that from now on. Thanks for sharing that.

[ole red]

Great topic
I got some white oak and was wondering what to put on it to keep it from weathering?

[lax54650]

i have been mulling the idea of composit decking. it can be planed and milled just like wood is color fast and rot proof. a natural brown would look old and good with my orange

[dan42]

I got oak from Mar K and am painting it, like it came form the factory, and using unpolished SS for the bed strips. Paint's gonna last longer than anything out there and my truck is gonna be outside most of the time.

[ksbeatty]

There is a guy here that used the composite and loves it. I would prefer the oak but the composite is a good alternative for those who plan to use the truck.

[crakarjax]

I think a good option is the hardest damn wood you can find, with a 1/16" veneer of some really expensive stuff. I wouldn't feel bad about using it in that case, but in reality even if you go expensive, wood can be repaired fairly easily, especially since it is split up into discrete boards.

[gkesseru]

Problem with composite is that it does not come in the 7 1/4 width most C-10 floors need. You could use narrower boards if you drill your own cross frames and add extra bed strips. It will machine well on a router or table saw, but I would not run it through my planer. Too much junk is in the dust they mix into it. It generates sparks on my table saw. It is thicker than the original 3/4 inch boards, but you can just make the floor thicker. You will need to cut a small step in the ends of the two outside boards to make the ends 3/4 thick and the rest will fit.

[68Stepbed]

I had red oak in mine the first time when I replaced the original floor. It held up decent, but I didn't use a quality varnish and it peeled after about a year in the elements. I also learned it's not water that's damaging, it's the sunlight.

When I restored mine, i used Ash. It's a hard wood with a mixture of straight and curvy grain. It's only slightly more expensive than oak, but less expensive as some exotic woods. Here's a pic of mine.


For a daily driver, I recommend either red or white oak. You could also use white pine like the factory used and just paint it. DO NOT use yellow pine! It's full of knots and resin.