Engineered oak floor cut from lengths
Not a sheet job at all. Twenty three rows of engineered oak across one room, made from 2200 mm boards, where the whole question is what happens to the piece left in your hand at the end of every row.
The job
One room, 5400 by 4280, in 190 mm wide engineered oak boards supplied at 2200 mm. Twenty two full rows plus a final row ripped down to 100 mm, so twenty three rows in total, each one 5400 long.
Joints have to be staggered, which is the constraint that makes this a real problem rather than division. The fitter works to two row patterns and alternates them:
- Pattern A: 500, 2200, 2200, 500. Twelve rows.
- Pattern B: 2200, 2200, 1000. Eleven rows.
Reduced to a list of pieces, that is 81 cuts: 46 full 2200 boards, 11 pieces at 1000, and 24 pieces at 500. The room itself is 23.1 square metres.
How it was being cut before
Row by row, at the chop saw, in the room. Start a row, cut a 500 off a fresh board, lay the two full boards, cut a 500 off another fresh board to finish. The remainder of each cut board, about 1690 mm, went into the pile by the door.
The pile was not thrown away. It was genuinely intended for the next room. But a 1690 mm remainder is not a length either row pattern asks for, so it sat there, and at the end of the job it went in the van and then, eventually, in the skip.
64 boards were opened for this room. Against 23.1 square metres of floor that is 13.6 per cent waste.
What changed
The piece list went in as three lines rather than twenty three rows: 46 at 2200, 11 at 1000, 24 at 500. Stock length 2200, kerf 3 mm for the chop saw blade. There is no trim on a finished board, so trim was left at zero.
Cut Solver then does the only thing that matters on a linear job: it works out which pieces share a board.
58 boards.
Job sheet
- Material190 mm engineered oak
- Stock length2200 mm
- Board area0.418 m2
- Room5400 x 4280
- Rows23
- Pieces81
- Floor area23.1 m2
- Kerf3.0 mm
- Boards before64
- Boards after58
The cutting patterns
Forty six boards go down whole and never touch the saw. The other twelve carry every short piece in the job between them.
| Pattern | Boards | Pieces from each | Left over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laid whole | 46 | 1 x 2200 | 0 mm |
| Two row starts | 5 | 2 x 1000 | 197 mm |
| Mixed | 1 | 1 x 1000, 2 x 500 | 194 mm |
| Four short | 5 | 4 x 500 | 191 mm |
| Final board | 1 | 2 x 500 | 1197 mm |
The result
58 boards instead of 64. Waste down from 13.6 per cent to 4.7 per cent. Six boards saved, which at the engineered oak prices this fitter was paying, about 31 dollars a board, is around 186 dollars on one room.
Four point seven per cent is the lowest waste figure anywhere on this site, and it is not because linear cutting is where the software is cleverest. It is because a one dimensional problem has far fewer places to hide waste than a sheet does. When you only have to fit lengths end to end, a good answer is usually available.
The one real leftover
The last board leaves 1197 mm, and that is the only piece in the job worth keeping. It is long enough to start a row in the next room, which is exactly the case the offcut library exists for. The other eleven cut boards leave under 200 mm each, which is packing material.
Worth saying: the 13.6 per cent before figure is not a fitter being wasteful. It is what happens when every row is solved on its own. The pieces were all sensible cuts. They just never got asked to share a board.
How long it took
Three lines of input, so about two minutes of typing. The layout ran instantly. The fitter spent longer than that deciding whether to trust it, then cut the twelve short boards at the bench in one go before starting to lay, which turned out to be the real change in the working day.
Laying went faster too, because there was no stopping to work out what the next row needed. Every piece was already cut and stacked in two piles.
Lengths, not sheets
Set the stock to a length rather than a sheet and Cut Solver solves the one dimensional version of the same problem. Skirting, architrave, decking, worktop, batten and rafter work all go in the same way.
Minimum piece length
Set one. Without it a layout will happily hand you a 140 mm piece to finish a row, which is correct arithmetic and unacceptable flooring. This one was set to 300 mm.
The other five examples
Every job here is written up the same way, with the sheet count before, the sheet count after and the time it took.
- Eighteen kitchen carcasses from melamineKitchen fitting. 108 parts, 13 sheets down to 11.
- Acrylic letters nested for a sign shopSignmaking. 41 letters and roundels onto a single sheet.
- A sideboard cut with the grain running one wayFurniture making. 14 grain locked parts, 4 sheets down to 3.
- A term of plywood for a school workshopEducation. 216 parts for 36 pupils, 6 sheets down to 4.
- Marine ply for a small launchBoatbuilding. Scarfed hull pieces, 10 sheets down to 6.
Read on
The settings behind this job, and how to price the next one.