Plywood Flooring

[OneDollarAtATime]

I've been doing a bulk of research on DIY plywood flooring.  As far as I can tell, it's a viable alternative to the more expensive stuff ($500 vs $1500+).  Does anyone have any experience with this -- how is durability?  scuff marks?  any other issues?

Through research, it seems the biggest things to pay attention to are A) using high quality plywood B) sanding well C) many layers of stain and polyutherane (?) D) keeping the boards aligned with each other (seems like common sense, but can lead to bigger issues the later into the project you get).

Any other valuable input, Mustachians?

[3okirb]

I have no advice for you other than to invest in a jointer if you're going to make that look good.

[OneDollarAtATime]

I was planning to have them make all the cuts at Home Depot / Lowes. 

Figure that will run me about $30 -- much less than buying something like a jointer. 

Plus, if it gets messed up, I'd imagine it'll be on them to fix it free of charge.

[3okirb]

I was planning to have them make all the cuts at Home Depot / Lowes. 

Figure that will run me about $30 -- much less than buying something like a jointer. 

Plus, if it gets messed up, I'd imagine it'll be on them to fix it free of charge.

If you've ever seen a table top, the reason the boards fit so well against each other is because of a jointer.  If you're OK with gaps, you don't need one.  I guess it depends on the look you're going for.  Why not try it with a sheet of plywood and see what you think before investing in the whole thing?

[Papa bear]

Good looking plywood (such as a birch) runs about $45/ 4x8 board which is 1.40/ sf.  With sanding, staining, and finishing, you're looking at a but more for, in my opinion, crappy looking floors.  If you really want wood for cheap, get on Craigslist, find some Amish place that is hooked up with a mill and get some prefinished "cabin grade" 3/4" solid oak or something similar. You can probably get it sub $2 /sf pretty easily.

[math-ya]

I don't think this is a great idea if you want the end product to look real good.
To get a better look for cheaper, I would search craigslist for someone that is ripping out their old hardwood floors. They should sand up to looking brand new. I recently redid an attic hardwood floor- about 800 sq ft. And the reclaimed wood only cost me $75!

[Mrs.LC]

Decent plywood is expensive as Papa Bear stated. Check out stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Lumber Liquidators, etc. for discontinued or "special purchase" flooring. It might be cheaper per sq and is already finished.

[CowboyAndIndian]

Use a bamboo floor. 

I see that the cheapest bamboo floor is available for $1.39/sq foot at lumber liquidators. (http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/c/Strand-Carbonized-Bamboo-Major-Brand-BAM38CSTR/10037043). This is cheaper than birch plywood and  you do not have to finish it.

It is very, very, hard. Much harder than hardwoods and it gets harder as it ages.

It is also very eco-friendly, since it grows very fast and is a renewable resource.

I have one floor of all bamboo and love it.

[OneDollarAtATime]

Appreciate the advice / opinions.

Will look into the joiner.  I didn't realize how it worked until now.

What keywords work best on Craigslist?  I'm trying everything I can think of and am getting full blown houses, table scraps and not much in between.  Is it easy to find that 'Amish hookup' or is this a big test of patience?

[Bracken_Joy]

Post a "looking for" ad on CL, sometimes i have better luck there than the listings themselves.

[3okirb]

Appreciate the advice / opinions.

Will look into the joiner.  I didn't realize how it worked until now.

What keywords work best on Craigslist?  I'm trying everything I can think of and am getting full blown houses, table scraps and not much in between.  Is it easy to find that 'Amish hookup' or is this a big test of patience?

Could just be a misspelling, but it is a joinTer, not a joiner.  Both are for wood working, so wanted to make sure you knew which one I was talking about.

[Papa bear]

I kept looking on Craigslist for hardwood flooring.  Call some of the ads that look like commercial sales and  ask.  The place I found in Ohio uses mills all around the Midwest and southeast.


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[Greg]

I've done 2 spaces with plywood floor.  Normally, plywood subfloor has a tongue and groove edge on the long sides, so that they are stronger joints between the joists.  If you're going over existing wood subfloor, you don't necessarily need this.

I used 16g finish nailer and polyurethane glue on mine.  Filled holes and seams with water-based wood filler, sanded using 4-pad random orbit floor sander, and finished with 2 coats of water-based poly finish.

The thing about plywood is it's softwood not hardwood, so it's a shoes-off surface unless you want to redo it often.  Hardwood plywoods exist, but the most common are a hardwood veneer.  Another issue is voids in the plies beneath the surface.  Underlayment grade plywood is supposed to not have them, but I've found them in that material as well.  A chair leg or high heel will poke through the top ply into the void and then you have a hole to fix at a minimum.

[DannyFreeman]

I have no advice for you other than to invest in a jointer if you're going to make that look good.

The advantage of plywood is that is constructed of multiple layer of wood that are glued together and it gives it strength. It is less expensive.
Its disadvantage is, its layering makes it porous and susceptible to water damage and it becomes very heavy when wet.

Now the final decision is yours that you still want to go with plywood flooring or not. You can read omicron granite reviews for some other home flooring ideas.

[OneDollarAtATime]

Appreciate all the insight.  I've posted on CL and have been looking on there daily to see if any wood becomes available.  The pros / cons is valuable, as well.

The image above looks like it's just full sheets of plywood placed on the floor?  I was trying to attach an image for convenience (to show what I originally had in mind -- plank plywood flooring) but every time I click the 'attach image' button the only thing that happens is 'img' shows up as text.

[Spork]

I don't think this is a great idea if you want the end product to look real good.
To get a better look for cheaper, I would search craigslist for someone that is ripping out their old hardwood floors. They should sand up to looking brand new. I recently redid an attic hardwood floor- about 800 sq ft. And the reclaimed wood only cost me $75!

Okay, so I've done this.  I'm not sure it is recommended for everyone.

Mine turned out fine... but... recycled floors are A LOT of work.
* There may be nails to remove.  I probably had 10 lbs or more.  And they were cut flush with the back of the board, making removal more difficult than if they were poking out the back.
* the edges may not be straight.  Mine had quite a bit of EXTREMELY HARD finish on the mating surfaces.  You may have to process each board to scrape this off.  I ran both sides of mine through a table saw to clean them up.  This was very time consuming.
* You'd be surprised just how different the widths of the boards might be.  They may all be 2 1/2 inch planks... but they may have come from different manufacturers.  There will be odd variance of 32nds of inches here and there.  And some will have shrunk more than others...  The table saw will help here, but you may end up with some imperfections here and there.  (I decided to just embrace them... and make it look like the old floor with character that it is.)
* Now, unless you are good at putting together puzzles... you are not going to put the floor together the way it came apart.  This means that the height will be different..  It has likely been sanded before.  Different areas of the floor will be slightly different heights.  You need it flat.  It is going to take a huge amount of sanding with VERY aggressive sandpaper.  (The rental shops around here didn't carry sandpaper that was aggressive enough.)
* And because the wood is old, it is likely to be REALLY HARD.  It gets harder over time.  This means all the cutting and sanding is going to be really hard work and will take several blades and a pile of sandpaper.

I'm not saying I wish I hadn't done it.  I love a good project.  But I'm not sure I'd do it again.

[CabinetGuy]

Don't do plywood, a lot of work for something that won't last.  True hardwood floors can be sanded and refinished multiple times.  Plywood has a very thin veneer layer on top, and it's incredibly easy to sand through it.  Plus, all fasteners would be visible.  This would be a case of penny-wise, pound-foolish.  Plus, it's incredibly difficult to push a 4 x 8' sheet of plywood on any type of jointer...😝

Don't.Do.it.

[3okirb]

Don't do plywood, a lot of work for something that won't last.  True hardwood floors can be sanded and refinished multiple times.  Plywood has a very thin veneer layer on top, and it's incredibly easy to sand through it.  Plus, all fasteners would be visible.  This would be a case of penny-wise, pound-foolish.  Plus, it's incredibly difficult to push a 4 x 8' sheet of plywood on any type of jointer...😝

Don't.Do.it.

I agree...I don't think it's worth it in the long run.  Also, I assumed he would cut it into smaller pieces and then run it through a jointer.  I didn't realize he was going to use full sheets.

[OneDollarAtATime]

Wasn't planning on using full sheets -- and based on the feedback thus far, not using it at all.  The idea was to cut up full sheets into 6" strips and use them that way.  Lots of examples in the images via googling DIY Plywood Floors.

Looking into other options at this point.

[Spork]

Wasn't planning on using full sheets -- and based on the feedback thus far, not using it at all.  The idea was to cut up full sheets into 6" strips and use them that way.  Lots of examples in the images via googling DIY Plywood Floors.

Looking into other options at this point.

If you're looking for the most bang for your buck/labor... I think I'd look at buying new hardwood strips (and I mean hardwood, not engineered strips that don't have but one or two sandings in them).  I'd probably go oak for stainability.  (I used maple... which can be hard to stain evenly.)

Do you have good subflooring to nail to?  Or is this going on a slab foundation?

If you have a compressor, buy a cheap flooring gun (or hell, I'll sell you mine) and go to town.

[Jack]

Use a bamboo floor. 

I see that the cheapest bamboo floor is available for $1.39/sq foot at lumber liquidators. (http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/c/Strand-Carbonized-Bamboo-Major-Brand-BAM38CSTR/10037043). This is cheaper than birch plywood and  you do not have to finish it.

It is very, very, hard. Much harder than hardwoods and it gets harder as it ages.

It is also very eco-friendly, since it grows very fast and is a renewable resource.

I have one floor of all bamboo and love it.

+1

Also, while I like the fact that that particular bamboo is strand (as opposed to horizontal or vertical laminated), which makes it even harder, I'm upset that it's only 3/8" thick (which limits the number of times it can be refinished). A few years ago (when I last checked), I could have sworn the cheap bamboo was all 5/8" (and normal tongue-and-groove), so that's a little disappointing.

I was trying to attach an image for convenience (to show what I originally had in mind -- plank plywood flooring) but every time I click the 'attach image' button the only thing that happens is 'img' shows up as text.

The "insert image" button is for adding images that are already uploaded to the Internet somewhere. You put the image's URL between the BBcode tags:

Code: [Select]

[img]http://example.com/your-image-filename.jpg[/img]
What you want is to actually upload an attached image, using the "Attachments and other options" stuff below the post editor text box.

(If you want to be really fancy, you can also attach an image, submit the post, then go back and edit your post to add the attached image's URL as an IMG tag in the post body. But that's overkill.)

[Silverwood]

I clicked on here because I was curious what everyone would have to say. When you check out pinterest plywood floors look easy and like a really simple and cheap flooring option.  Im glad I never went ahead with them.