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Alternative flooring ideas dean_maiorano 10-28-2006
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Posted by on October 28, 2006, 6:52 pm
Hello,

I want to make my own 'wood' flooring.
I have several options that I am considering. None involve using
solid wood, all involve taking sheet plywood and cutting it up to make
an end product that will look similar to the 'engineered' or 'wood
laminate' flooring products.
Some of the issues I figure I need to resolve include:
- what shape to cut the sheet stock into [I'm considering
stripping the sheets in strips/plank like widths? (from 4" - 8" wide) -
if I use soft wood OR I might cut the sheet stock into squares (if
using a hard woodveneered plywood)]
- what thickness should the top layer of veneer on the plywood
stock be? (I'm sure I'm going to need 1/16" minimum and more likely
1/8" thickness)
- does anyone have a source for thick layer veneer (URL?)
- what thickness should the plywood stock be overall? (I'm
thinking 1/2" minimum and possibly 3/4" thick maximum...I think I could
get away with 1/2" because it will be glued down AND splined)
- jointing? (I could go with standard tongue and grove but prefer
a double groving with spline in between 'planks' - kind of a false
tongue and grove)
- surface finishing (paint or stain - painting may allow for the
use of a thinner veneer - there would be less concern of wear through
because it could be covered with more paint down road)
- texturing? (if the top veneer layer is thick enough I could
distress OR 'carve')
- edging? (I'm thinking of putting a small chamfer all the way
around each plank)
- adhesive? (I need some advice on adhesive choices for gluing to
existing wood based subfloor products or POSSIBLY concrete)
- I need to consider the compatability of such a concept with
concrete slab floor already in place (I'm sure I could do it...does
anyone have any ideas?)
PLEASE offer me some suggestions. I know that there are many
flooring products out there that are reasonably priced. However, my
wife and I don't have any money and we need to IMPROVISE.


Posted by RicodJour on October 28, 2006, 7:50 pm

dean_maiorano@hotmail.com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I want to make my own 'wood' flooring.
> I have several options that I am considering. None involve using
> solid wood, all involve taking sheet plywood and cutting it up to make
> an end product that will look similar to the 'engineered' or 'wood
> laminate' flooring products.
> Some of the issues I figure I need to resolve include:
> - what shape to cut the sheet stock into [I'm considering
> stripping the sheets in strips/plank like widths? (from 4" - 8" wide) -
> if I use soft wood OR I might cut the sheet stock into squares (if
> using a hard woodveneered plywood)]
> - what thickness should the top layer of veneer on the plywood
> stock be? (I'm sure I'm going to need 1/16" minimum and more likely
> 1/8" thickness)
> - does anyone have a source for thick layer veneer (URL?)
> - what thickness should the plywood stock be overall? (I'm
> thinking 1/2" minimum and possibly 3/4" thick maximum...I think I could
> get away with 1/2" because it will be glued down AND splined)
> - jointing? (I could go with standard tongue and grove but prefer
> a double groving with spline in between 'planks' - kind of a false
> tongue and grove)
> - surface finishing (paint or stain - painting may allow for the
> use of a thinner veneer - there would be less concern of wear through
> because it could be covered with more paint down road)
> - texturing? (if the top veneer layer is thick enough I could
> distress OR 'carve')
> - edging? (I'm thinking of putting a small chamfer all the way
> around each plank)
> - adhesive? (I need some advice on adhesive choices for gluing to
> existing wood based subfloor products or POSSIBLY concrete)
> - I need to consider the compatability of such a concept with
> concrete slab floor already in place (I'm sure I could do it...does
> anyone have any ideas?)
> PLEASE offer me some suggestions. I know that there are many
> flooring products out there that are reasonably priced. However, my
> wife and I don't have any money and we need to IMPROVISE.

With any reasonable quality plywood easily costing northwards of a buck
per square foot, unfinished, it's unlikely that you'd be able to save
any money at all. And that's before putting any value on your time.

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/home.jsp is a discount house with
stores all over the country. If you're flexible in look and species, I
can't see how you'd beat such low prices making your own.

Your plywood scheme also short changes the future life of the floor. A
good hardwood floor should last through a minimum of three or four
refinishings - a few decades at least. Plywood wouldn't allow any
refinishing. Even with a supplemental thicker veneer on top (you'd
need to put an equally thick veneer on the underside, oriented in the
same direction, to balance the plywood or you'd be guaranteed to get
cupping and other deformities) you'd still only get a couple or three
refinishings.

You should save the money-saving-effort for somewhere you'd actually
save money - now and in the future.

R


Posted by on October 30, 2006, 1:08 am

RicodJour wrote:
> http://www.lumberliquidators.com/home.jsp is a discount house with
> stores all over the country. If you're flexible in look and species, I
> can't see how you'd beat such low prices making your own.

R,

Thanks for the advice, I will check them out.
I seem to remember seeing someone somewhere using squares of birch
veneer plywood for flooring and I went crazy with extrapolation.
Thanks for bringing me back to earth.

Dean


Posted by SteveF on October 28, 2006, 8:53 pm

> Hello,
>
> I want to make my own 'wood' flooring.
> I have several options that I am considering. None involve using
> solid wood, all involve taking sheet plywood and cutting it up to make
> an end product that will look similar to the 'engineered' or 'wood
> laminate' flooring products.
> Some of the issues I figure I need to resolve include:
> - what shape to cut the sheet stock into [I'm considering
> stripping the sheets in strips/plank like widths? (from 4" - 8" wide) -
> if I use soft wood OR I might cut the sheet stock into squares (if
> using a hard woodveneered plywood)]
> - what thickness should the top layer of veneer on the plywood
> stock be? (I'm sure I'm going to need 1/16" minimum and more likely
> 1/8" thickness)
> - does anyone have a source for thick layer veneer (URL?)
> - what thickness should the plywood stock be overall? (I'm
> thinking 1/2" minimum and possibly 3/4" thick maximum...I think I could
> get away with 1/2" because it will be glued down AND splined)
> - jointing? (I could go with standard tongue and grove but prefer
> a double groving with spline in between 'planks' - kind of a false
> tongue and grove)
> - surface finishing (paint or stain - painting may allow for the
> use of a thinner veneer - there would be less concern of wear through
> because it could be covered with more paint down road)
> - texturing? (if the top veneer layer is thick enough I could
> distress OR 'carve')
> - edging? (I'm thinking of putting a small chamfer all the way
> around each plank)
> - adhesive? (I need some advice on adhesive choices for gluing to
> existing wood based subfloor products or POSSIBLY concrete)
> - I need to consider the compatability of such a concept with
> concrete slab floor already in place (I'm sure I could do it...does
> anyone have any ideas?)
> PLEASE offer me some suggestions. I know that there are many
> flooring products out there that are reasonably priced. However, my
> wife and I don't have any money and we need to IMPROVISE.
>

Not to be a buzz kill but I think you are out of your mind.

Pull a sheet of BC grade plywood (I won't even consider CDX any more) off
the shelf and notice the number of knots, voids and overall complete lack of
straightness. The chances that you are going to edge nail an 8" wide strip
and have it lay flat on the floor without flexing every time you step on it
are slim. For the cost of nice looking furniture grade plywood you can buy
flooring.

If you are going to put down a wood floor, what's the point of painting it?
Unless you glue on a very thick veneer, forget about staining as the glue
holding the veneer will screw up the evenness of the stain penetration. A
surface only finish like a polyurethane would work.

Wood over concrete only if the concrete is extremely well sealed, well
drained and the concrete is above grade. Unless you are the kind who thinks
mold smells nice. If it's concrete, put down tile or sheet vinyl. If you
were willing to tackle making your own wood flooring, learning to lay tile
will be something you can handle and it will be a hell of a lot nicer than
strips of plywood. They even have vinyl tiles or sheet vinyl that look just
like wood.

For some practical options -

1 - For the massive amount of labor involved in your proposal you would be
better off taking a part time job and earning the money to buy proper
flooring.

2 - Visit your local town's permitting office and see who is pulling
demolition permits. There are all kinds of older industrial buildings and
older houses that are "in the way" coming down with plenty of nice lumber to
pull up. About 1 mile from where I live, the local fire department set fire
to a perfectly good house and barn to make way for a new shopping center.

3 - Visit your local town's recycle stores to see what kind of deals they
have. Habitat for Humanity runs some in larger cities.

4 - Have a chat with some carpeting installers as they are heading out to
jobs in the morning. Sometimes they do commercial jobs where they pull up
perfectly good carpet because the new head person wants to change the decor
and trash big rolls of perfectly usable carpet. I've yanked a couple rolls
out of the dumpster and used it to put down carpet in storage areas. Yeah,
it's not wood but it's free and goes down with minimal labor.

5 - If you live out in the country there are always old houses sitting out
there. My WWII vet neighbor had an old house on his property. The entire
house - floors, exterior walls, interior walls, ceilings; was tongue and
groove pine milled on site about 100 years ago. At this point the roof
leaked and the house was falling apart so I asked if my wife and I could
pull off the usable lumber. He said "Only if it don't cost me nothin".
Got about 3 pickup loads. Doesn't cost anything to stop and ask.

Good luck.
Steve.







Posted by on October 30, 2006, 1:06 am

SteveF wrote:
> Not to be a buzz kill but I think you are out of your mind.

Steve,

Thanks for the response. I agree with your thinking as long as
I'm buying the plywood. I work in the construction industry, salvage
sheets and also there are seconds distributors in the back country here
in NC.

I am very familiar with the Habitat for Humanity stores you talk
about, I used to run one. I renamed it the ReUse Center. It is still
located in Raleigh, NC.

Dean


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