We really like wide plank flooring but just can’t afford it, what do you guys think about this? Buy enough 1/2″ sheets of hardwood plywood, rip into 8 or 10 inch planks, nail down with cut nails and liquid nails, sand slightly, stain and finish. Does hardwood flooring HAVE to have tongue and grooves? Also could we nail it edge to edge or should we leave a little gap between all the boards? As long as we leave 1/4″ around the edges it should be okay right? Only real problem I see is the new finishes are very hard and you wouldn’t be able to refinish a plywood floor because of the thin veneer.
It would look like the picture but I would prefer quarter sawn Cherry and the pattern would be more random.
Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!
Replies
durability
I don't think straight ply would be durable enough for a floor because of the thin veneer. One good scrape from moving furniture, and the whole floor is ruined, looks-wise. Without any research, I'd also question whether furniture-grade ply would be any less expensive than solid wood flooring. T&G helps to keep the edges flat, not to mention a place to hide the nails. Without T&G, you could end up with a "trippy" floor.
It may cost as much as lower grade engineered flooring.
You can probably do it. It is plywood so I would not expect to need much of any gap between panels.
But, you won't have any wear layer so you will need a hard durable finish. You won't get it as hard as the engineered hardwood floor factory finishes. I'd do at least one, if not three, coats of finish before I ripped the plywood down to strips.
There ae ruter bt est available to make tongue and groove edges, if you want to do it that way.
Let me add to Steve's comments that decorative hardwood plywood may have voids in the interior plys. These are not a problem for most furniture but would be potential weak spots in a floor. High heels on women's shoes exert quite bit of pressure and the areas with voids might fail.
Hmmmm
Well the fact about the really thin veneer on most plywoods has got me rethinking it, thanks for the replys everyone! Keep your fingers, Jeff
I had the same challenge some years back. If you do the plywood thing and still yearn for the wide plank oak, the money and energy spent on the plywood will have been be wasted. In my case, we painted the subfloor and lived with it for a few years until we could afford the hardwood floor. Like you, I also wanted the wide plank oak; it was worth the wait.
Don't know where you live or what your budget is, however, I'd suggest going to a mill and getting prices from them.
Here's the web page for one of the mills/lumberyards in my area: http://www.walllumber.com/flo.asp
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