How to Make Wide-Plank Wood Flooring from Plywood

You know how it goes: you want nice, new flooring but you don’t want to spend a ton of money. We wanted wide plank, pine or maple floors which are very expensive and not within the budget we are willing to spend for a vacation home. The problem was, and always is, that when I get an idea in my head I cannot let it go until it is reality. Necessity is the mother of invention, which I absolutely believe, and I started thinking, “Couldn’t we just buy lumber and make our own hardwood floors?” This, of course, led to an internet search, which led to Pinterest searches, which led to DIY floors made from plywood… for around $1 per square foot. Imagine my delight! If you can’t, I’ll help you… I did a little celebratory dance. Okay, I did an over-the-top, ridiculous celebratory dance. This is normal for me to the point that I have done celebratory dances for much less… like getting Taco Bell.

Anyway, as excited as I was, I was also skeptical because- come on– it’s plywood. Can that even be transformed into an acceptable looking floor? As it turns out, yes, it absolutely can. Then my brain said, “Will it hold up? Plywood is pretty soft.” Yes, this is true. It’s a soft wood floor, not really a hard wood floor. I read a lot of blog posts about it (I’ll share the sources I used at the end) and the overwhelming majority loved their floors, the way they wore over time, and even said they would do it again. The lone person who was not happy with the results (that I read) installed their plywood floors in a kitchen which is a high traffic, messy, occasionally wet part of the home. I say go for it in low traffic areas like bedrooms which also do not generally see moisture.

I love a list, so here are the reasons why I recommend this project:

1. You can easily tailor the floors to fit your style- distressed, smooth, any stain or paint, glossy or matte, stenciled (!)- there are so many possibilities.
2. You’ll save a ton of money, especially if you pick the lowest grade plywood and sand the actual crap out of it.
3. With the right tools, it’s not a hard project.
4. They look so good! I can’t believe these floors are ours!
5. It is so satisfying to know you made your floors.

Some things to be wary of:

1. It won’t be perfect. My perfectionist tendencies were a bit of an issue for me so I had to keep reminding myself that I chose these floors because I didn’t want them to be perfect or look brand new. Turns out they are perfect for the space- and exactly what I wanted all along.
2. Don’t expect Home Depot to cut the plywood sheets into planks for you. I read several blogs that said they do just that. Our Home Depot in New York has a sign that specifically says “no precision cuts” which we learned means nothing smaller than 12 inches.
3. It takes time to sand all the boards. It’s not hard, just time consuming, and it is absolutely worth the time investment. Also, the quality of the plywood will determine how much time you will spend sanding to get the finish you want. The cheaper the plywood, the more sanding it will require.

Alright, here’s what we used:

• 4 x 8 sheets of 1/2″ sanded plywood cut into 8″ wide planks
• Circular saw
• Saw horses
• Kreg Rip-Cut Edge Guide
• Orbital sander
• Underlayment
• Finish nailer and air compressor
• 16 gauge 2″ finish nails
• Hammer and nail punch
• Water-based polyurethane for floors- matte finish
• Polyurethane floor applicator and a broom stick
• Paint tray for the polyurethane

The first step is to go shopping to find plywood you like, especially if you want the look we chose. If you’re going to stain, make sure you like the grain and if you’re going to paint, I think you probably can’t go wrong. We looked at several Home Depot locations, and in each store we really liked the 1/2″ sanded plywood, which was about $35 per sheet. We ordered it and had it shipped to the NY store and rented a trailer to haul it back to our house.

Next, cut the boards to your desired width. We went with 8″ boards and used a Kreg Rip-Cut Edge Guide to achieve more even cuts with the circular saw. Once the boards were cut, my dad and I sanded them lightly and softened the edges a bit with an orbital sander to avoid any pokey corners underfoot (to do this, we would start by sanding the long and short ends straight on, then sand the side of the board that will be facing up when it’s installed, then beveled the long and short edges, careful not to round the corners). At the same time, Matt was prepping the bedrooms to begin laying the boards as we finished sanding them. He vacuumed and used a moisture barrier underlayment and duct tape on the subfloor.

We started in the main bedroom, which is essentially a 13×13 square, in one corner of the room with a full board and secured it to the floor with a finish nailer. Matt used a scrap styrofoam baseboard we removed from the guest room and made a “guide or a jig-of-sorts” for nailing. To make the template, he used a 1″ spade bit on his drill- to match the diameter of the nose on the nailer- and put the first hole 1″ from the end of the scrap board, then every 8″ after the first hole. With the 8 ft. template on a full board, line up the edges of the board and the template then nail in each template hole along the board. Repeat that starting on the opposite side, opposite end of the same board (this makes more sense if you can see it with the directional arrows- pictured below). It worked really well and took any guess work out of where to nail. On shorter boards or in places where you don’t have space for the full template, line up a portion of the template that fits with any hole one inch from the end of the board and use as much of the template as you can. We also made sure that each corner of every board had a nail in it one inch from the end to make sure they were secure. You can also glue and nail these floors, but if we ever want to take it up (which I cannot imagine doing because I love them so much!) we don’t want to make it more difficult. The boards feel very secure with nails only.

Our boards had two different grains and two different tints and we lovingly referred to them as the red boards and the blonde boards. For the most part, we would lay two blonde boards then two red boards back and forth. We had more red boards so that changed slightly when we moved to the boys’ room, mainly in the pit (which is now a super-cool, make-believe play area for them!!!). We also made sure the factory edges met factory edges end to end and all of the cut edges went against the walls. As for spacing, we left a 1/2″ between the boards and the walls (check your baseboards- ours cover 3/4″) and used 1/16″ tile spacers in lieu of quarters- literal quarters to create “quarter spacing” which I gather is a traditional technique in old or rustic flooring.

We have some interesting angles in our house- ie. not anywhere close to square- which means we had to make some interesting- ie. very challenging- cuts. I wish we would have purchased that cool looking tool that forms itself around whatever your trying to cut, but instead we measured and found the angles as best we could. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but close enough that the baseboards will cover the cut.

Once all of the boards were secured, the floor got one final sanding with the orbital sander just to make things extra even and smooth. Sanding was also helpful for removing any pencil or shoe marks, though we I was a little crazy and made Matt do most of the work in socks. The next step is super important- CLEAN ALL OF THE DUST. You really do not want that in your stain or top coat. Unless you covered the walls when you were sanding, this means you also need to clean the walls. The boys’ bedroom was particularly tricky because the walls in there are awful- it seems like everything is attracted to the laminate-like paneling even though it’s painted (I would redo that room in drywall if I could go back in time). I brushed all of the walls with a broom, then wet and dry microfiber clothes, swept the floors with a broom, vacuumed, then swept and vacuumed again. I discovered recently when we were moving our furniture in that attaching a microfiber cloth to a Swiffer mop is AMAZING at cleaning walls and ceilings- 10/10, highly recommend.

If you are applying a paint or a stain, now is the time to do it. We considered using a pickling stain but did not like the way it looked on a test board. We used a water-based polyurethane to prevent the wood from yellowing. I don’t have experience with oil-based polyurethane, but according to what I read, oil-based sealers have a tendency or the potential to yellow. Matt applied 2 coats the first day (read your product so you know how long it needs to dry in between coats, our was 2 hours) and 2 coats the second day. 4 coats of polyurethane is pretty standard, usually with another sanding before the 4th coat. You may or may not know Matt personally, but extra steps and waiting are something he will eliminate if even slightly, remotely possible. And I really didn’t want to clean up from sanding again, so we opted to not sand the polyurethane at all. You may or may not know me personally, haha, but I am a huge rule follower, so before I was okay with dropping a step I had to read about it. The sanding before the final coat is to smooth-out the raised grain that comes from staining and multiple coats of polyurethane. I walked around our floor in my bare feet and decided it did not feel rough and so a final sanding was not warranted. It felt a little bit risky, not knowing if the final coat would raise the grain just enough to make the floor uncomfortable to the touch, but it worked out. My theory is that, had we stained, we probably would have needed that final sanding. You will have to judge for yourself what you prefer to do, this is just what we chose to do and it worked out for us.

And BAM! After months without proper flooring, we have a flooring that is so beautiful I could cry. I didn’t cry, but I did squeal with delight many-a-time and photograph it as if it were my first born child. I did go around the room on my hands and knees after every 2 coats to gently pull any debris off of the floor, which came off easily to my surprise. Now the beadboard and baseboards are on and painted and we have moved our furniture in and FINALLY moved out of the living room to sleep in actual bedrooms. Take a look:

Let me know if you make your floors using plywood- this project is very close to my heart. I love these floors so much and I would love to see what you do! I’ll report back after we’ve done some living in the spaces to let you know how they age. If it goes well, I would not hesitate to install these floors in the guest bedroom and living room. For other tutorials and sources I used for our floor, check out the links below:

From Remodelholic– a collection of several bloggers who installed plywood flooring in their spaces with a variety of finishes.

From Sharktails– of every blog post I read in planning for our floors, this one is hands down my favorite. If you are installing these floors, read this post- every detail you need is there.

Budget Break down:

• 13 sheets sanded plywood- $455
• 5 rolls Kimberly-Clark BLOCK-IT underlayment- $130
• 4 gallons Varathane Crystal Clear Matte Water-Base Floor Finish Polyurethane- $164
• 1 box (2,000 count) 16 gauge finish nails- $12
• Floor Finish applicator- $5
• Kreg Rip-Cut Edge Guide for Circular Saw- $50

Total cost- $816

Wide-plank wood flooring for 2 bedrooms (416 sq. ft. total) for just over $800!! As a comparison, we’re going to install wide-plank engineered hickory floors in our living room and dining room at home (600 sq. ft. total) and that cost is right around $6,000 for the wood, underlayment, and tools. If I adjust the square footage of the lake house bedrooms, the price for plywood flooring is around $1,140 for 600 sq. ft. That means if you install plywood flooring in the same manner that we did, it will cost you 5 times less than it would to install traditional hardwood flooring yourself. If you include installation in the price of hardwood, the plywood floors are 7 times less, which is a huge savings.

Once the hickory floors are in, I can definitely write a comparison post, both about the installation process and living with the floors. My prediction is that I will love them both for different reasons.