Hardwood Floors From Plywood??? YES!!!

We had nasty carpet that was old and stained in a room we wanted to re do as a guest room. We wanted to put wood floors down but didn't want the high cost associated with them.
We started by ripping up the carpet and pad to expose the sub floor, which was in great condition.

Ugly, stained carpet 😩

Then, we laid black roofing paper on the sub floor and stapled it into place.

Carpet pad and subfloor

Next, we got 5/8" thick sheets of plywood in 8' lengths and had them cut into 6" wide planks at Lowe's.

hardwood floors from plywood yes , flooring, hardwood floors, how to

We used stain and put a coat on each plank of plywood.

Planks are stained and drying

Then we made a pattern on paper of how we wanted the boards cut. Next, we cut the boards and laid them out according to our pattern and used finishing nails to staple them into place.

Finally, we put 2 coats of polyurethane on and let them dry for a week or so.

Apply the poly with a flat type of mop head

Ta-daaaa

Last step...add furniture!!

They're still shiny after a year!!

Suggested materials:

8' wide sheets of 5/8" plywood (Lowe's)
Minwax wood stain (Lowe's)
Black roofing fabric (Lowe's)

See all materials

3 of 71 questions

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Jenny
on Oct 3, 2017
Researching plywood plank floor for our home. So many have light stain and we want dark. So happy to see that you have a dark floor - I love it!

So many dark plank floors have lots of tiger strips, yours doesn't and I prefer the way yours look. Did you purposefully pick boards without the stripey look?

Last question - do you remember what grit you used to sand? I've only painted plywood before, never stained.

Also I see you went with 'Early American' - I didn't realize it was so dark and that makes me happy! I'm definitely going to try it! Thanks for the post~it's awesome!

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- Jenny
  on Oct 4, 2017
  Thanks for the reply - I'm obsessing over the details. I just need to do it. Anything is going to look better than the crazy black and white vinyl tiles that we have! What were the old owners thinking? Currently obsessed over what grade plywood to get...but again, even if we get the striped look, it's better than the tile. Thank you so much for the quick response. We are going to hit the stores today and make some decisions. I will reply here when we get them done. Your blog was SO helpful. Thank you!!
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Carolyn Ippolito Gregory
on Oct 22, 2017
Is there any splintering?
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- Tracey Clement Lance
  on Oct 22, 2017
  No, we sanded it down and it’s very smooth.
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Lif24651824
on Oct 22, 2017
What type of plywood was used (Fir, Spuce) and was it sanded?
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- Trudy
  on Nov 12, 2018
  Angel, It is easy to calculate. A 4x8 sheet of plywood covers 32 square feet. Multiply the length and width of your room to get the square feet you will need.
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