3 Time Saving Tips For DIY Plank Plywood Floors

3 Time Saving Tips For DIY Plank Plywood Floors

Now that we have two DIY plank plywood floors projects (the dining room and the living room) under our belts, we’ve learned a bunch of things – things to do and things not to do. We’re going to cover 3 Time Saving Tips For DIY Wide Plank Plywood Floors.

If you’re planning on making your own wide plank flooring made from plywood, then make sure to take a look at this list – it will save you tons of time… and sanity :).

We wrote detailed articles for each of those projects (see below for links) but we also wanted to write a short article highlighting the biggest time saving tips we have.

Here are the 3 things you need to know for making your own wide plank plywood floors. Following these tips will make your project go smoothly and you’ll end up with better-looking plywood floors.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you decide to purchase any of these products, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. We recommend these products only because we have experience with them and use them for our own projects. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

DIY Plank Plywood Floors Tips

A Bonus Tip First – Cut The Boards Yourself

Yeah, it’s a little different to get the bonus tip first, but a few of the tips piggy back on this one. So it makes sense to share this first.

And I know that cutting the boards yourself sounds like the opposite of a time saver, but let me explain. 

There are a few posts out there that recommend having the person at Lowes or Home Depot cut the plywood into planks for you.

I know that sounds like it would save you tons of time, because you’re offloading the cutting on them, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that.

We’ve had home improvement stores cut the plywood for us on other projects in the past.

Although it does save you time – we don’t think it’s worth it. Their cuts are not very accurate, like really inaccurate.

That may be perfectly find for certain projects, but with this project consistent cuts are important.

Having boards that are all about the same width allows your project to go smoother, easier and the end result will look much nicer.

#1 Make A Jig

OMG – If I didn’t use a jig I don’t know if I would have ever finished this project. The jig gives you consistent cuts and also allows you to easily rip through the pile of plywood.

The next best tool to use would have been the table saw, but it’s a super distant second to using a jig.

The jig wasn’t hard to make and it didn’t take very much time.

Take a look at the jig details in the dining room flooring article.

There you’ll find out how to make one and how how to attach it to the circular saw.

DIY Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - Secure The Jig To The Circular Saw Using Screws

#2 Don’t Use A Plywood Blade

This deserves another OMG. I tried using a plywood blade to cut the plywood into planks initially (cause you know, it’s plywood) but that was a BIG MISTAKE!

Ignore the plywood blades – instead, use the cross-cut blades.

Like I said in the dining room flooring article, the plywood blade didn’t even make it through two sheets of plywood.

When I used the cross-cut blade, a single blade did the rest of the plywood for the dining room and also the living room!!

If you’re keeping score, the plywood blade barely ripped 2 sheets of plywood into planks and the cross-cut blade did 19 sheets – and it can still do more.

This is hands down the best blade for cutting plywood planks. It cut through the plywood like butter, and also didn’t splinter the wood at all.

(Click the picture to order the same blade we used on Amazon)

 

The best blade to cut your plywood planks is a cross cut balde

#3 Skip Sanding Between Polyurethane Coats

When we did the dining room floor, we lightly sanded the bumps out of the coat of polyurethane with 120 grit sandpaper.

It’s what I’ve always thought you needed to do between coats and it’s also what I read in other plywood flooring blog posts.

With the living room floors, we figured that the bumps would even out a little after multiple coats of the poly were applied. 

diy plywood floors

Besides, the bumps would add a bit more texture making the floors less slippery.

The only concern we had was how it would feel walking barefoot on the floor with more texture. When we ran our hands on the planks we could clearly feel the additional texture, so we were a bit nervous.

Well, it turns out, the additional texture was barely noticeable when walking on the floor barefoot. Phew, that was a relief!

There You Have It

Those are our time saving tips for DIY wide plank plywood floors. These few simple tips will save you HOURS and HOURS of time. Without them, our project would have taken A LOT longer and would have been harder to do.

The first two tips alone will save you from pulling your hair out! 

We hope they will help you with your own wide plank plywood flooring.

Let us know what you think!

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3 Time Saving Tips for DIY Plank Plywood Floors

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood

The first farmhouse wide plank flooring made from plywood project we did was in the dining room earlier in the year.

Well, we loved it so much we did the same wide plank flooring in the living room.

For the most part, both the floors were done the same way, with a couple of exceptions. In this article, we’ll go over the differences between the two floors.

Check out the dining room plywood floor article to see more of the step by step details.

As far as time goes, the dining room’s wide plank flooring took about a week to finish and the living room took a lot longer.

The living room is a bit bigger, but what really added time to the project were the shimming and the end grain flooring inlay.

From start to finish, it took a little over two weeks to finish the living room floor.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you decide to purchase any of these products, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. We recommend these products only because we have experience with them and use them for our own projects. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

What We Did Different With This Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring

The methods we used for the flooring in the dining room and the living room were pretty much the same.

In the living room, we pulled up the old carpet, removed staples, painted the sub-floor a dark color and put down the floor the same way it was done in the dining room.

The width, length and thickness of the plywood planks was the same, and we cut, sanded, distressed, stained and added 3 coats of polyurethane to the flooring in almost the same way.

There were some small changes we made that saved us a little time and may have added some more character to our DIY plywood plank floor.

Here are the things we did a bit differently this go around.

We Didn’t Sand Between Polyurethane Coats

When we did the dining room floor, we lightly sanded the bumps out of the coat of polyurethane with 120 grit sandpaper.

With the living room floors, we figured that the bumps on the plywood planks would even out a little after multiple coats of poly were applied.

Besides, the bumps would add a bit more texture making the floors less slippery. Not that the dining room floors are slippery – it was just a way of justifying it in my head. 😉

The only concern I had was how it would feel walking barefoot on the floor with more texture.

Turns out, despite clearly feeling the additional texture when running your hand on the plank, it was barely noticeable when walking on it barefoot.

The Shopping List

Tools List
Here’s a list of the tools we used on this project, it’s basically the same list of tools from the dining room flooring project.

Affiliate links below may be to similar items when exact items couldn’t be found online.

Cordless Finish Nailer

Extra Battery For Finish Nailer

Belt Sander

Palm Sander

Miter Saw

Circular Saw

Cross Cut Saw Blade

Oscillating Multi-Tool

Hearing Protection Ear Muffs

Table Saw

 

Supplies List

These are the supplies used on this project.

Affiliate links below may be to similar items when exact items couldn’t be found online.

Varathane Cherrywood Gel Stain – we used about 7 quarts

Water Based Oil-Modified Poluyrathane – we used 2 gallons

3″ Natural Bristle brush – 6 brushes to apply the stain

4″ Polyester Synthetic Brush – 4 brushes to apply the poly

Masking Paper – We used the masking paper to protect the deck when applying the stain and poly

6 Gauge 1 1/2″ Finish Nails

A New Character Builder Was Used

The same original cast of character builders was used with the plywood planks in the living room. A hammer, pliers, and a propane torch… and this time we added a utility knife to the arsenal.

For the dining room, we would dig into cracks in the wood using the sanders to open the cracks up and soften the edges.

This time we used a utility knife to lengthen and widen the cracks in the wood.

Then we softened the edges of the cracks with the sander.

The result was even better than we imagined.

The deep cracks we made with the utility knife gave us the aged, farmhouse wide plank flooring look we were going for.

You wouldn’t even guess that it was plywood.

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Close up of the Distressing Done With A Utility Knife

Shameless Plug

If you are looking for a great house to rent in the Poconos, Feels Like Heaven may be the perfect fit for you!

Feels Like Heaven - A Premium 5 Bedroom Vacation Rental in The Poconos, PA

We Added Shims

The living room floors were much more uneven than the floors in the dining room.

To the point where we needed to add shims in the low spots to try and level things off a little.

I went around the floor with a straight edge, and where ever there was a dip, I added shims.

Since I knew I needed a good amount of shims, I made them out of a sheet of 1/4″ plywood. I ripped the sheet into 1″ strips using the table saw.

Once the floor was shimmed, we painted the floor a dark brown color, just like we did in the dining room.

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Wood Strips Used To Fill The Low Spots
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Starting The Plywood Flooring Install

The Living Room Plywood Floor Is Finished!

Like I said, the living room floor took much longer to do than the dining room floor did. It took a little over two weeks to finish, had I not messed up with the wood slice accent flooring, we would have finished in about 2 weeks.

Check out the wood slice accent flooring project here

We love the farmhouse wide plank flooring in both the dining room and the living room. This style was the perfect fit for this house, we couldn’t have imagined a better fit.

Between the two floors, I’d say I’d stick to the steps used on the living room floor.

Sanding between poly coats seems to have been unnecessary, and using the utility knife to expand on the cracks in the wood added sooo much more character to the living room floor – LOVE IT!

Here are a few more pictures of the stained plywood floors on the living room floor.

Let me know what you think, is there something you would have done differently? Are you thinking of doing DIY plywood floors in your home?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

 

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Close up of the Distressing
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - Close up of The Plywood Floor In The Living Room By The Wood Accent
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Finished Plywood Floor Seen From The Stairs
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor In The Living Room By The Wood Accent
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished
DIY Wide Plank Plywood Flooring
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Another Close up of the Distressing
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Seen From The Corner Of The Fireplace
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished By The Fireplace
DIY Plywood Plank Flooring

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DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood Fireplace - Portrait
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood Closeup - Portrait
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Wide Plank Plywood Flooring

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay



Creating an end grain flooring inlay was something I was looking forward to for months. We installed plywood wide plank flooring in the dining room and kitchen earlier this year and the living room was next on the list. Here’s a post with details on what we did with the living room floor

The flooring in the dining room and living room were going to be laid in different directions and a regular threshold separating the two spaces was going to be – well pretty boring.

While initially doing my Pinterest research on flooring, I came across pins with different floor designs created using wood slices.

That gave me the idea of doing an end grain flooring as an inlay. It was the perfect solution!

I couldn’t wait to try this project.

 

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you decide to purchase any of these products, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. We recommend these products only because we have experience with them and use them for our own projects. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Shopping List

Tools List

Here’s a list of the tools we used on this project.

Affiliate links below may be to similar items when exact items couldn’t be found online.

Belt Sander

Palm Sander

Miter Saw

Oscillating Multi-Tool

RotoZip

Hearing Protection Ear Muffs

 

Supplies List

These are the supplies used on this project.

Affiliate links below may be to similar items when exact items couldn’t be found online.

Water Based Oil-Modified Poluyrathane – we used 1 gallon

4″ Polyester Synthetic Brush – 4 brushes to apply the poly

Liquid Nails

What Is End Grain Flooring?

End grain flooring is basically branches and logs cut into slices, then placed in a pattern, in our case, it’s the shape of a river. The slices are glued into place and grout is applied to fill in the spaces between the slices. Then a protective finish is applied and you have yourself an end grain floor!

I call it a wood river, but I’ve seen it called a bunch of different names. Wood slice flooring, end grain flooring, log end flooring, cordwood floor and even cross-cut tree slice flooring to name a few.

Figuring Out The End Grain Flooring Inlay Layout

The beauty of doing a floor inlay is that there is no limit to the design you make. It can be as simple or ornate as you want.

Since our house is in the Poconos, in a wilderness setting, we figured a river made of wood would go with the house and its surrounding nature.

The end grain flooring inlay would separate the dining room from the living room. Starting in the corner of the dining room and making it’s way to the corner of the living room fireplace.

We wanted the flooring inlay to start off wider on one side and have it gently curving its way across the space.

We had the idea when we did the dining room earlier in the year and that’s also when I started cutting the wood slices for the river and traced out the shape of the wood slice flooring accent.

We were going to do the living room floors and the inlay a few months later, so that gave the wood slices time to dry.

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay Traced Out Using Tape and Filled in With Wood Slices - Seen From The Dining Room
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay Traced Out Using Tape

Shameless Plug

If you are looking for a great house to rent in the Poconos, Feels Like Heaven may be the perfect fit for you!

Feels Like Heaven - A Premium 5 Bedroom Vacation Rental in The Poconos, PA

Cutting The Wood Slices

Now that the general shape of the end grain flooring inlay was in place, the next step was to fill it in with wood slices. I got a bunch of branches that had fallen on our property and started cutting them to the width I thought I needed… more on that later.

I cut enough pieces of wood to fill in the inlay, with a bunch of various branch thicknesses. I cut them in May to have them dry up a few months before installing them in the fall.

The flooring was 1/2″ thick and the floors are uneven so I cut the wood slices a bit thicker… at least that’s what I thought….that was a big mistake. It’s important to cut them to the right size right off the bat.

I used a miter saw to cut the slices, it went pretty quick considering how many slices were needed.

Important Tip: When cutting the wood pieces try to cut them as close to the final thickness as possible.

I didn’t do that with this project and it took me days to get the slices down to the right size.

I cut the slices 3/4″ and most of the wood slices needed to be about 1/2″… a big mistake.

That extra 1/4″ was a struggle to remove.

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay Traced Out Using Tape - Seen From The Living Room
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay Traced Out Using Tape - Seen From The Living Room

Drying The Wood Slices

I had cut most of the wood slices months ago so those were dry when I was ready to install them.

But I guess I was able to get the wood slices tighter together when I was actually doing the project… so I needed more wood slices.

I found this article on drying the wood slices.

http://theplywood.com/drying-wood-in-oven

Using the oven on low heat (200 F), the wood slices were dry in a couple of hours so it worked really well.

Cutting The End Grain Flooring Inlay Into The Floor Boards

The original plan was to cut each floorboard individually using a rotozip. I was going to cut them outside since the rotozip causes a lot of dust.

Instead, I ended up cutting the floorboards in place using the Oscillating Multi-Tool. That worked really well and it didn’t make very much dust.

After the boards were cut I went over the cut with the belt sander to soften the curves and round off the edge of the boards. That way there aren’t splinters. 🙂

 

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - Where The Inlay Will Go
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - Floor Boards Are All Cut
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - Figuring Out What Floor Boards To Use Next To The Inlay
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay Cut Into The Floor Boards and Wood Slices In Place - Seen From Fireplace

Placing The Wood Slices In The Inlay

When placing the slices inlay, make sure to mix up the different sizes. That way it looks more organic and natural.

I secured the wood pieces in place with liquid nails. It just takes a dollop on the back of each piece and applying a little pressure to get it to set. 

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay Cut Into The Floor Boards and Wood Slices In Place - The Inlay Cut Into The Floor Boards and Wood Slices In Place

Seal The Wood Slices Before Applying The Grout

I sealed the wood slices before applying the grout by applying a coat of the polyurethane. Otherwise the grout will darken the wood slices. You’ll be sanding everything down later but sealing the slices makes it easier to get them back to the lighter color.

Mixing The Sawdust Grout

I found an article from Bob Villa that talks about the grout that can be used with the wood slices. It’s called sawdust grout.

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/quick-tip-sawdust-grout/

Sawdust grout is a combination of 2 parts sawdust to 1 part polyurethane.

I used a water based, oil-modified fast drying polyurethane for the sawdust grout mix and the finish.

The polyurethane dries quickly and it’s orderless. 

It’s the same one we used on the plywood wide plank floor boards in the living dining room and kitchen.

Applying The Sawdust Grout

The Grout is a pretty dry paste that can be pushed into all the nooks and crannies between each wood slice.

Using latex gloves grab a small glob of Grout and push it into the spaces between the wood slices.

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The wood slices are in place and the sawdust grout is being applied
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The wood slices are in place and the sawdust grout is being applied

Sanding The End Grain Flooring Inlay

I used a belt sander to sand down the wood pieces.

Of course, that was only after I fixed my huge mistake of cutting the wood slices the wrong thickness.

The sand paper I used was 36 grit. I wanted something that gave the wood pieces a rough texture so they wouldn’t be slippery.

Because sanding is a pretty messy task, I tented off the area, that way the dust didn’t go all over the house.

 

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay Tented Off To Reduce The Dust Around The House While Sanding
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay Tented Off To Reduce The Dust Around The House While Sanding
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay Tented Off To Reduce The Dust Around The House While Sanding

This is what the wood slices and the sawdust grout looked like after the sanding was done.

I sanded the wood slice inlay to the height of the flooring on either side of it. I also used the sander to knock off the edges of each of the wood slices, removing any hard edges that may be uncomfortable to walk on.

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay After Grout Dried And Sanded Before Poly Finish

Adding The Polyurathane Finish

The polyurethane was the same one I used on the wood board flooring and in the sawdust grout mix.

 I put three coats of finish on the end grain flooring inlay.

Although the poly is colorless, it did give the wood slices a little bit of a yellow tint.

The sawdust grout also darken quite a bit when I applied the poly on top of it.

 

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The Inlay After Grout Dried And Sanded After Poly Finish

More Pics Of The End Grain Flooring Inlay

Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - cross cut flooring inlay from the dining room
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - The End Grain Flooring Inlay Finished
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - End Grain flooring Inlay from the fireplace
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - Finished - Seen From The Dining Room
End Grain Flooring Inlay Finished - Log End Wood Floor Inlay Closeup
Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - End Grain flooring Inlay toward the fireplace

What Do You Think?

We love the way the end grain flooring inlay turned out.  It’s so much more character than a simple threshold would have given.

What do you think? Do you like the way it turned out? What would you do differently? We’d love to hear your feedback.

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Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay - A closeup of the End Grain Flooring Inlay Finished
Wood River Finished - Wood slices flooring accent closeup
Wood River Finished - Wood slices flooring accent closeup

How To Make A Plywood Cutout

How To Make A Plywood Cutout

Adding a Pool Filler-It's an Easy Install



Why I Wanted To Make A Plywood Cutout

I decided to make a plywood cutout when I couldn’t find something I could buy.
 
We were doing updates in the Poconos vacation rental (Feels Like Heaven). I wanted to add something above the TV on the accent wall in the bear roomyes we name the bedrooms. 🙂
 
Since it was going in the bear room, what better addition then a bear on the wall.
 
I did some searches on my go to – Pinterest. I found a lot of ideas for all things bear.

Check out the Feels Like Heaven Pinterest board here to take a look at what pins I found.

Bear Room Ideas Board On Pinterest

There was a lot of nice ideas for sure but they weren’t exactly what I was looking for.
 
Then I got the idea-why not find a picture of a bear I like,print it out,transfer it to plywood and cut it out.
 
I didn’t find any instructions on how to do that so I figured I’d make some.

🙂 

Shameless Plug

If you are looking for a great house to rent in the Poconos, Feels Like Heaven may be the perfect fit for you!

Feels Like Heaven - A Premium 5 Bedroom Vacation Rental in The Poconos, PA

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you decide to purchase any of these products, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. We recommend these products only because we have experience with them and use them for our own projects. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Shopping List For Making A Plywood Cutout

Tools List

We didn’t use too many tools on this project, here’s a list of the ones we did use.

Reciprocating Saw

Belt Sander

Supplies List

These are the supplies used on this project

scrap piece of 3/4″ plywood

paint

Paint Brush

This was a straight-forward project. It only took a couple of hours to complete since my cut out was a simple bear shape. If you choose something more complex then your cutout may take longer to finish.

Finding The Right Image

The piece I was looking for was a calm bear, either walking, standing or laying down.
 
I did a lot of searches and finally decided to use this picture as my template.
 
Your picture doesn’t need to be a black and white picture, it can be any picture and it can be any size.
 
Below I’ll show you how to print it out to the size you need.

Plywood Bear Cut Out - The Picture I Chose For The Cutout

Determining How Many Pages You Need

This is definitely not an exact science.  I wanted my bear cutout to be about 36″ wide – maybe a little bigger. Since I was going to print on letter sized paper, that would translate to about 3 or 4 pages wide.

Printing Your Image to Size

Open the image using the Microsoft Paint program. To open Microsoft Paint Press the window key on your keyboard then type in paint.
 
Once in the program open the image you want to print out.

Note:  I’m a PC user so these instructions are for PCs.

I’m sure you can achieve the same results using a Mac… I just don’t know how.

A google search “print image on multiple pages on mac” will probably steer you in the right direction.

Plywood Bear Cut Out - Open Microsoft Paint

Changing The Page Setup

This is where the magic happens. With your picture open in Microsoft Paint, go into Page setup to tell it how many pages you want to use in your print out.

  • Click the down arrow on the upper left menu
  • Click the right arrow next to the Print option
  • Click Page setup
  • In the Page Setup dialog Select “Fit to:” in the Scaling section (the lower right box)

For our bear cut out I chose 4 pages wide by 3 pages high

In landscape, Each page is 11″ wide by 8.5″ high and the printer has .5″ margins (the box above the Scaling box in the dialog) so the bear print out would be about 40″ wide, 4 sheets x 10″ of printable paper (11″ paper – .5″ left margin – .5″ right margin).

 Now that you changed your page setup, go ahead and Print Your Template Out

 

Plywood Bear Cut Out - Microsoft Paint Menu
Plywood Bear Cut Out - Change The Page Setup



Tape the Pages Together

Now that you have your pages printed, it’s time to piece them together to create the paper template.

Tape the pages together, putting extra tape wherever the seems for the template meet.

Tip: Cut the margins off of the pages using scissors, to make it easier to tape them together.

Plywood Bear Cut Out - Tape The Paper Template Together
With your template assembled use a pair of scissors (or an exacto knife) to cut out your paper template.

Now You Have Your Paper Template

Now that it’s cut out, place the template on top of your plywood and trace it out.

First I used a pencil to trace it out, then I went over the pencil mark using a sharpie.

The sharpie is easier to see when cutting the plywood.

Plywood Bear Cut Out - Trace It Out On The Plywood

Cutting The Plywood Shape

Sorry I didn’t take any pictures of the plywood being cut. 🙁

I used a reciprocating saw to cut my bear shape since I was looking for a rough finish. If you want a cleaner finish then a jig saw or a roto-zip my be a better tool to use.

We now have our plywood cutout! 

Sand and Paint and You’re All Done

With the shape cut out, you can now round the edges using a sander. For my cut out I wanted a bit of an unfinished look so I didn’t want rounded edges.

I sanded the edges enough to remove the possibility of getting splinters.

Once sanded, add a couple of coats of paint and you’re cut out is all set.

Here’s my finished bear cutout.  When I first painted it, I chose a light color to add contrast between it and the wall – but it looked too much like a polar bear… not what I was going for.

I then painted it a dark brown color, it looks more like a black bear than a polar bear now. 🙂

Plywood Bear Cut Out - All Finished



What Did You Think?

What I liked about this project is the possibilities it opened up. You can do any shape, any size using any material.

I’m not sure what my next cut out will be but I am sure that the bear was not my last one!

I hope this article shed some light on the possibilities and has your creative ideas going. Did you like it? What will you make a plywood cutout of? What would you do differently?
Share your thoughts in the comments below!

DIY Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring

DIY Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring

DIY Rustic Farmhouse Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - a great plywood flooring idea - a closeup of the distressing and Knots



As you’d expect, DIY Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring takes much longer to finish than just installing pre-made planks.

This project was the truest sense of DIY.  Everything from cutting the plywood into wide plank boards, to sanding, staining, finishing and installing the plywood planks down… all of it DIY.

All things considered, the entire project, from start to finish didn’t take that long.

From cutting the planks out of plywood, to finally installing the floors in both the dining room and kitchen – took about a week.

If you’re willing to put in the time and sweat, it is absolutely worth it!

The floors look gorgeous (the pictures don’t do it justice) and you really would not know that they are  stained plywood floors.

Read on to see what it took to make and install our rustic wide plank plywood floors and how you can install your own unique plywood flooring.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you decide to purchase any of these products, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. We recommend these products only because we have experience with them and use them for our own projects. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Why We Chose Wide Plank Plywood Flooring

Some of the flooring in our Poconos vacation rental needed replacing.  Namely, the floating hardwood floor in the dining room and kitchen and the carpet in the living room.

Our goal was to have new floors that look old, warm, and worn – like they had always been there. Basically, the more it looked like farmhouse flooring or barn wood the better it was for us.

We looked into tile, stone, and hardwood floors. The problem with all of them was that they all needed a level sub-floor and ours was uneven… like really uneven.

Since the entire house is made of rough-cut oak, the flooring is not even close to being level.

That makes tile, stone and even hardwood flooring very difficult to install. The extra difficulty also translates to very expensive installation costs.

It was time to get creative, DIY floors were in our future. To get more flooring ideas we turned to Pinterest. After a lot of scrolling, we came across rustic farmhouse wide plank plywood flooring!

On Pinterest, there was a gazillion (well maybe not quite that many) plywood flooring ideas, but the one that was the best fit for us was the wide plank flooring.

The pictures of the wide plank plywood flooring projects others had posted were incredible – this was it! This was the perfect flooring for uneven floors.

We were sold on the idea.

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When In Doubt – Wabi-Sabi

There’s a concept I came across on Pinterest which was instrumental in my choice of plywood over other flooring types.

It’s called wabi-sabi.

It’s a Japanese tradition that is the art of making broken things better than brand new.

The idea is to hi-light the imperfections – make them perfectly imperfect.

With this new perspective, I was looking for imperfections to show off – instead of avoiding them.

If (or when) the floors get a new scuff mark or scratch, it will add to the floor’s character. It’s a very freeing concept that I am really glad I came across.

Click on the picture to see the Pinterest pin that inspired me, I hope it does the same for you.

DIY Rustic Farmhouse Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - wabi sabi - broken is beautiful pinterest pin

Why Use Plywood Flooring? It’s Affordable.

Most people decide to install plywood plank flooring because of it’s affordability.

It’s much cheaper to install a plywood floor than traditional hardwood or even a laminate, heck it’s even cheaper than doing vinyl.

For our plywood farmhouse floors, the cost wasn’t much of a factor in our decision-making process.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s always nice to save some dough… it was just lower on our list.

Higher on our list was flooring that was sturdy, looked like it has always been there, fit with the style of the house and would be easy to install on an uneven floor. 

Between the option of making wider planks and the spacing between each one – wide plank plywood flooring was a perfect fit for this house.

The spacing between each board makes it more forgiving in scenarios like ours where the floor isn’t level.

On top of that, the Japanese concept I came across helped me realize that any blemishes the floor will gain as it ages will only add to the floor’s beauty.

So it didn’t need to be as sturdy as hardwood, we’ll just embrace the imperfections that come along with it! 🙂



Another Reason To Use Plywood Floor Planks? The Versatility

Another huge benefit to plywood floor planks is the design versatility.

I love how my plywood plank floors turned out. There really is nothing I would change, but one thing that’s great about plywood planks is that there is no limit to what you can do.

I LOVE the way the rustic plywood floor planks came out, but the plywood planks could have looked just as good with a modern look.

Take a look at plywood floor planks on Pinterest. You’ll see there is no limit to the style, color, shape, size, or texture. It’s all just a matter of preference – how cool is that?

The Cost Of Our DIY Plywood Flooring

We knew that we saved quite a bit of money by choosing plywood faux plank flooring but we didn’t realize how much until someone asked for a breakdown in the comments.

We saved a ton!!

Of course, what you save in dollars you lose in time. We didn’t look at it as a lose of time though, it saw it as a great way to get our creative juices flowing and gave us a flooring that is completely unique – and it saved us a bunch of money to boot! Win – win – win! 

Total Cost
22 sheets of plywood @ $32/sheet = $704
17 quarts of stain @16.30/quart = $276
5 gallons of Poly @ $12/gallon = $60
TOTAL = $1040

Square Feet
22 Sheets * 32 sq. ft./sheet = 704 sq. ft.

$1040 / 704 sq. ft. = $1.47 per sq. ft.

The Down-side to Plywood Flooring

The only negative I saw with plywood floor planks was the durability. It’s not a hardwood so it would scratch easier than an oak flooring would.

Now with my new wabi-sabi perspective, I’m actually looking forward to the scratches and dents.

The blemishes will only add to the floor’s beauty. If there’s a scratch that is really ugly, I can add something creative to give it beauty.

Perfectly imperfect.

The Shopping List

Tools List

Here’s a list of the tools we used on this project.

Affiliate links below may be to similar items when exact items couldn’t be found online.

Cordless Finish Nailer

Extra Battery For Finish Nailer

Belt Sander

Palm Sander

Miter Saw

Circular Saw

Cross Cut Saw Blade

Oscillating Multi-Tool

Hearing Protection Ear Muffs

 

Supplies List

These are the supplies used on this project.

Affiliate links below may be to similar items when exact items couldn’t be found online.

Varathane Cherrywood Gel Stain – we used about 7 quarts

Water Based Oil-Modified Poluyrathane – we used 2 gallons

3″ Natural Bristle brush – 6 brushes to apply the stain

4″ Polyester Synthetic Brush – 4 brushes to apply the poly

Masking Paper – We used the masking paper to protect the deck when applying the stain and poly

6 Gauge 1 1/2″ Finish Nails

The Plywood Plank Flooring Thickness

The plywood plank flooring thickness we used is 1/2″ thick. If our floors weren’t so uneven we could have used 3/4″, but the flexibility that a 1/2″ plywood has was perfect to conform to our uneven sub-floor’s contours. 

I think an added benefit to the 1/2″ plywood is that the spaces in between the planks doesn’t hold dirt as easily.

It may sound like that’s a bit of a stretch but I think if it was 3/4″ plywood, the extra 1/4″ of plywood thickness may make it harder for a vacuum to suck out things that get stuck in the spaces.

We weren’t sure how the spaces were going to fair with dust and things falling in them but so far so good – nothing a good vacuuming can’t fix. 🙂

Other than things possibly getting stuck in the spaces between the planks, I don’t see any reason you can’t use 3/4″ thick plywood for your plank flooring. That being said, I also don’t really see a benefit to using it over 1/2″ plywood.

The Plywood Plank Width

We wanted the farmhouse or country kind of look, so a wide plank is what we went with.

We also wanted to reduce the amount of wasted plywood, so the width we came up with was 5 7/8″ for each board. That gives us 8 planks per sheet and a tiny strip leftover at the end.

We’ve seen other plywood floors where they went for 8 inch or even 12 inch boards. We didn’t want to make them that wide because we felt it made it obvious that it was a plywood floor.

And a wide board would have shown the dreaded plywood zebra pattern that I don’t care for (more on the plywood zebra pattern later).

The Type Of Plywood We Used

There were a couple of questions in the comments about the type of plywood that was used for the plywood planks.

The plywood is regular 3-ply, cheapy weepy, plain Jane, rough finished 1/2″ pine plywood.

The exact name from Lowes is:

Plytanium 15/32″ CAT PS1-09 Square Structural Plywood Pine

Basically, the cheapest plywood we could get.

Since we wanted a rustic look the knots and imperfections weren’t a problem. 

The plywood is a regular rough finish plywood

Some Before Pics

Here are some before pics of the space with the original floor.

We loved the color of the original floors, but the flooring never really went with the style of the house. It was a 3/8″ floating floor and the wood strips were fairly thin. Because it was floating and a pretty thin floor, it always sounded a bit hollow when you walked on it.

The real problem with the old flooring was buckling in some spots, probably because of the way it was installed.

That buckling was one of the reasons we felt the wide plank flooring made of plywood would be perfect for this space.

The wide plank flooring has spacing around each board, that spacing would prevent the new floor from buckling.

 

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - The Dining Room Subfloor With Staples Removed
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - The Dining Room Subfloor With Staples Removed
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - The Dining Room Subfloor With Staples Removed

How Much Plywood Do You Need

The measurements don’t need to be super precise. Rounding up the measurements and adding an extra plywood sheet to the total should give you enough wiggle room.

For our space, I treated it like a big rectangle. The length was 287″ (rounded up to 24′) and the width was 140″ (rounded up to 12′).

24 x 12 is 288 sq feet.

Each sheet of plywood is 4′ x 8′ so that gives you 32 square feet per sheet.

When I divided the total sq feet (288) by the sq feet per sheet (32) it told me I needed 9 sheets of plywood.

Then I added an extra sheet as a buffer.

DIY Rustic Farmhouse Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - Dining Room And Kitchen Measurements Floor Plan

The Final Numbers

We bought 10 sheets of 1/2″ plywood for our project and once completed, we had about 1 sheet left over.

Prepping the Subfloor

Total Time: 2 people about 2 hours

The original floor was a 3/8″ hardwood floor that was installed with   a   lot   of   staples…. like a lot of staples.

At first, it felt like the staple removal was taking FOREVER.

Once we got into a rhythm though it really only took a couple of hours for us to get just about all of them out.

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - The Dining Room Subfloor With Staples Removed

Subfloor Painting

Total Time: 1 person about an hour The subfloor we had was unpainted plywood. If we installed the wide plank plywood flooring without first painting the lighter colored subfloor, it would have shown through the spaces in between the planks. To prevent that from happening, we painted the subfloor a very dark brown color, using paint that we already had. Any dark paint color would do the job – just stick to a paint that is an eggshell or satin. You don’t want a shiny subfloor showing through the spaces between the boards.
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood – How To Install Plywood Flooring - The Dining Room Subfloor Painted Dark Brown

Cutting The Plywood Into Planks

Total Time: With the right blade this would take less than 2 hours for 10 sheets

I keep calling them planks or boards but basically, this step is where I took the sheets of plywood and cut them into long strips.

A lot of the Pinterest posts I came across said they had a person from Lowes or Home Depot cut the sheets for them.

It’s definitely an option. I’ve used their cutting services in the past when the cuts didn’t need to be very precise.

In this case, I wanted more precise cuts, so I opted to do it myself.

It takes A LOT longer but I thought having consistently sized plywood planks was worth the extra time.

That way, I was sure each piece was going to be about the same width.

To make cutting the pieces MUCH easier and to keep them the same width I made a jig.

They say hind site is 20/20, well looking back on it I would still cut the plywood strips for flooring myself.

I recently used the cutting services for another project where I didn’t care about the width they cut it an man o man, I don’t think there were two cuts that were the same width.

 

DIY Rustic Farmhouse Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - Cutting plywood flooring into wide planks - A Sheet of Plywood Ripped Into Planks

The Best Saw Blade To Use

We had 10 sheets of plywood to cut into wide plywood planks. I figured that a plywood blade would be the best. I thought anything else would leave a really rough edge on the wood.

Well, I was very, very wrong.

Do Not Use A Plywood Blade – Use a Cross Cut Blade instead

The plywood blade didn’t last very long and took a lot of effort to go through the plywood. It started smoking and having a lot more difficulty cutting barely halfway into the second sheet of plywood.

I ended up having to go out and buy another blade. This time I tried a cross cut blade, OMG what a difference.

The cross cut blade went through the plywood like butter and left an even better cut than the plywood blade did. I was able to do the rest of the plywood using just that one cross cut blade. 

If you want to get the same cross cut blade I used, just click the picture below.

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - Choosing the right blade to cut your floor boards is key - this is the best blade for ripping the plywood into planks

The Jig

A jig is fancy talk for a template. It really made a tedious and time-consuming task super easy.

It was basically a 1/2″ piece of scrap plywood I had with a scrap piece of 1 x 4 screwed to it.

The space between the saw blade and the piece of 1 x 4 was 5 7/8″, the thickness we wanted our plywood flooring planks to be.

To make the jig I put the blade of the saw all the way up, secured the saw to the plywood with screws all around the saw, wedging it in place.

Then I slowly lowered the saw into the plywood and measured 5 7/8″ from the inside of the plunge cut and that’s where I screwed in the 1 x 4.

DIY Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - Secure The Jig To The Circular Saw Using Screws
DIY Rustic Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - cutting the sheet into floor boards - the jig used to rip the plywood into planks - top view
DIY Rustic Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - bottom view - this jig made ripping the plywood so much easier

For more info on the jig and some extra tips on cutting the planks check out this post, 3 Time Saving Tips For DIY Plank Plywood Floors.

Tip:  If you’re cutting your own boards you need to make a jig. When making your jig, extend the 1 x 4 way in front and way behind the saw, like it is in the pictures.

That lets you line up the saw way before the blade comes in contact with the plywood. It also gives more stability, ending up with a straighter cut.

Sanding Each Plank

Total Time: 2 people about a day and a half

This part took a while, but it’s important to put the time into it.

We sanded the face of the plywood to remove any splinters and the text that’s sometimes stamped on the plywood.

We also used the sander to round the edges all around the face of each plank.

The rounded edge gives it a really nice finished look and helps in cases like ours, where the floors aren’t very level.

Rounded edges give a soft transition between two planks when they don’t quite line up.

This is also where you choose which side of the plywood will be the face, the pretty side or the ugly side.

When we were choosing sides, I’d say we chose the ugly side 80% of the time.

It went against what I would normally do, but now I kinda wish I went with the ugly side more.

We used a belt sander to do most of the sanding. You could use a palm sander if you’re not doing too much flooring but in our case, the belt sander was much faster.

The sandpaper we used was 120 grit, it was perfect for the belt sander.

DIY Rustic Farmhouse Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - round off all the edges

During this part of the project, you’ll have your doubts about using the gnarly part of the plywood.

BUT TRUST ME – once you put the stain on the plywood you will be blown away at how good it looks.

In the end, the most beautiful planks were the ones with imperfections.

Tip:

If a plank has a knot or crack in it, don’t put it to the side or use it in an area you can’t see.

Instead, make it more noticeable. Dig into the knot or crack with the sander to emphasis the crack or knot more. It’ll help remove splinters that are around the knot or crack and also add character.

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - do not be afraid of imperfections

Distressing The Plywood Plank Flooring

Total Time: We did this at the same time as sanding so it’s included in the day and a half spent sanding

This is the distressing part of the distressed plywood floors.

There were three weapons of choice for applying the plywood’s character (a.k.a. distressing), a hammer, a big pair of pliers and a propane torch.

Out of the three I used the pliers the most and the hammer the least.

Using pliers, I’d repeatedly hit the face of the plywood with the back corner of the pliers.

With the hammer, I used the side of the hammer, and the claw to make indentations in the plywood.

If you look at the floor right above the hammer in the picture you’ll see the indentations the back of the pliers left.

I also used a utility knife to open up any cracks in the wood, to make them more pronounced.

I did it by putting the knife at an angle and cutting along the crack, opening up the crack, similar to what is done to cracks in concrete when you want to fill a crack.

The distressing (a.k.a character building) is a key step for distressed rustic plywood floors.

The where and tear makes the planks look authentic, the more distressing the better.

DIY Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - meet the character builders

Adding Even More Character – Burning The Plywood Boards

The propane torch was by far my favorite character builder – and it wasn’t because it spoke to my inner pyro…. well maybe a little because of my inner pyro lol.

Burning the plywood gives an instant amazing aged look.

This is another part of the process where I hesitated a lot.

But once the stain goes on, the plywood planks instantly transform into a beautifully aged floorboard!

Take a look at the before and after picture of the burned plywood plank.

When burning the wood there are definitely thoughts of Oh My God! This is too much!

But, as soon as the stain goes on, it blends the darkness of the burn the the rest of the plywood colors beautifully.

Whenever we came across a plank that looked a little boring, we burned some character into it to liven things up. 🙂

Take a look at the arrows in the picture, each one of those dark marks is the work of the propane torch.

 

Tip: When burning the plywood, the lighter parts of the wood burn much easier than the darker parts. 

Since I was avoiding that plywood zebra pattern, I didn’t burn the wood where there was a heavy pattern.

Burning that area would only emphasize the pattern – and I didn’t want that.

If the part of the wood was either only dark or only light then it was eligible for burning.

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - burned plywood floors from the propane torch
DIY Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - .a Burned Plywood Plank Before And After Staining

Here’s a video of how we burned the rustic wide plank plywood flooring.

We Chose Gel Stain, This is Why

The process started with trying out a bunch of different stains on scrap pieces of plywood first, and this was by far our favorite!

We went with a gel stain instead of a regular stain because it does a really good job of covering up that plywood zebra pattern that we didn’t want.

It’s totally a personal preference, but I don’t like the pattern you get from regular stain on plywood floors.

Take a look at this picture I copied from Pinterest, for an example of what I’m talking about.

Regular stain is more liquid and gets absorbed by the plywood at different rates. Softer parts of the wood absorb the stain faster than the denser parts of the wood.

A workaround would also be to use a wood conditioner before applying regular stain.

Instead, we used the gel stain.

Because we used the gel, we were able to skip the wood conditioner.

Plus, the gel stain added a nice wood grain pattern on the surface of the board, making it look less like plywood….BONUS!

DIY Rustic Farmhouse Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - zebra plywood pattern I wanted to avoid

The Gel Stain We Chose

The gel stain we used had a dark color and created a lighter stain on the wood. The result was a cherry colored wood with a dark grain pattern on top, exactly what we were looking for.

The thicker you applied the stain the darker the board would be.

Also, the longer you waited before brushing the excess stain off the darker the plank will be.

If a plank had a heavy zebra pattern on it, we put the stain on thick and waited a bit more before dry brushing it.

That did a pretty good job of minimizing the zebra pattern.

The brush we used for the stain was a cheap wide (about 4″) real bristle brush.

The stain has a strong polyurethane smell to it, so we did the staining out on the deck and also let the boards dry out there.

If you’re going to do the same, make sure to first check the weather forecast!

We used about 7 quarts of stain to do our project.

Staining Plywood Floors

Total Time: 2 people about a day

When we stained the plywood floors, we did one coat of stain using the dry brush technique.

Basically, first we applied the stain with the wet brush, then used a dry brush to brush off the excess stain.

With every pass of the dry brush, we would wipe off the dry brush on a paper towel to remove the majority of the stain from it.

We chose the dry brush method because it leaves a nice dark wood pattern.

When applying the stain and dry brushing, we were able to play with the texture that the stain leaves on the plywood.

Mixing it up and using wavy brush strokes to simulate a grain or brushing around a knot in the wood added uniqueness to each board.

Remember, the longer the stain is left on and the longer it dries before using the dry brush, the darker the board will be.

We typically applied the stain and waited a couple of minutes before using the dry brush.

If we came across a board with lot of that zebra pattern on it we applied a thicker coat and let it sit a little longer.

The thicker coat and longer wait time did a better job of masking the zebra pattern.

Once the stain was applied we waited 24 hours before applying the polyurathane.

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - stained plywood flooring - Stain Plywood Floors - applying the gel stain and leaving brush strokes that look like wood grain
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - Applying Gel Stain and distressing to the wide plank plywood floor boards

Applying The Finish

Total Time: 2 people about a day and a half

For the finish we used a clear satin, water based, oil-modified polyurethane.

This product was perfect for our project because it didn’t change the color of the stain, dried quickly and best of all – it’s oderless!

If you’ve ever done any sort of polyurethane project. you know that the smell from polyurathane is no joke… and it lingers for days and days. This has no smell at all!

We went with a satin finish because we wanted an aged look and a glossy floor would be the opposite of that.

Three thin coats of poly were applied on all the boards, including the sides of the boards. Between each coat, we waited about 2 hours before applying the next coat.

We then waited 24 hours after the last coat before installing the boards.

We didn’t sand between the first and second coats but did do a light hand sanding with 120 grit sandpaper before applying the final coat.

The brush we used for the poly was a cheap wide (about 6″) synthetic brush.

We used 2 gallons of polyurethane for our project.

Click her to buy the same polyurethane I used

Tip: When applying any polyurethane, bubbles are something you want to avoid.

That’s because the bubbles don’t pop. Instead,  they dry into poly… and that’s not a good look. lol

To prevent bubbles, mix the poly using a mixing stick using smooth circular motions.

No shaking the can here!

Update: When we originally did the dining room floor we did a light sanding before the final coat of poly.

Recently we did the living room floor and for that flooring, we skipped the sanding before the poly.

We figured not sanding would give the planks a bit more texture and save us a boatload of time.

It worked out really well! From now on, we won’t be sanding before the final poly coat.

It’s All About That Space

The spaces between each plank were perfect for the style we were looking for.

The spacing would give it more of that farmhouse feel and prevent the buckling that the previous floor suffered from.

A few of the posts on Pinterest mentioned using quarters as spacers, so that’s what we used.

Our wide plank plywood flooring has small variations in the spacing, mostly because of the uneven floors – but that’s ok – wabi-sabi. 😉

Where To Start Laying The Plywood Planks

I used a tip I came across on one of the Pinterest posts, starting on the side of the room where the floor is the most visible.

For our space the most visible part of the floor was by the front door so that’s where we started.

When we reached the opposite end of the space we ended up with the last row of planks needing to be ripped in half.

DIY Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - Starting The Wide Plank Plywood Floor Install

Make Sure To Space Out The Seams

Each plank was 8 feet long and the room was a little over 12 feet wide, so there weren’t too many seams to work with.

The rule of thumb is to not have two consecutive rows with seems less than a foot apart from each other.

DIY Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - make sure to space out the seams - This is the plywood flooring in the kitchen

Cutting The Plywood Boards To Length

I used a miter saw to cut the boards to length. Pretty straight forward. One tip is to make sure the blade reaches full speed before you start cutting into the plywood. That’ll give you a clean, smooth cut.

Tip:  Every once and a while making a cut would create a thin line of bare wood at the very edge of the cut. When that happened I used a dark colored sharpie to color that bare wood and that blended it right in.

I used a black sharpie but a brown sharpie would work just as well.

I actually used the sharpie a lot with the length-wise cuts.

Securing The Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring In Place

Total Time: 1 person a solid day
 
On Pinterest, I found different methods of securing the planks. Some suggested glue or liquid nails, others said nails, and a few did both.
 
The glue or liquid nails sounded too permanent to me. If I ever want to change the flooring in the future, nailing it down would be the best approach.
 
I opted for face-nailing the planks using a nail gun. I bought a battery-powered Bostitch nail gun, it was perfect for the job.
 
This nail gun has a rapid-fire feature. If you press and hold the trigger it shoots nails in rapid succession – like it’s air-powered cousin.
That feature makes quick work of installing these floors.
 
The nails I used were 16 gauge 1 1/2″ straight nails.
 
I put a nail in about every 6 – 12″ all the way around the board.
The nail heads are super tiny and the nailgun did a good job of countersinking them into the planks so they are barely noticeable.
 
We used about 4 packs of nails for the project

Tip: If you end up buying the same nail gun I’d recommend also buying an extra battery. It already comes with one battery, buying the extra battery will help keep your project moving along.

 

One More Note

The plywood flooring we installed is 1/2″ thick and the previous flooring was 3/8″ thick.

The 1/8″ difference meant any spaces where the previous flooring used to fit – the new flooring no longer did.

That difference meant a lot of undercutting. Not only the door moldings but all the furring strips that cover the seams of the oak boards on the walls.

I could have done it with a dovetail saw, but since I had quite a few cuts to do, I bought an oscillating tool. It worked perfectly!

The tool comes with a bunch of different attachments. I haven’t used it for anything else yet but I can think of a few different uses for it in the future.

plywood flooring install - the nail gun

All Done – That’s It!

So, all told, it took roughly a week to do the plywood plank floors – from complete start to complete finish. Including the old floor removal, subfloor painted, 10 sheets of plywood cut into strips, sanded, distressed, stained, polyied and installed.

This was a good sized project with a lot of effort put into it, but it was well worth it. We now have a completely unique floor that fits perfectly with the house, and looks fantastic!!

In the fall, we’re going to install the same rustic wide plank plywood flooring in the living room, and I’m really looking forward to it.

We’re also going to do a unique transition between the living room and dining room floors… can’t wait.

 

Update: Well, we redid the living floors recently and we also installed the wood slice accent flooring. Everything turned out perfect!

We wrote about those experiences also, check out those posts here:

Wood Slice Accent Flooring

Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring



Some Pictures

Here’s some more pics of the work in progress and the finished plywood plank flooring.

Let me know what you think, is there something you would have done different?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

DIY Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - Close up pictures Of The Distressed, burned and stained plywood floors
DIY Rustic Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - a closeup of the distressing
DIY Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - The Plywood Plank Flooring In The Kitchen
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - Distressed Floor - The stained plywood floors are perfect for that farmhouse look
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made From Plywood - In the middle of installing the plywood plank flooring in the Dining Room
DIY Rustic Farmhouse Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - a closeup of the distressing on the barn board plywood flooring in the kitchen
DIY Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - The Plywood Plank Flooring In The Dining Room
DIY Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - the finished product - The stained plywood floors are perfect for that farmhouse look
DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Floor Boards Drying Outside After Polyurethane Was Applied

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DIY Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - a closeup of the distressing and Knots