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.
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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.
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.
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Extra Battery For Finish Nailer
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
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.
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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.
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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!
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Hello! Absolutely beautiful floors. I was wondering. Did you use anything between the planks & subfloor? We have concrete and wondering if I can do this on them…..
Hi Lina! I installed those floors on a plywood subfloor so we didn't have to put something between the planks and subfloor. Concrete would be trickie. You'll definitely need to put some sort of vapor barrier between your flooring and the concrete. You would also need to put something between the concrete and your planks to be able to nail them in. A possibility would be to install a vapor barrier, sheets of plywood nailed to the concrete, then the plywood planks nailed into the sheets of plywood. It would be a lot more work for sure and it would also increase the total cost of the project quite a bit but that may be a solution.
Do you think that a 3/8” plywood would work fine instead of a 1/2”? Our floors are pretty even so we wouldn’t need the flexibility, it’s just significantly cheaper since we would be doing around 1200 sq ft. Thanks!
I think it would. The only thing I can think of is you may be able to see the subfloor a bit easier than with 1/2". As long as your subfloor is a very dark color and not shiny I think you could totally do it with 3/8" sheets.
Good luck with it!
How many coats of stain did you do? For some reason my stain is not coming out as dark as yours. And I’ve followed all the steps.
hmmm, I only did one coat, even on the ones that I wanted to be darker. If I wanted it to be darker I just applied it a bit thicker or wiped off a little less.
Not sure what would cause it to be lighter. As long as you have the same brand and color and it's thoroughly mixed, I would think it would come out the same for you.
Do you have dogs? I wondered about dog nails scratching the floor up.
We do, and the house is a vacation rental that accepts dogs, so there have been all kinds of doggies walking on those floors. There are scuffs and indentations on some parts of the floor, but nothing that doesn't just add to the character.
Have you had any warping over the last 3 years? So beautiful!
Hi Molly, Thanks! No warping at all. :)
Any concerns about or issues with liquid damaging the subfloor or actual floor?
I was nervous about installing the flooring in the kitchen, but it has held up fabulously! No damage, I think it may have to do with appyling the poly on the sides of each plank.
Oh, and I forgot to ask if you've had any issues with warping over time. Thank you.
Not really no. There have been a few boards that I had to add a nail or two to keep them from squeaking but that's it.
Steve my floors are on a slab and would like to do this, I have carpet. What kind of sealer do you think I could use on the concrete?? Do you think I could use one the use for showers to keep moisture from getting into the wood? I will have to glue it down,
I don't have any experience to share on installing on concrete slab. But if I were doing it I definitely wouldn't glue the planks directly to the concrete. If you'd ever want to change your flooring you'll have a heck of a time uninstalling everything. Instead, I'd seal the concrete, nail down furring strips 16" apart, put down a 3/4" plywood subfloor and the planks on top of that, just like I did in this post.
Love the floor and getting ready to start a very similar project. I have been doing my research but wondering did you stain and poly each piece before putting the planks down? Did you do the sides/whole board or just the tops? Thank you again
Hi Mike, thanks!!
Yup, we stained and pollied each plank before putting them down. We did the tops and sides of all the boards. Since we had the gaps between each board it looked nicer with the sides finished, and the poly on the sides also helps protect the boards if there's a spill.
Beautiful floors!! I've been trying to find reclaimed flooring that I like and with a similar stain color I chose for my trim and I am having no luck! I was wondering since it was pine if you used a pre stain wood conditioner? Looks amazing keep up the good work!
Thank you Joleen!
I didn't use a wood conditioner. I remember making a sample with wood conditioner and one without to see if there was a difference and with the gel stain there wasn't any difference that I noticed. I'm thinking it's because the gel stain is thicker and covers the wood surface more than regular stain, so you can't notice the blemishes as much... just a guess though. :)