Wood Floors – they’re the corner stone of a custom built, beautiful home. As lovely as they may be, doing them on a budget isn’t quite so easy, so we figured out how to get great wood floors on a small budget.
This post was shared almost five years ago, and I still get emails nearly every week about how to do these, if they’ve held up, do I still love them, etc.
The short answer is yes. They have held up amazingly well with lots of daily traffic (and probably not cleaned enough.) I am so glad we choose this method, because I still love the fact that I got exactly what I wanted on an itty bitty budget. At this point I really need to put another coat of poly on them – but they’ll survive until life slows down a bit.
So… without further ado… here’s the post on where we did flooring our way:
We pre-drilled the holes, to prevent splinters and splitting. Then we used wood screws, attaching it straight to the sub-floors. We thought about using pin nails, but decided that the exposed nail heads were our favorite part of old farm house floors.
We used my favorite Minwax Jacobean stain, transforming the yellow pine into a warm brown tone.
Gina ~
I just LOVE it!!!
So what is your “subfloor “? Can you do this on concrete slab?
I am not sure Verna, you might check with a professional on that, we had a subfloor that was a plywood type flooring. Good luck 🙂
I think you can do it on concrete. You would just have to glue the planks down our use a hammer drill to screw into concrete.
Yes you can do this on concrete. I have had my 1×6 pine wood floors since 1986. I actually glued them down with a wood floor glue from Home Depot. I stained them mahogany and just love them.
Awesome Janice, so good to know, thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Do they hold weight good and how long would they last and how would you clean or mop them
They are amazing and look better with age, we’ve had them for almost 10 years and we mop with just water 🙂
I would recommend laying some sleepers down on top of a vapour membrane with a gap at the walls to allow airflow if you’re in a basement as moisture will sublimate through the concrete and you’ll get mould and warping.
Thanks John, good to know for anyone installing these in a basement 🙂
I love the look of that floor! 😀
Gina…love the look of your floor. So rustic farm house!!
Y
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This is such a great idea! I’d love to use this one day on a potting shed.
I love your floors, I need a new kitchen and living room floor and I really want to do this. But I’m not sure if we would be able to stay off of them for the time needed.
You are so smart!
Woman, you impress me every time. They look amazing.
I know you probably plan on staying in that house forever, but would you recommend this method for somebody who might move someday? Does attaching the wood right to the subfloor impact the house’s value? It seems pretty permanent…
I would think any wood floor is fairly permanent, so should not affect value if you do a quality job. Hope this is helpful : )
my heart just exploded! love it!
Hi, I just came over from LeAnna’s blog (Thoughts and Whatnots) and I love this flooring idea! My husband and I are mega DIYers and this is an AMAZING and most importantly inexpensive idea!!! I’m going to show this to him when he gets home! I just posted the first part (of two)of the pics of our home, it’s been a three and a half year project! I’m going to check out more of you blog now to get ideas for future projects!
Hi Gina,
This is a great project. It reminds me a little of the plywood floor project over at Quarry Orchard.
Just goes to show that beautiful floors don’t necessarily require a big wallet.
Gina
Wow, those are amazing floors! And on such a great budget. I love these, and your ingenuity! They really have that old, timeworn, farm house feel. Great job!
Best,
Kimberly
What a beautiful floor, Gina! You certainly know how to create on a budget, girl! 🙂
xoxo laurie
This is a terrific idea and you are very fortunate to have such a handy husband!
Do you think this method would work for
painted floors, as well as stained floors?
I think the paint would wear more, but I
would like the imperfection of it.
You could paint with Milk paint. It absorbs fully into the raw wood and is almost impossible to remove. You have to actually sand it off, stripper won’t take in out of raw wood. You can also use milk paint mixed thinner as a coloured stain as well. I use and sell Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint and it is amazing on raw wood. Then you could seal with a poly coat or with hemp oil or tung oil.
Beautiful!! Thanks for sharing!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I love the floors..What a nice job..
Janet
I love this! What an awesome idea. If I didn’t love our floors already, I would definitely consider doing this. They turned out looking great.
where have you been all my life?!?
love it.
i shall spend this weekend obsessing over your site.
http://clayrachael.blogspot.com/
Wow! Your floors look amazing! I love how unconventional, yet beautiful they are! What a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
love this blog – so glad i found it x
@Kimberly Knoess I’d *think* it would work with painted floors. Use oil based paint (it’s tougher) and thin the first coat with paint thinner by 1/3, so it go into the wood. Then, after it’s dry, coat it with 2 layers of paint. Top it off with 3 coats of poly and it should withstand daily traffic. Hope this helps!
I love these floors!! Now you’ve got me plotting and planning a project… thanks! Connie
Great floor DIY! We have Jacobean stain on our floors too, and it’s great. I wanted darker, but my builder and the flooring people sort of manipulated me out of it. I was mad at first, but now I realize that it’s the right shade — not too dark so dirt shows, and not too light so dirt shows. 🙂
This is brilliant! Wish I could talk Mr. Magoo into this for my sewing room!
Great post! I did this in my kitchen and LOVE it! I didn’t stain it though, I paint it a different colour each season. I linked this to my hardwood floors post too, well done!
oh my goodness girl…beautiful…but all that work…you must be long suffering and patient 🙂
Gina! Your floors are beautiful and I’m totally obsessing over this project now. After laying the floors down and screwing them in, did you have to sand the surface to make sure the boards were even with one another? Thanks!!!
I’ve been looking for an inexpensive solution to our great room. I hate the wall to wall carpet but we can’t afford to replace it. It is a huge room, so anything we do won’t be cheap.
I absolutely love the look of your floors, and this is similar to what I really really want in there! I’m going to show this to my husband and hopefully he will say yeah, ok! (fingers crossed)
Thanks so much for this tutorial, it is perfect.
Debbie 🙂
I have commented twice about questions concerning the fact that a simple butt joint between the boards is NOT a good idea as seasonal expansion and contraction of the wood will cause cracks to open up which will trap dirt. This is why wood flooring is made with a tongue and groove joint to accommodate for this movement. You are doing your readers a disservice by not mentioning this. Many people may choose to proceed with your style of installation anyway as the savings is considerable, but they should be made aware of the drawbacks. I’m sure you will choose not to post this comment, just as you have deleted my past two statements. Very, VERY disturbing.
Tongue and groove is still a butt joint. The more common practice is a 1/4″-3/8″ gap at the wall perimeter and a couple expansion rows using pennies or washers between rows while installing. Some even space every row when using DIY plank or plywood. Another tip to take you from DIY to pro is to staple 15lb contractor paper/felt/tar paper to the sub floor before laying the planks to eliminate squeaking. Another is to lay the planking perpendicular to the floor joists to prevent cupping/bowing. One last aesthetic pro detail is to not align every other plank end when staggering. This is called an “H” joint and is not considered best practice by the pros.
Last but not least, face-nailing at the plank ends and in the middle with cut nails (while using finishing nails every 8″-12″) and applying AT LEAST 6 coats of poly, will take your DIY floor to a whole new level.
I’m really sorry that the spam filter caught your other comments – but you do make a great point! We haven’t had much issue with it, but it is very possible.
Thanks for your insight!
Thanks for posting my comment, Gina. Your tutorial gives an inexpensive option for flooring that many people will undoubtedly choose, even knowing the potential drawbacks, but they should be aware. Money is tight for ME and from time to time I build things that may not be entirely proper, but it’s what I can afford or it uses materials that I have on hand and I have decided I can live with the less than perfect results dictated. Nothing wrong as long as full disclosure is made.
I love how you handled this commenter. I think dirt is a part of owning this style of floor. For me that is what I love about it; dirt friendly!! I have an old dog, a new to me home that is older with no landscape. Tearing out my carpet and laying this down will accommodate my situation. My loveable, old dog can track in all the dirt he can carry and I will no longer concern myself with it…. a sweep and a mop and it’s all good…. so long dirty carpet!
Do you have to stain the wood or can it be left natural color??? Can you do all the sanding, and varnishing of each board before you start nailing it down???
How much space did you leave between the boards? Do you have to put the wood inside for a period of time like you do with typical wood flooring before installation?
Thanks!
I love your floors! I have wanted wood floors in my home forever and have searched for ideas on how to do it ourselves, and this is it! Thank you
I’ve seen other tutorials that have used strips of plywood. I was considering it as well, but then there is the time consuming venture of cutting each piece. Your idea is much more appealing. I can’t wait to do this in the Spring! There are so many possibilities; paint, stain, stencil on top of paint/stain – I get so excited thinking about it!! Thank you for sharing your ideas with us, what you do is appreciated!
Kat
We have a bar in the basement and we are in the process of redoing it. Your 1×6 plank flooring would be perfect for the area, look and cost. But have you ever tried it on a basement floor?
Thanks for your advice, my husband and I just installed pine wood floors in our heaviest traveled room (see if it holds up). If it does (and looking good so far), we’ll do many other rooms. Also, thank you heaps for the suggestion to go to a sawmill! We didn’t even know that we had one 12 miles from our house. Mr. Howell ( crakersawmill.com ) sold us tongue and groove 8 in boards for 80 cents a linear foot! Same price as plank, and cheaper than the big box stores! Your blog is very helpful
Hi! i have a question. I have a tiled floor where i would like to do this. How can I stick the wood to a tiled floor so it doesn’t move? any ideas, has anybody done it?
How big of space between each plank did you varnish after you stained
I Am so doing this!!! Question- did you have a lot of issues with the boards not being straight and then throwing off the flow of the boards? The lumber guy has me a bit freaked about that.
I recently came across your blog and did this floor in an older house and it turned out awesome! I did a few things different like hand planning all my boards for the “hand scraped” look and staggered my joints with a few different size boards. I also used Minwax polyurethane fast drying for floor in a clear satin and stressed the planks a little with different items. Everyone that sees this loves it!! Thank you for the blog!!
Ohhh, I would love to see a picture of that!!! I bet it’s awesomely beautiful! I have to redo my living room floor in a very old house and have chosen to use 1×4 wood. I haven’t decided if I want to stain or paint. I’m on a tight budget but very crafty.
Thanks for your great ideas and for this awesome blog!
What kind of wood screws did you use? (stainless steel, galvanized? length?)
I’m planning to do this in our kitchen and dining room (to replace the carpet that my 3 little ones love to drop food onto). But I’m coming up with much different numbers. I’ve priced everything and it comes to about $2 a sq ft. One thing I’m spending a little more for is a finish that is less toxic (I’m looking at either Waterlox or PolyWhey). But then I noticed something on this article. You say you spent $4 a board for 8ft 1x6s, and your total cost was $.75 a sq ft. But wouldn’t an 8ft 1×6 at $4 be $1 a sq ft? Please correct my math.
Were did you find the pine for $4. i have looked at my local lumber company and the pine is $8. per 8foot piece.
We are using 8×4 wall studs cut down.much cheaper.
We’re getting 4 strips per borad.then we cut them
in the length and width we want.I think he paid 3 or 4
dollars per stud.
I would like to use the 75 year old (1″ x 6″) pine wood paneling that was taken off the walls of my house and recycle them on my kitchen floor and hallway. I was thinking that the panels could be cut lengthwise to eliminate the T&G edge and the “v” on the top surface. Any thoughts? Thanks so much!
My husband and I spent 400.00 ON PERGO FLOORS at first they looked good then the new wore off and we were left unhappy. I love this and my husband I are planning to do are whole house. I can not thank you enough he is super happy to do this and it is under what we were quoted from Lowes to do 1/4th of our home.
Did you leave any room between the boards and if so so, did you fill them? Do they gap/contract with heat and cold? Thank you so much!
Nope, no room at all, we put them as tight as we possibly could. No issues with contracting, either.
Gina, what part of the country do you live in? I am in CO where it’s very dry, Fl is very humid. Does that make a difference? Love your floors. I need to borrow one of the hubbies mentioned, as mine can’t do this kind of work anymore, or find the confidence to do it myself. Thank you.
I like the idea of your floor. I am going to do this for my grandson’s bedroom. I had considered a laminate floor
because that is what I have in the rest of my house. But I decided it wouldn’t be a good idea for his bedroom
because he has a cat and a dog and sometimes his floor gets wet and you certainly can;t have that on a laminate
floor. Thanks for the idea.
I loved this idea!! I did this in my kitchen and dining room and it looks amazing. I polyurethaned my floor with high gloss and it looks fantastic. I am moving on to the den now, no more carpet and no more laminate. Thanks for sharing your inspiring ideas!
Hi Ginia, this just blows me away!!! I know you are probably so tired of questions on this subject, but is there any way you could post a pic of the entire room in one shot so I can get a better idea of how it looks with your furniture and other furnishings? You know how computer screens are and mine is small, so I thought a pic of the entire room or at least as much as you can fit in a frame would give me a better idea of how it looks as if I were there looking into the room. I’d love to try this but before I do I want to see a long shot if possible. Thank you so much for this incredible post.
Would this wood floor work on a concrete floor? could you use glue to adhere the planks?
We suggest putting down a vapor barrier and then laying a plywood subfloor over it anchored down with screws into the concrete, then installing the wood floors on top of that.
Do you recall what grit sandpaper you used and the length of the wood screws?
Where do you buy the wood?
At our local lumber yard.
after applying the stain. Did you have to do any sanding to give it a lighter look. Jacobean stain is a darker stain and with one coat it is powerful dark.
I just wiped it off as soon as I put it on. The light pine wood makes the stain a lot lighter than if a darker wood was used.
I am getting ready to do this to our house. I know several people who have done this and it turned out great. One guy I know used 2 X 10 and all he did to the planks was sand them, seal them and then he put a satin finish on them. He didn’t put a space between each board and it turned out great. Everybody have a great day and a better one tomorrow.
Will this work the same with 1×8 pine
what did you use to fill in the screw holes so dirt would not collect?
I put a LOT of poly in them to seal it off and vacuum them, too 🙂
They just sealed it up with 4 coats of poly
I’m curious… I see it’s been a few years since you did your floors. Just curious if they’re still holding up. I was looking to see if this was possible laat evening and ran across your blog. Your floors look beautiful in the picture, but curious how they’ve held up overtime.
They’re still holding up great! There’s a little wear on them, but we love it because the idea was to have warm & loved farmhouse style floors, so the wear just makes them look better to us. The ones in our bedroom aren’t as worn (but the kitchen floors are older and get used a LOT more.) Hope this helps!
Aloha Gina, just came across your blog and loving it! I’m building an 800 square foot house in Hawaii and learning a lot from other people’s experiences. Mahalo!
to avoid cupping on a 1×6 board rip 4 1/8 rips on the bottoms of the board
The floors look great. I may do the same in the tiny house I am building on my two acres. The two things I may do differently is cut a simple tongue and groove joint as well as trying to use oil to seal the floors.
cupping is caused by moisture, you could try sealing the bottom of the planks before putting down, but need to consider your subfloor type and condition
any recommendation when wood sub floor isn’t available? We would be doing this directly On our concrete slab. Thanks!
I’m wanting to do something similar but I’m on a slab. My living room floor has 1/2″ plywood under the carpet but my kitchen is just concrete with vinyl tile on top. How can I do this word flooring on a slab?
We suggest putting a plywood subfloor on top of the concrete, then screwing the flooring to that.
Question. Do you think if you used a router table and cut tounge and groves into the boards it would help prevent cupping? They are very beautiful and genius!
Probably – but we haven’t really had any issues with it.
Thanks for reading!
Hello,
I love your floors. They look great. I have been contemplating other floors for some time now, just how you said you did. However,I am bored by store bought flooring, and am wanting something with “character”. So, I keep coming back to this idea.
Did you apply any type of adhesive to the backside of the planks?
If you could do it over, would you have considered an underlayment? Do they squeek?
If you do it again, will you do anything differently.
Thank you so much, I look forward to hearing back from you.
-Robby Brown
Hi Robby,
I highly recommend them…no regrets!! That said, no adhesive, no issues with squeeking so we would not have done an underlayment in a do-over 🙂 We love them now more than ever so we wouldn’t change a thing! Go for it!
Hi there! Came in via Pinterest.
I actually just finished my own floor of pine planks and was looking for stain colors that spoke to me. Lo and behold, I came across so many others doing similar things. Mostly with plywood, but like you, inexpensive pine.
I must gloat, though. My pine is from Freecycle lumber, clean packing crates, pallets, and 1″x12″x12′ planks I got for TWENTY FIVE CENTS a foot from a reuse center in Baltimore. Yup, a win for me!
I wanted to comment on the “disservice” you’re doing people. I think it’s worth remembering that for 100s of years before someone figured out tongue and groove flooring, farm houses, shacks, castles, mansions, and businesses had butt-jointed flooring. One of the very common methods of addressing the cracks between the boards as they shrank and expanded was simple cotton cord. Stained to match the floors and jammed down in between them. It gave and took as the flooring moved. No one died nor screamed in agony over crap in their floor cracks. Stone floors were filled in with sand. Can’t get more “dirt” than that.
I beveled my boards at 45 degrees, but still have the expansion “issue.” (It’s a shame sarcasm can’t be written with punctuation!) I’ve taken strips of wood and laid them in the cracks. Tiny, skinny strips. I feel blessed in this day and age, if the cracks get too full of cat fur and life, I HAVE A VACUUM and am not afraid to use it.
All that said, I do love the Jacobean stain and will probably use it myself. Nice job. Keep up the great work!
Did you sand between each coat of polyurethane?
Hey Kelly,
Yes I did lightly sand between coats, good luck!!
LOVE the floors!! I just had a quick question for you because my wife and I are doing something similar.. Did the edges (sides) butt up against each other perfectly straight or did you have to cut the sides off on a table saw so that there are no gaps between boards? Otherwise I was thinking instead doing a wood filler and sanding it in between the gaps if they aren’t a perfect match. Let me know, thanks so much! 🙂
Hey Nate,
We did have to do some trimming to get them to butt up evenly but didn’t have to do anything else about any gaps. Good luck!!
We are going to do this in our manufactured home and I had a few questions. Just wanted to verify that you didn’t use spacers between the boards. What grit did you use to sand the boards initially and what grit did you use between coats of poly? What type of stain did you use?
Anyways, thanks for the instructions, really looking forward to doing this!
Hey Josh,
Good luck, I am sure you will love the end result! We did not use spacers between the boards, here is a link to the poly we used, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005DMJKMY/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theshachicot-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B005DMJKMY&linkId=2502a02dafae3d5c441189afb20f8669
Good luck!
I’m SO in love with this floor and really would like to do it in my house but staying off of the floor for a few days in certain areas (the hallway) isn’t practical for us. What are your thoughts on pre-staining the boards before you put them down and then just touching up as needed? Thanks for sharing your awesome home!
Thanks so much Amy! You could definitely pre-stain, it is tough to stay off for any period of time! Good luck 🙂
Did you have to put down a barrier or any kind of padding between the subfloor and the pine flooring you made?? If so what kind and how did you know to do this?
No Ondrea, we attached directly to the sub floor. Good luck!
Looks great! Screws are generally not recommend for wood flooring installation; they tend to cause problems down the line as they don’t allow for movement (ie, expansion/contraction with temperature)
Love the floors!!! I have been making myself crazy researching flooring for our rustic ranch cabin. My husband and son built it about 15 years ago and it is time for it to become a shabby chic cabin rather than a total man cave! The daughter and grandchildren are ready to enjoy as a family! Perfect solution for DIY, for the budget, for atmosphere in the cabin and really just perfect all around! Yea-so Happy I found YOU!
Oh yea!! I am so happy you did too 🙂 Good luck with the floors it sounds like the perfect fit!
Hello ma’am I had a question. Did you, by any chance, do a tongue and groove edge on them or did you just leave them straight? Thank you
We left them straight Daniale 🙂
Did you glue these to the subfloor or just screws? If you used only screws, how many per board? Also how about the nail holes you mentioned? How many nails per board? Thanks so much.
We screwed directly to the subfloor. We used a screw in each corner of the board, so 4 per board, if you look at the pictures in the post you can see the screw placement. Good luck 🙂
Why didn’t you use the boards in the 8ft. Leagths? Also can you use nails (something like a old fashioned or black nail) instead of screws?
Your floors look great! We have been debating putting in this kind of flooring, and the last floor we put in (2 1/2 yrs. ago) did not even stay looking nice for 6 months! So now we are trying to find a nice easy and cheap floor (the last one was not) to put in! Thank you for the post!
Thanks Glory, We liked the look of the screws, more of a rustic feel 🙂
I’ve been eyeballing this floor for years… and I finally found the perfect location. We bought a 1960’s built camp on a little lake. We pulled up many layers of carpet to reveal a solid subfloor. Living in upstate NY, we are fortunate to be surrounded by several locally run Amish lumber mills. We ordered enough rough cut 1 x 8 x 8 ‘s for the whole camp (about 800 sq ft and cost was only $200!) . Because it’s freshly milled, we let it cure for several months to get the excess moisture out. Then, I simply found a pattern I liked, measured, cut, sanded and polyurethaned each piece then installed it with a nail gun. It gave so much character to our little camp and looks like we spent a fortune!
That sounds amazing Jennie, good for you!!
Hi Gina! Do you glue and screw, or screw only? No swelling? No squeaking? Thanks for the info!
We just used screws and they still look great and we have had no issues with swelling or squeaking Brain, good luck!
How do you knock down the edges?
can you put down underlayment ?
I am sure you can Jordan 🙂
Hi, Love your floors. Great job. I’m not being a smarty, but you stated you used 1 x 8 pine boards, and then you stated you didn’t suggest using over 1 x 6 because they may have a problem cupping up. Which did you use? 1 x 6 boards or 1 x 8 pine boards? Thank you.
We used 1×8 and my husband then cut them, it is all detailed in the post 🙂 good luck!
It’s many years after your successful project. This is what I have planned when I’m able to build. Are you still happy with your floor? Is there anything you’d have done differently?
Nope, we still love them 🙂
Gina,.. the floors look superb,.. what a great job. i am seriously thinking about doing the same,. but the thing that really concerns me is the shrinking of the planks over time,. did you experience the problem? As today’s pine is very young,. the wood is not stable so they shrink much more than the aged ones. what is your opinion on that?
cheers
Thanks so much! We’ve had no problems and actually think they just keep looking better with time. Good luck 🙂
Hi Gina, your flooring looks great! I’m in a situation where I have had a renovation done to my home and while the contractor did a decent job, he has totally messed up the dark (almost black) maple flooring installation on the main floor (didn’t read the installation guide, flooring was installed under the kitchen cabinets.) There are less than 1/3 of the required nails for this type of flooring. As a result, the floors are clicking, squeaking and moving. I’m ‘beside myself’ and in a real dilemma as to what to do. I’m considering putting in stainless steel or black coated wood screws at the end of every board to stop them from moving. My thinking is that I will go for an industrial type look. I would be interested in your thoughts on this.
I’m so sorry Rhonda, you might want to go to the contractor and have them do it? I love the Industrial Farmhouse look so that could be a good option but not being there cannot really give you advice but do wish you the best of luck!