It all
started with lovely, perfectly good carpet. Then a bloody nose (which looked
more like a crime scene) made it not so perfectly good. That, combined with a
nearly-ready-to-crawl baby, motivated us to pursue a cleaner, less allergenic
(is that a word?) option for the nursery floor.
It definitely took some cahones, but one day I just grabbed at
one corner and started pulling.
I felt a little guilty
pulling up perfectly good padding underneath, but I was focused on my goal.
After the carpet and the padding came the tedious job of pulling up all the
nail strips and staples. I recommend having a buddy or music or something for
this part or it can get pretty long and frustrating.
Once all the nails and
tack strips are up, vacuum the room really thoroughly.
Next came the fun part: actually laying the wood and seeing
things come together.
We
used 6″ wide southern yellow pine purchased at Lowe’s or Home Depot, I can’t
remember which. Ryan spent the better part of an hour in the lumber aisle hand
picking each plank for straightness and uniformity. (My job was to cart the
kids around the store, gathering our other supplies and finding a quiet part of
the gardening section to nurse a very insistent baby. Yes, that happened. Not
my favorite moment, but we pulled it off.)
I wish I could tell you lots of useful details about the laying
of the wood, but that really was Ryan’s job. He used a pretty hardcore nail gun
per the suggestion of the Lowe’s employee who was concerned that the boards
might creak if you didn’t tell them who’s boss. He started at the back of the
room and made his way to the front, using a chop saw to cut the boards to size.
We decided that we definitely wanted the wood to continue into
the closet and that was a little tricky but we figured it out. There’s actually
a
tool you can purchase for about $14 that helps you cut your door frame trim
higher to fit flooring under it. Nifty.
Also, at the back of the closet we needed to rip (cut longwise)
a few boards. We didn’t have a table saw at the time (bought one at a yard sale
the following weekend for $15. Blerg.), so the cuts were a little choppy –
nothing a little quarter round couldn’t hide.
Ryan was tempted to leave it unfinished. It really was pretty,
but I was focused.
Besides, I’ve always wanted to roll paint right onto a floor.
Kinda hard to mess up.
I used porch and floor paint and a really low-pile roller cover.
It took about 3 coats and it was honestly so much fun. At one point I threw
restraint to the wind and sloshed a big glop on the floor to push around. I’ve
always wanted to do that.
(Note: if you want more cracks and pits to show in the end,
don’t slosh your paint on the floor. It fills the pits, which is just fine and
maybe even desired if you want things to look nice and solid. But if you want
things to have a more rustic look, no sloshing.)
(I think the above picture
was taken after the first coat.)
After about three coats, protect your hard work with
polyurethane.
This is the part where you get to learn from our mistakes
though. We naively purchased clear satin polyurethane thinking it would dry,
well, clear. But, when the final coat dried, there was a bit of a yellow cast
in some areas. It wasn’t bad – in fact, we thought maybe our eyes were playing
tricks on us – but a quick Google search told us that oil based polyurethanes
will have an amber cast that will get darker with time. Dern it.
So, hear me now: buy WATER-BASED polyurethane to finish your
floors. You’re welcome.
In
conclusion, here are some of the supplies we used and what we learned about
using them:
Floor-Finishing
Tips:
- Use latex
satin porch and floor paint – rolled on with a low-pile roller and cut in
the edges with a regular paintbrush.
- Use water-based Satin Polyurethane
- We rolled the first coat of
the varnish on with a foam roller and quickly learned that it wasn’t the
right tool. It left bubbles. You can use a Wooster
Floor Applicator (a block of wood with shearling wrapped around it) and
you’ll be very happy. Also, you can cut in the edges with a natural bristle
brush.
- We sanded the first coat of
varnish really thoroughly with fine
sanding sponges and cleaned the floor well before applying a second coat.
After we got the carpet up and the wood down, the rest of the
steps didn't require a lot of manual labor. The curing time between coats and
the odor from the varnish were the hardest parts. Fortunately, we managed to
keep everyone out of the house most of the time.
So, 1 weekend, 40 planks of southern yellow pine and a couple of
good sloshes of paint on the floor later, we upgraded the kids’ room from this:
COST:
Each 1x6x8 board ran between $9-$10 for us. You do the math with
your own square footage. Other than that, you will need a gallon of paint, a
gallon of varnish, brushes, quarter round (if you choose to use it) and a new
register cover in our case. All said, for the kids’ room (I think it’s about
11′x12′ or so) we spent $400 give or take. (It will be more if you need to buy
or rent a nail gun and air compressor.)
OTHER QUESTIONS:
How smooth is it to walk on? It really is just
like any other wood floor. I would say that there are probably places where
it’s a little higher or lower than others, but we never notice it.
Does it scratch easily? So far, so good! That was
part of why we put down two good coats of polyurethane. That way, if something
scratches, it’s the finish and not the paint.
How
about showing dirt? How are you cleaning it? I just broom sweep it
regularly and I’ve been using diluted lysol liquid floor cleaner less regularly
than I should be. :)
By Raechel Myers at Finding My Feet
Raechel is just a mama, trying to raise her children to love the
Lord and take their dishes to the sink. She loves sewing, fun design projects,
finding killer deals at garage sales, and drinking peppermint mochas all year
long! You can also find her at
SheReadsTruth.com.
