How To Install And Finish Plywood Flooring
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
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Yea, I use to rehab and the like until MS, now I can only watch videos.
I Build It Home h
I Build It Home .. what is the Best plywood to use?... cheapish lol...
Also what thickness?
GREAT floor John. This really shows how you can achieve a "professional" result by doing the labor yourself. AND you can control the color and finish better not to mention the cost.
I definitely will keep this process in mind.
I am now in the process of installing plywood flooring in my master suite. Everyone thought I was crazy for using plywood, but the floors are beautiful and durable. Every time someone protested my decision, I pulled up this video and it shut them up (with mouth wide open). LOL. I think you got at least 15 new subscribers after that. Although I love woodworking and anything that involves building, I have never done anything like this before, so doing this was a challenge. That I totally concurred, thanks to you. I cut the boards myself with a circular saw and a clamp on saw guide. I sanded the edges and glued and nailed them down, after measuring each board to fit my space.. I covered more than 400 sq ft for less than $200.00. whoot whoot (that's me doing the happy dance) I must've watched this video 30 times. And read the article at least 5. Great details, great teaching. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monica, I am looking at installing plywood flooring in a couple of weeks. Any tips? Thinking about staining the sheets first then rip planks.
Hi Stanley, if you stain the sheets first, you may be left with very noticeable unstained cracks and the boards may need sanding after you install them. Only tips I have, is make sure your cuts are straight and rent a sander. I sanded by hand and it was very labor intensive. But I'm no professional. I just followed the videos I found here. I cut my boards into 8 inch strips, sanded them to remove the sharp edges, filled any cracks that were left after I nailed them down(cause I'm no pro) sanded again with 220 grit . Then I stained and added 4 coats of water based poly. Pay attention to detail, it helps in the end. Good luck on your DIY. The results are well worth the effort.
oh and read John's article on his website. He has it listed in the comments below.
The reason I asked is that we are going to be using three different General Finishes Dye Stain (each color will be stained on six sheets) and after the sheets are cut the different color planks will be intermixed to add interest to the floor. At least that is the plan. Think what I will do is stain some scrap plywood, stain it and then cut it to see how the edges turn out. Thank you for your reply!! Much appreciated!
WOW, that really sounds great. That should add a lot of original interest to the floor. I would love to see how that turns out.
Anyone would think you paid a fortune for this floor. That's a wonderful job.
You are too kind, Brendan :) Thanks!
WOW! I never knew that a plywood floor could look so good! That is really great looking work. Changed my view of plywood flooring.
i just did the first bedroom of my house with plywood. I stained the boards first with a rag. thinking brushing on stain after laying, like your doing here will speed things up. I'm loving the look, and staying motivated...even though my lower back and knees are shot from all the bending. Each day getting more used to using these muscles, things are getting easier. Also my skill on the tablesaw has improved, cut 5 sheets today( buying sheets as I go because the hardware store stores these sheets flatter than i can at home), so the next bedroom will be pretty much gap-free as i measured each and every board and are all the same. I knew this would be a case of getting better the more i do the flooring process. My last rooms to lay are main areas in the house - living room and hallway..by then. I will be a pro at this process. Thanks for the inspiration and tips.
wow i would have never thought to use plywood, it turned out really great!
We had plywood floors laid about 9 years ago in my living room and though they have plenty of dog scratches and a few dents I haven’t filled from random chairs and what ever else they are still my favorite floors in the house.
I don’t think he glued ours he just nailed them down. They really could use a freshen up of since we have never resealed them but I cant imagine how hard that would be to accomplish these days with 3 dogs and always some kind of fur floating around. I’m still very impressed at how well they have held up in 9 almost years and wish I had them in many other places.
We did not fill our nail holes in but I like
the look. He also did a small gap.
I've looked at several DIY plywood floors and yours is the first one I would consider doing. I think properly chamfering the plywood is one of the most overlooked steps in other videos I've seen.
And gluing it down with a proper adhesive, as opposed to only relying on brad nails is likewise critical.
The only negative I saw was how blotchy the stain was along the edges. But I thought you had a good explanation on why it happened (the heated floors) and how to avoid that (do it on a cool floor) in the future.
Thank you for this tutorial! I was actually looking at the old article on plywood floors just the other day, and I am going to try it out now. Perfect timing on this project and your finished product looks really great.
My knees would be killing me after half that floor. I laid a laminate floor, no experience, took 2 days. After the first day I had no knees. YOU'RE SUPER HUMAN!
Wow, that turned out better than I thought it would. I've seen some poor jobs of people using plywood for flooring. You can't even tell by looking at it, that it's plywood. Looks amazing!
I saw a big debate on facebook the other day and all the "experts" were saying you can't make a floor with plywood. I've got one made of 1/4" birch that shows no wear after five years. Looks like yours will last a lifetime! Looks awesome!
There's no shortage of "experts" on the internet, that's for sure. And, oddly enough, they usually have plenty of free time on their hands to discuss at length what *they* think is wrong with *your* project or idea.
So true!
Chris S you said you used 1/4 inch where he used 3/4 inch. I was wanting to do this, but am concerned that the feet on my furniture may indent thinner ply. does yours dent from furniture sitting on it. I'm not speaking of sliding furniture across it. just from the stable weight of the furniture.
I would have used 3/4 if I was starting from scratch. The 1/4" I used was actually the subfloor under linoleum in my kitchen. I checked under my chairs and kitchen table and there are no dents at all. The stain has came up a bit under the chairs but other than that, it's holding up well.
THAT IS A VERY SWEET WAY TO DO A LOOK LIKE HARDWOOD FLOOR...GREAT JOB I REALLY ENJOYED YOUR VIDEOS ...AND IT IS CHEAPER THEN BUYING HARDWOOD...AWESOME JOB
Looks great John! You've got some knees of steel man... I'd be a cripple for a week after what you did.
I was skeptical at first, but that turned out awesome! Nice job John. Cheers, Chris.
Not bad at all for a plywood floor. Great stuff John, thumbs up.
That turned out way nicer than I ever would have expected. Great video, thanks!
Beautiful floor John. A real winner, cheap and fairly durable on top of pretty to behold. Nice video to, thanks for putting it together for us all.
such a creative idea, I have not heard of anyone doing this before
John, turned out great. I appreciate your discussion while applying the various coats. Helps to understand why and the benefits of your approach. Would not have known that this was made of plywood. Great video and project.
WOW!!! John the floor came out great! I have plywood flooring but in sheets. I love how nice this looks and a great color choice too.
The floor came out really nice John!
I am amazed at how nice that turned out, great job!
I've never seen so good of a job of staining plywood ever. There is very little blotching and looks like a very expensive hardwood.. Great job.
If the pipes were running in the opposite direction to the flooring it would be easier to not nail them....... I've been watching your woodworking vids for a long time and just discovered this channel. Keep up the good work John
I love the concept of plywood flooring John. Looks Great!
That's a superb result for plywood. Congrats john!
I installed 5'x5' plywood squares as part of my sprung dance floor living room. Love the way the plywood looks. Wish I could have found some one sided baltic birch for cheaper, but oh well.
I went to an in-laws house and he had done this but with full sheets. It looked pretty good but was way too shiny. I never thought of actually stripping up the plywood but hell it makes perfect sense after seeing it. My shop is in my house and the floor is a 20x20 slab with peel and stick on it. I think I'm going to give this a try.
This looks great John. I've considered doing this in my house since your first article on it.
Yes, I love it. I always wondered about a plywood floor. Thank you so much for the look ahead....
Wow! Spectacular flooring!
Your very detail oriented guy and I got all my answers ,excellent job
As a professional woodworker I favour a 2 pack waterbased lacquer. No fumes, wash out under the tap, and depending of weather humidity etc it can be recoated swiftly allowing 2/3/4 coats in a day.
Looks great, John. I'm considering putting hardwood floor in my daughter's room and this just might be an option for me. Looks good and cost savings.
Thanks Jason, good luck with it!
Unbelievable results man, looks great!
Thanks :)
Pretty frickin' nice for plywood! Great job.
If I were to walk into that room not knowing what you did, I would think it was expensive hardwood flooring!
Looks great! Ton of hard work and knee damage, but underfloor heating and wood layment with beautiful finish should make you proud (and warm).
Thanks Mac, it's a bunch of work for sure, but it does what real wood or laminate can't.
Hey John! Great idea diluting the Polyshades like that. I used it straight on an unfinished door and it turned out blotchy and horrible, even with the pre-stain conditioner. I wish I'd thought of this!
That came out really great John.
Thanks :)
wow, that looks sharp, love your creativity, and passion for the quality of the presentation.
You would never know it was plywood. Great job .
Glen mckelvey
Thank you fr being a perfectionist, it helps me know what mistakes I would have made and avoid them but I think you might be to hard on your self because that floor looks gorgeous!!!
Hi there, You’ve made a wonderfully detailed video here, and have done a wonderful job on the floor. I’m considering, very seriously putting in a floor like this...Now that a couple of years have passed, is there anything that you would have changed and do you still love your floor...Thanks for any advice and for giving me a little of your time...Cathy🌸
The floor looks great. I have thought of using plywood for my floors as well. Glad to see that it turned out so well for you. Curious about the system that you used for your in-floor-heating system. Something that I am considering as well.
Thanks for all the great content. I get lots of great ideas from channels like yours.
Unique techniques. Thank you for posting. Another great video.
Best woodworker , Best result ;-)
I'm always learn from you
I'm going to be moving into a new house this year. I would love to try this out. Looks really nice.
Very cool John. I've always wondering how you did this when I saw your walk through of you last house.
Fantastic looking floor John
Bravo John! I think some of the joints could be a bit tighter. But it's not awful.
Great result John, nice work!
Mr Heisz, may I suggest that you have a look at the newer construction glues that are MS-Polymer based rather than PU.
They have a number of advantages over PU, the often cited advantage of being very quick to get an initial grip, almost no shrinkage and depending on the version they can be very quick to set.
They got great adhesion to pretty much all materials except the fat plastics and they are stronger than previous construction adhesives, including PU based glues.
For solid wood glued to solid wood PVA glues are hard to beat and they have come out on top in every test I've seen, for other mixed materials slow setting epoxy is usually the strongest, but the overall good properties of MS-Polymer based glues makes them a very good fit mixed construction work.
Wow! I love it! Now I need to go buy a house to do this on.
"Thumbs UP"... Love this video
Great Teacher
BEAUTIFUL FLOORS
what a great job that floor looks amazing
I know you mentioned some lessons learned at the end there but it looks great on camera man.
Looks wonderful! How has the plywood flooring held up over the years? Many dents, scratches, dings, finish durability? Do you have children/grandchildren/pets? Have you had any issues with shrinkage or cupping/swelling when lower and higher humidity fluctuations? I tried to bring up your article, but it's no longer available. Is there another website where you posted it? Thanks, so much!
That floor looks amazing, especially when you consider its humble beginnings as cheap plywood.
The blochiness would look kinda cool if you did the stain board by board instead of two at a time. But that looks awesome! Now I know what you've been doing the last month!
Absolutely beautiful. Great job.
Plywood and it looks fantastic..brilliant!
I'm impressed, it turned out really well!
I put a nail through some hardwood flooring and into a copper gas line. Been there, done that... The floor looks great!
Good time for a smoke break :D
That's an awesome idea, where can I see video of how you did in floor heating.
i just did my entire house with CaliBamboo. If I'd have seen this video a few months ago, i would have about $10,000 more in tools & bank notes. :(
that looks phenomenal, far better than my store bought planks!
That looks awesome. Nice work
I've been doing a lot of research on how to do this, hands down the best tutorial so far! Great job! Could you tell me where you got your ply from, and what it is called?
wow. I am impressed great idea and a money saver to.
awsome work john
I am a big fan of your work and have learned so much in the last year. How are your Plywood floors holding up? I’m considering doing the same to my entire house to save money on hard wood.
That looks great, I want to do that on my floor with out moving the rug. Can it be done?
That looks great, my friend!
Looks great! Really enjoy your videos.
That looks great, and nobody can call you 'work-shy'
Great job, looks wonderful
Would you have considered using a wood conditioner first before you stained, being that it is pine?
Thanks for posting this. I'm thinking about doing this in my house as well, so this is a great resource! One quick question: What exactly do you mean by "chamfering" the corners and what is the purpose?
How's it holding up after a few years ? Also, is it possible to get some of the joints tighter when installing?
John is there somewhere you've talked about the heated flooring you put before you laid the plywood?
Looks really nice!
Thanks!
I think this is brilliant. I like the option to make the boards different thickness. old fashioned 2" or 6" will make it look less typical. What type of plywood did you use?
How much/ sheet
thank you
Looks super but I wonder about the heated floor. In a bathroom with stone tiles I can understand that you would not want to step on cold tiles especially in Canada. Wood is naturally warmer to the touch. I wonder if that floor heating is energy efficient.
nice job love the colour
Lot of work, we can see that. But it looks very nice! I like it a lot. Good job!
What type of router bit did you use for the edges? What does that do for the finished look?
Looks great! Thanks for the video.
Would it work to first sand and stain the whole plywood sheets before ripping them down into strips? Seems like less sitting on the knees action. I get that you still need to sand the edges, but that just might make an interesting pattern...
Hey John, great video.
Doing some research and some people worry about putting hardwood over radiant heat because it can cause the floor to contract and warp. My thought is that the plywood would be better in this case and would be less likely to warp. A year later have you noticed any issues with the flooring caused by the radiant heat?
I love the idea of plywood strips! Who came up with that clever idea?? Maybe using some sanding sealer like a diluted shellac to reduce blotching would be a good idea?
I'm a painter and hobby woodworker. I've seen many projects look so-so because of a shortcut somewhere along the way. It's always about the prep. My experience is that a wash coat helps. Thinned shellac dries before your wiping cloth reaches the other end of the board. That could have been done easily in the shop. I internally groaned when John said he wasn't going to sand the floor after filling the nail holes, and then went straight to the Poly/PolyShades mix. I also had a pretty bad experience with PolyShades. I refinished a beautiful 10' conference table. No matter what I did it contained bubbles. I stripped it twice and finally the weather changed which helped. Can of map gas to 'blow' the bubbles out worked too. Oddly, it was near impossible to keep a wet edge - not because of blowing out the bubbles with the map gas - yet it took days just to dry to the touch, and weeks in an A/C office to really cure. I'm not there to see John's floor, but it looks like he had some problems with the first coat drying out which may have contributed to the blotchiness.
We all know the risks of shortcuts. I feel great when they work. But it seems like at least once every other job I try a shortcut that doesn't work and I have to live with the result or go back and spend 3x the time to fix it.
DRitz - it absolutely wasn't about shortcuts, it was about trying to get the most consistent finish. If you take a look at the linked article in the description and look at the previous times I used this particular combination, you will see that the results were MUCH better when I used it before. I go over the problems in detail in the article, if you are interested in not just making assumptions.
I skipped the sanding here because the plywood seemed smoother than it did the first time I used it, and part of the appearance is having the stain key into the not completely smooth surface. So, not to dog it on a prep step.
Also, realize that I was not looking for and didn't want perfection from this - it's just a floor, after all and in this room will be mostly covered with furniture and mats.
Sorry John, I didn't mean to be so critical, rather, I was trying to draw a slight parallel of our mutual problems with MinWax Poly and how quickly it dries. Like you, I found it near impossible to keep a wet edge on a project much smaller. What I referred to as blotchiness is the overlapping of the initial PolyShade coat in every other row of boards. You have previously pointed out that just because you do it one way and others another doesn't make either one right. A wash coat of shellac helps even out stain. However, on further reflection I don't think it would have had any effect on your floor because the stain is suspended in the Poly. I saw the follow-up RUclips vid to this one, as well as your web article.
My experience with nail hole filler is that it needs to be sanded smooth, and that was why I would have sanded. If I'm going to sand the area of the holes, I'm going to lightly sand the whole floor for consistency. No offense meant, please accept my humble apology. As always, good vid. I thank you for sharing. doug ritson
Great job! What do you think this wound up costing per square foot when it's all said and done?
So what was the thickness of the plywood?
great job!
I wonder if running the strips through a drum sander would help. I guess you still might have to do a bit of hand sanding on the putty once the floor is installed but it might be quicker than using a random orbital on the entire floor. Of course, I guess you need a sander first :D
I'm going to have to try this, I have never had any luck with the poly shades at all. I never thought to try mixing it with clear poly. Have you ever had any issues with the plywood cupping once it's sealed? Thx John.
Do you think it'd be possible to do stairs with plywood strips like this? Could I nail and glue directly to the risers or would I need a solid piece of osb or something under them for support?
If we have a concrete slab wpuld we simply use a moisture barrier?
Hi, just a quick question. I saw you answered it in the comments, but a comment suggested checking for moisture level if on the ground floor. Would you still need the sub floor if you are doing this on the upstairs of a house whose concrete floor is about 4 years old? If you need the subfloor, do you still need the moisture barrier?
Great looking floor
great job!
what router bit did you use to chamfer the edges of the ply?
splash I was wondering the same thing