Categories: DIY

Inexpensive Pine Flooring

If you haven’t seen yesterday’s post, you may want to check it out.  We have a rather lengthy list of things to do here in the entryway, and one of them being to install inexpensive flooring using #2 pine boards.    Yes, you read that right… good old #2 pine boards as flooring with knot holes and all.  Today’s post will even tell you how we accomplished that task.

 

***Updated post on all you need to know about pine boards used as flooring.  I answered a lot of questions that I’ve gotten over the years.

OK, I have a story to tell.

DIY projects are our forte and we do have our motto, but there is a limit, remember?   That being said,  I paid a little visit to the wifey in our small backyard workshop while she was whittling something fancy, and showed her my tooth that I thought I chipped.

With a completely dead serious look on her face, she said, “I can smooth it out for you.  I have a dremel tool.”

“Um…………………. no…… I’m good!”  ????

Remember what the entryway looked like after the trash was removed?

Bad Assery at it’s finest!

OK, I just had to!  This pic makes me laugh.

Our Check List Included:

  • Replace the exterior door with a full glass front door with full glass sidelights to let the “happy” mojo in.  ☑️
  • Close the guest closet with drywall and open it up to the other side of that wall for a kitchen pantry  ☑️
  • Change out the lighting to a fancy schmancy chandie – Gotta have one of those babies in every room – ☑️
  • Paint all of the trim and walls my favorite shade of white – ☑️
  • Repair, sand, and re-finish the steps on the stairway
  • Repurpose a big chippy white porch column from floor to ceiling to give this entryway some pizzaz and gaudiness.  Big and gaudy is our goal here.
  • Install very inexpensive flooring using #2 pine boards.☑️

And here we are now:

(Excuse the cell phone pics)

*The new door is installed and lets in the good mojo which makes me pretty darn happy!

*An antique chandelier is installed and the walls are painted my favorite shade of white – Sherwin William’s Pearly White.

*The guest closet door is closed in the entryway and opened up to the kitchen on the other side of that wall to create a pantry.   *****Just take a gander at this most awesome chippy pantry door, would ya?

*And finally, Inexpensive flooring installation using #2 pine boards is complete.

Why we went with #2 pine boards for an Inexpensive Flooring

First of all, inexpensive #2 pine boards truly are quite gorgeous when re-finished and you cannot beat the cost.  We installed roughly 2500 sq feet of “flooring” that cost less than $4,000 with all supplies for installation.

And secondly, we really weren’t going for perfection as we wanted our floors to look rustic and original to our house that was built in 1945.   The “#2” means the pine boards have knot holes and imperfections, thus, giving us that rustic look we were going for.

Now, I love my big box stores for lots of things, but #2 pine boards are not one of them.  Our local lumber yard sold us some pretty nice quality pine boards, and, because we ordered such a large quantity, we got a better price.

Installation of Wood Floors

Basically, we started on one side of the house, which happened to be the family room, which is to the right of the entryway, and randomly attached the different widths of boards (6″, 8″, 10″, & 12″), in different lengths, in no particular pattern, using an adhesive and nails.

A Few Extra Steps for Some Extra Goodness

We went a few steps further to make our floors look even more rustic.    For extra torture, as if installing floors aren’t torturous enough, we installed the pine boards with square nails.  I call it torture because we realized shortly after we started that it was a heck of a lot easier on our arms and backs if we pre-drilled a hole where we wanted a square nail.     AND, once we were done with installation, we beat the heck out of the floor boards with different tools: chains, hammers, screw drivers, crowbars, etc.  You get the picture.   We realized the more we “damaged” the floor, the more rustic it looked.

Finally….. The sawdust was swept, and then swept again, in order to prepare it for the stain and polyurethane process.

When all that is done, you have this….

So, what do you think?

And…….BUH BYE NOW – Said in a loud, high-pitched old lady’s voice, because how else could you say BUH BYE NOW?

 

Danelle

Danelle Harvey

View Comments

  • The floors look awesome.. Can't wait to see more pics.. I drive by that house after work going home sometimes..And I love what you have done to the outside of the house and the porch. Looks so inviting.

    • Thanks so much, Lori. It's been a lot of work but very rewarding at the same time.

  • Hey there dear friends! Gorgeous home, just like everything you do! What stain did you use?

    Love you!

    • This house sits on a full basement, so there was all wood sub-flooring (plywood) when we started.

  • Wow Wow Wow!!!! I am so impressed. I just found your blog and I am so glad I did. I really want to try this now. Thank you so much for sharing. WoooooHoooo

  • WOW. I Loveeeeeeee the floors I have seen plywood used, and cut into strips but this is soooooo much better. And the nail and beating the hell out of it did the trick. A lot of extra work but the difference it made is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. Love what your doing. Looking forward to what's next????????

  • I just found your website and I love what you are doing! Last year we bought an 1885 farmhouse on 66 acres. It had been vacant for 40 years, but retained so many cool details that I had to have it! It is grueling work when you are doing it yourself, so I can totally relate to your occasional break down. I started documenting our progress on YouTube and it is amazing to see how far we've come. Keep up the good work ladies!

  • I absolutely love your floor and the stain is so perfect...I want my floor to look exactly like yours! However, I took a pine board to Sherwin Williams and they tested with Minwax provencial stain...it looked much darker than in your pictures and there was no golden glow in portions of the floor boards as shown in your photo. My pine boards are scheduled to be put down tomorrow, a living room and porch of a cottage. Never in a million years would I have thought of using different width boards nor would I have known to use #2 pine. So thank you for that and for sharing all of your tips...I find it all very interesting and useful. -Bonnie

  • I absolutely love your floor and the stain is so perfect...I want my floor to look exactly like yours! However, I took a pine board to Sherwin Williams and they tested with Minwax provencial stain...it looked much darker than in your pictures and there was no golden glow in portions of the floor boards as shown in your photo. My pine boards are scheduled to be put down tomorrow, a living room and porch of a cottage. Never in a million years would I have thought of using different width boards nor would I have known to use #2 pine. So thank you for that and for sharing all of your tips...I find it all very interesting and useful.

  • I know this is an order post, but I hope I can still ask questions. Have you ever had issues with your wood shrinking or cupping and getting big gaps in it? I so want to do this, but the wood drying and the creating big gaps is a concern of mine. Thank you!

    • The wood does shrink... and the gaps get a little bigger as the wood dries. That's why we say to guy new wood because they can be pushed tightly up against the next piece. As the wood dries, it can't be bent at all. Did you see my other post I wrote with all of the common questions?

    • We did not. The only place we sanded was where we got any dirt on the boards or a few of them had a stamp from the lumber company.

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Danelle Harvey
Tags: Interior

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