Wood Plank Floors
A year or so ago we updated our kitchen to be a modern version of an old farm house kitchen. After it was all said and done, we found we were absolutely in love with our floors.
We had chosen to do wood planks, for a more authentic feel. Once it was done we knew without a doubt we wanted the same look for the rest of our space. We have an open concept home so it made sense to continue the theme. We started out with White Oak Laminate; very nice, but with 3 boys, a dog and general wear and tear, it was chipped and broken and plain ol' needing replaced.
Here is an example of some of the damage we encountered around our patio door:
Our first step was to pull up the laminate. (we did this gently because we are using it for the Den stay tuned for that reno ;)
The square footage we are covering is 310 sq ft.
Here is our supply list:
-104, 1" x 6" x 8' Kiln dried, knotty pine planks.
-2 &1/2" black floor screws. We used 1,600 of these in our space. Because it is a high traffic space, we made sure to use an abundant amount in each plank
-Minwax water base stain in colonel pine
-Semi-gloss polyurethane. This was specifically for floors
-Paint brushes for the stain and the poly
When you lay the floor it's important you lay your wood in the opposite direction of your floor joices.
We marked the joices on the wall, to know where to screw each board. (be careful to keep the marks under the top of where the base board will end, so they would be covered once the base boards are put back on the wall, but long enough to be seen over your planks.)
Each board end must be screwed into a floor joice. When laying the floor it works the same way as with any flooring - one full board is laid first. You want start the next row with the last cut off, of the previous row however; it must end at the joice. (with space for the next board on that same joice)
Above you will see that we placed two screws per joice, in each board.
Because we have a fireplace we needed to frame it in. I like a neat and tidy look. The ragged edges of the board up against the brick bothered me to no end. This was the solution.
Below you can see where we cut out the flooring for our floor vents. And then just followed the stain and poly applying & drying directions on each can.
Here is the finished stain and Poly. The poly really makes the stain deeper and multi dimensional.
I hope this was helpful, but please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. You can do so on the About page. Happy Renos!
