I Can't Believe It's Plywood

Floors are expensive, and one way we are planning on making this house affordable has been a sacrifice on the floors. No wood, no cork, no tile, no carpet, and no faux. As a brilliant idea by my husband, we will be laying down plywood as our finished-for-now-but-could-easily-upgrade-later floor. Instead of doing the typical 4'x 8' sheets that plywood comes in, we are cutting the plywood into planks. This will give it a more finished look, but still original. We are both thrilled about this idea. In fact, when I told a salesmen at a local flooring place, he told me he had never heard of such a thing. Wow, he didn't even know he was complimenting me.

Plywood can be expensive even for what it is, which meant we had to be very budget conscious on our selection. So when our cabinetry guy, Peter, mentioned a good deal on marine-grade mahogany (read: it can handle getting wet) we jumped at it, not really caring what it looked like. As a reference, cork is about $5 per square foot. This plywood is just over $1 per square foot.



Luckily it's dark and has a subtle grain, which is preferred. See the dark piece on the left. The left side is natural and the right side of the piece has a sealer on it, which really brings out the grains and makes the color richer.

The other benefit of this product is we can run it out onto our deck (marine-grade, kids!), so that the floor will be uninterrupted from interior to exterior. Yahoo!



This last weekend, we started installing the floor of the great room. It requires this ridiculously heavy glue, which I am convinced if it gets in my hair, I will be sporting a new crew cut. It is really sticky - beyond gum, sap, and maple syrup. A few finish nails are applied once it is glued.



It looks really light now, but once we seal it, the grain and the red tones will come alive.