1"x6" pine flooring, ok to do?

jricharc · 12-09-2010, 09:48 AM

I am redoing a bedroom to move my 2 year old Son out of his nursery. I have carpet in the room now that is old and somewhat smelly, I don't really want to put new carpet in because I don't have the money to redo the entire upstairs. I was thinking about laying 1"x6" pine boards like a hardwood floor over the existing plywood and painting them with a industrial oil based paint.

Would this be an alright solution because I am somewhat going for a nice old colonial style look and I have seen the painted hardwood in old colonial homes.

gotogregg · 12-09-2010, 10:34 AM

Hey Jricharc,

Hey I am Gregg with The Home Depot in Chicago. Did you already rip up the carpet? What condition is the plywood underlayment in?

Putting in pine 1x6’s as flooring isn’t the worst idea, but I am not sure how durable it will be. Even if the boards are tongue and grooved together the pine wood isn’t resilient enough to be a long lasting floor. I would also imagine that you would end up refinishing the paint on it way too often. Have you thought about installing a regular type of flooring? For around the same cost as 1x6’s you could get laminate flooring. Some laminate is under a dollar a square foot and it installs just as easy as pine boards would. You could also use a vinyl floor. There are a lot of new types of vinyl floors that can be installed right over the plywood. Another benefit with laminate or vinyl you wouldn’t have to paint anything. If you do install pine boards what type of paint will you use exactly? There are a lot of paints that could work that aren’t oil based. Let me know what you are going to do. -Gregg

Blondesense · 12-09-2010, 11:32 AM

When we lived in Oklahoma there was and old cabin on our property that DH cleaned up to use as a studio. He did this since the floor was rotted out.
A few things to consider before you get started.

1) As Gregg mentioned, pine is a soft wood so it will gouge and damage easily. Painted, this will show even more.

2) Height difference. This will add 3/4 inch to the floor.

3) Warpage, finding enough wood that is not warped or twisted to look good.

4) Warpage, if the planks start to warp at all after installation, there is no tongue and groove to help stabilize them.

We did it because A) DH wanted to do it this way, and B) it was a very rustic building (look at the door) so it was OK if it wasn't perfect.
I really like the way it turned out, but I'm not sure if I would want it in the house.

Gregg is right, there are other, more traditional alternatives for similar cost. An inexpensive carpet remnant may be a good choice for the time being.

jricharc · 12-09-2010, 01:23 PM

Thanks guys, I have not removed the carpet yet. If I did decide to do this I would prime it with a shellac based primer and then I was going to use Benjamin Moore Super-Spec oil based paint. I am still not sure what I am going to do because I have to get approval from my wife so we will see what she is on board with.

Mark Harvey · 12-12-2010, 01:06 PM

Greg is correct. The pine isn't the best choice because it would not wear well and with all the other choices you'd be better off. The laminate idea is a good one because it is relatively easy to install, looks great, and is pre-finished. It would also wear fairly well. Not to mention the availability of a wide variety of styled and colors.
Good luck.