I need to get rid of the wall to wall carpets in my house and I don't want to spend the money for replacement wall to wall so I am trying to come up with some alternatives. Under the carpets, I only have subflooring not hardwood floors. I was wondering if anyone had some creative ideas of something I could put down for flooring. I want to think out of the box on this one. I could do linoleum but I have large dogs and they would be inclined to slip too much on that. There probably is no real solution except maybe replacing the carpet one room at a time. I was thinking of buying room size carpets and tiling the floor around the walls to make it look like wood floors. That is one option. I don't really want to buy used carpets because of possible fleas which would be a nightmare if they got introduced at my house. (I currently do not have any fleas and haven't had any for seven years in this house and I don't give my dogs any kind of flea protectors so I don't want to invite trouble.)

I just thought with all the great brains on this forum, someone might come up with a real novel and inexpensive solution.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), September 05, 2000

Answers

Colleen, I hope you get some great brains to answer you, but my little one has this as a possibility: We put down plywood and just painted it with floor paint. We tried to locate the seams so they would be under furniture. We did this a couple of years ago, because we aren't going to put any carpeting or good wood flooring in until we finish remodeling (i.e.: kitchen and possible 2nd story). I have been pleased with it (sweep, vacuum, or damp mop) and truth be told, if I had the inclination, I could have put an attractive stenciled border, or made it plaid, or something else, and it would look great.

I think with your dogs, you might want to put urethane over top or something else. Just a suggestion.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), September 05, 2000.

I am putting slate in the kitchen .Its hard to muck up ! Its dark in color so it doesn't show dirt to well , and the kids and dogs won't slip .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 05, 2000.

If you decide to paint the plywood, before doing so apply a layer or two of a floor preparation. Don't remember the exact name, but it is something like a spackling you mix up on site and apply. It is waterproof and will even out seams and the ring ridges in the plywood to make it smooth. Even here, you might want to apply flexible joint tape used for sheetrock on the seams.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 05, 2000.

Colleen, I've installed a lot of parquet flooring over the last twenty years. It can be had for about a buck and a half a square foot, last time I checked. I built a spec house fifteen years ago which had oak parquet over the entire downstairs. The folks who bought it had two Belgian wolf hounds which had access through doggie door. They tracked mud, which also had a lot of rock in it, into the house all day and night. Destroyed the upstairs carpet. They'd also race around all over the floor; you could hear their nails sliding around on the flooring.

I visited them when they'd been living there for ten years; the floor was immaculate, other than some scratches from the dining room chairs (they were also both overweight, if that has anything to do with it.)

I just installed a parquet floor for my daughter and son-in-law. They bought it, and thought it was oak, but it was some kind of wood from Thailand. I don't remember the tree's name. But it scratches quiite easily. It only cost $1.25 per square foot, though.

My house has painted plywood in the art studio. My wife didn't want something she had to worry about ruining. The paint is now three years old, and doing fine. It will be very simple to fix it, too, since we have the original paint can, with the specs on the color.

Good luck!

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoffjoe@yahoo.com), September 05, 2000.

Exotic homesteader solution (you can't even see the box from here): Just reinforce the joists a little if they're sparse, and fill the floor with river rock and smooth creek pebbles, maybe decorative paver pathway. You could put container grown plants here and there and maybe even use the containers to grow some small food crops like salad greens and patio tomatoes. My hubby and I were actually thinking about doing this on a concrete slab floor, with a sand and pebble rock garden theme (no dogs to dig), but figured the landlady would have a heart attack. If I'd known she'd never (ever) visit, I'da gone and done it anyhow. It's removable after all, and the dogs will love it. Just get stone large enough so that they won't dig in it (not sand or crush and run size)

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 05, 2000.

If you have access to a source of shale, it can make nice flooring. I have a friend that used the shale found here in North Al to floor his rec room over subfloor. Layed it like tile and grouted between.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 05, 2000.

One of my old decorating mags has a floor done in strand board....looks pretty neat. Contractor friend says it must be treated or will really absorb spills if not. Sue

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), September 05, 2000.

As for Soni out of the box idea--it is great ! My fathe n law has rock in half his house and it is beautiful. When you fiqure weight per square foot it comes out to a baby standing in one place so, you don't need to reinforce. Good Luck !

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), September 06, 2000.

I have painted plywood floors in 3 rooms and painted wood floors (old) in the other 3. Actually the paint holds up much better on the painted plywood than the wood boards. I love it, and like I said in the decorating thread, you can paint anything on it, rugs, borders, area rugs. I touch it up about once a year, its fast and easy, floor paint dries fast, just don't get a custom color, get a standard color from a large store. It only cost $5.00 a large room, for 2 coats. And don't tell anybody but I just painted around all the large furniture.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), September 06, 2000.

When I redid my kitchen a few years ago, I used Pergo flooring. Because my teenage son and I installed the flooring, it was cheaper than the linoleum I had originally chosen. It can't be chipped, torn or dented. It washes with water and a little soap if real dirty. The animals are all over, as are the grandchildren, and it is pretty well indestructable and easy to maintain. It also looks great. Home Depot runs an installation class and there is a video you can purchase that shows installation techiques. It will go over all existing floors and is a lovely permanent solution. Not as cheap as plywood however, it looks and wears better. Don't be fooled into thinking you need expert help in installing it. It is very user friendly. I just ripped out my living room and hall carpet. I'm luck though, it is hardwood flooring underneath, I just need to sand and refinsh. The hard part will be matching the original wood trim so that it flows from living room to dining room. I could shoot the owners that covered the beautiful floors with stinky carpet and then extended the carpet up the walls and removed the trim. Good luck.

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), September 06, 2000.

Joel, I can't tell you if collleen has to reinforce her floors or not, but your baby analogy is a poor one. If you were to cover the floor with babies, you would be likely to need reinforcement also. The total load on any one joist, or any one girder, is the likely weak link in a flooring system, not the concentrated load on any single point, or any single square foot.

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoffjoe@yahoo.com), September 06, 2000.

JOJ, thanks for clearly stating why the baby analogy is incorrect.

We looked at Pergo flooring and decided against it after bringing home some squares and "living" on them. Didn't like what they felt like in bare feet. Dropped a kitchen knife on it and it scratched AND dented. We decided we lived too hard to fuss over something we only half-liked so went with ceramic tile. VERY happy with it.

You might try buying up all the odd tiles and installing them yourself. If they were mostly solid colors and you laid it out for looks before installation, you might make something really nice.

-- Anne (HT@HM.com), September 06, 2000.

I was wondering about that, JOJ. I was thinking along those lines as I read Joel's respnose, but then again, intuitive conclusions can be misleading also, so I wasn't sure. Joel can tell you from my Habitat for Humanity posts that I'm just now relearning the construction trade after many years of intervening time spent frittering my life away on good times and easy money. I would think that it would depend on the material. An even layer of pebbles would "weigh" less, effectively, than a solid hunk of rock of the same mass, because the pebbles' weight is spread out over a larger area. Right? My physics self-education tends (out of preference) more toward high-energy particle physics and exotic N-dimensional theories (on a laypersons level, of course, can't add to save my life); but if I recall my basic stuff, that would be the case - as long as the pebbles weren't accelerating when they hit the flooring, of course. Okay, so I've been up too long, but I'm pretty sure I'm right anyway. Any takers?

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 06, 2000.

Thank you all of your ideas, particularly Soni for really getting out of the box. That is the type of thing I am trying to think of. Something that people just wouldn't think of using for flooring yet is durable. I don't quite want to use the pebble idea but I do like it. I think it might be a little uncomfortable on bare feet and doggy feet but I do love that it is way out there in thinking. I was even thinking of tying tree limbs together something like a raft would be but thought that might be a little uncomfortable to walk on as well. Please keep those ideas coming. Maybe something with used tires. I don't know. Just trying to think of something softer but yet durable.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), September 07, 2000.

Our ancestors used to cover their floors with rushes for the winter, with some herbs mixed in to help repel insects. In the spring take it out and go with bare floors for the summer, then put fresh rushes on the floor for the winter again. You'd have to keep any areas near a wood stove or fireplace clear, though, as it could be a fire hazard. Wouldn't have to worry about the floor joists, it would be soft and non-slippery for the dogs. Just occurred to me, though, that the dogs might think the new surface was okay for going to the bathroom on? Anyway, definitely out of the box!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 07, 2000.

Feels good when I walk around the creek!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 07, 2000.

If the old type of new hardwood flooring is expensive for you right now what we did over 15 years ago and it is still down in the livingroom, was to buy roofing pine. We do get quite a bit of scratches on it even after using that "poly" plastic coating after staining it, but it looks good and homey. A lot cheaper than rugs and hardwood and easy to clean with half of the barn in next to the wood stove all winter. If you do the paint on the plywood idea, stencil it a little. It'll look really "upscale" Good Luck

-- Helena , (windyacs/@ptdprolog.net), September 11, 2000.

Here's one out of the blue, sort of.

How about using the slats from shipping palettes ? They are all the same size and most likely free. Put 'em down, sand them, and maybe use a little stain to get a more or less uniform color. Then poly them.

Just a thought...

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), September 11, 2000.

- A variation on the theme of painted plywood: Once, I put down tongue and groove chip-board (particle board) subflooring. It had some really neat looking patterns. Oiled it with half linseed oil and half mineral spirits, then floor waxed it. It was cheap, durable, kind of pretty. Could have been polyurethaned, instead.

-- brian reeves (jbreeves@plateautel.net), September 12, 2000.

I saw the idea about using shipping flats on a decorating show (Christopher Lowell?) It was quite attractive.

-- Judy (faithhomes@hotmail.com), September 12, 2000.

Here is what I did in our old upstairs that had the original hardwood flooring in some places and some rotten places. A good plywood was put down (NOT chipboard), in the rotten places after removing the bad boards. I then took a black magic marker and drew lines across the plywood to match the widths and lengths of the original floor boards to make it look like floorboards. Then put down a dark stain on all flooring. The plywood actually looks like floorboards now, even better than the original flooring. People don't know it is plywood until I point it out to them.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), September 12, 2000.