Joining Plywood flooring (ghetto/hipster)

[woodenstx]

I'm planning to lay plywood as the flooring for our downstairs entrance/hallway/kitchen and then eventually continue this into the Lounge.
Presently its some boggo B&Q laminate from the Lounge to Hallway, and then different laminate in the kitchen.

The "plan" so to speak, is to make an accurate drawring of the hallway and kitchen, then with the relevant quantity of ply sheet, cut it out and "drop" as big a piece as possible. The small problem is that the hallway is a shade under 3M long and circa 1.6M wide, this would lead even an oversize sheet to need 100mm adding to the edge, no biggie as that side will have a unit over most of the join anyway.

How would you butt join plywood? (looking at 15-18mm Hardwood or Bitch or WISA ply) Would glue and biscuits do the job? will the biscuits swell up and make a mess? Would this be ideal for pocket holes?

 

[sunnybob]

Wait, youre thinking of the ply as being the finished surface that you are going to walk on?

Oh no oh no oh no. Wont last a day.

 

[Racers]

Glue and biscuits of a loose tongue should work.
A tick stick will be easer to use to mark out the ply.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeVgByMnAqM

Might be tricky to lay a full sheet in a confined space!

Pete

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Most places I went in NZ had chipboard floors finished with water based PU varnish. It actually looks OK. This included my sister's - and my b.i.l. is a ship's joiner by trade and a perfectionist.

 

[woodenstx]

Wait, youre thinking of the ply as being the finished surface that you are going to walk on?

Oh no oh no oh no. Wont last a day.

Will throw down any old clear stuff I can find....


Likely PolyX or simlar product.

 

[sunnybob]

I think youll be replacing it fairly soon, but its your floor.

 

[JSW]

Glue and biscuits of a loose tongue should work.
A tick stick will be easer to use to mark out the ply.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeVgByMnAqM

Might be tricky to lay a full sheet in a confined space!

Pete

Some days are about learning something new, today appears to be one ... 42 years a Joiner and never (to my recall) come across a "tick stick" before, quite brilliant! Cheers Pete

 

[ED65]

I think to be on the safe side you should use plywood splines or tongues instead of biscuits. Biscuits can telegraph through the surface and it's more likely on a floor than in a table I'd have thought.

 

[Racers]

No problem JSW.

Its mostly a boatbuilding thing so that's probably why you haven't come across it.

Pete

 

[ED65]

Wait, youre thinking of the ply as being the finished surface that you are going to walk on?

Oh no oh no oh no. Wont last a day.

Plenty of ply and OSB laid as flooring these days Bob. It's not hardwood laminate of course but with the right varnish applied it can apparently wear well enough.

 

[sunnybob]

Wait, youre thinking of the ply as being the finished surface that you are going to walk on?

Oh no oh no oh no. Wont last a day.

Plenty of ply and OSB laid as flooring these days Bob. It's not hardwood laminate of course but with the right varnish applied it can apparently wear well enough.

I know exactly how long my mrs would tolerate plywood flooring. Exactly 1 second after she saw me laying it.
But as they say, fashions change.

 

[woodenstx]

Wait, youre thinking of the ply as being the finished surface that you are going to walk on?

Oh no oh no oh no. Wont last a day.

Plenty of ply and OSB laid as flooring these days Bob. It's not hardwood laminate of course but with the right varnish applied it can apparently wear well enough.

I know exactly how long my mrs would tolerate plywood flooring. Exactly 1 second after she saw me laying it.
But as they say, fashions change.

The key is to leave it as long as possible before doing a job, that way you get to pick and they dont moan (as much).

We havent found any flooring we actually like the look of that would work in a hallway/kitchen. Ideally we would have carpet but it would need to be such a dark colour to survive that it wouldnt achieve lightness etc.
LVT would be my weapon of choice but that has its own fun to go with (mainly cost)
Not a fan of many of the engineered wood flooring looks.
Bored of "plank" effect
Tile effect laminate is brittle as heck and damages all too easily
and so on.

If the ply thing works, then ace, if not then its only a small bit of cash down the pan for the experiment :lol:

 

[thetyreman]

why plywood and not real wood?

 

[kdampney]

May not be to everyone's tastes, but here are some different plywood flooring styles: https://uk.pinterest.com/explore/plywoo ... s/?lp=true

 

[ColeyS1]

Wait, youre thinking of the ply as being the finished surface that you are going to walk on?

Oh no oh no oh no. Wont last a day.

Plenty of ply and OSB laid as flooring these days Bob. It's not hardwood laminate of course but with the right varnish applied it can apparently wear well enough.

I know exactly how long my mrs would tolerate plywood flooring. Exactly 1 second after she saw me laying it.
But as they say, fashions change.

Tiz true. I'd have never thought of upcycling pallets as garden fencing, until seeing the picture of yours. You made it look good !
Cheers
Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[JSW]

May not be to everyone's tastes, but here are some different plywood flooring styles: https://uk.pinterest.com/explore/plywoo ... s/?lp=true

Thanks for the link kdampney, that led me to this young lady that apparently, one year later is still over the moon with her Ply bedroom floor.

http://sharktails.ca/2016/04/22/newbies ... ng-boards/

It's a fairly long read, but well worth it, the basics being take the cheapest 10mm box-store ply you can find, rip it down to 8"x8' lengths, then nail it to the existing floor with a compressor/brad nailer, forget the joints, in fact leave a gap! (???) The finish is up to you. This just should not work, but does appear to look rather good though.

(All credit to http://sharktails.ca for the image)

 

[woodenstx]

I have thought about "planking" it up and running a micro bevel on it, but given the concrete slab isnt 100% level then the work to get it to a state that would take a bonded down ply floor is then at the same point as LVT'ing it :lol:

I love the tick strip thing!!! thats a wonderfully simple solution to complex scribing