Painted & Faux-Finished Subfloor

As I talked about before, we needed an inexpensive flooring solution for our upstairs. With allergies, messy young kids, and a large dog, we couldn’t deal with carpet in our house, but we were faced with a big dilemma. Money! We didn’t have any to buy new flooring. After some research, we decided to go ahead and rip out the carpet. We patched the seams and knots in the subfloor, rented a drum sander, and then painted the floor with Glidden Porch and Floor paint. I then went back with a chalk line and a Dremel and made small lines in the floor to look like floorboards. Finally, I went over the floor with a Ralph Lauren glaze to give it an older, rustic look. It isn’t perfect, but I don’t plan on keeping it forever. It is a wonderful interim solution for us. We managed to do about 1000 sq feet for less than $200. Keep reading for more of the details.

A close-up of the finished floor

After we pulled up all the carpet and tack strips, we used 2” coarse thread drywall screws to secure our squeaky old subfloor. We made sure that the screw heads were slightly below the top surface of the subfloor so that they wouldn’t show once patched and sanded. We also made sure to countersink all the old nails that were in the subfloor.

In the photo above, you can see the original state of the subfloor. It was not a pretty sight! We used Simple Prep Pre-Mixed Floor Patch and a margin trowel to patch the seams between the pieces of plywood subfloor, as well as to fill in any knots, screw holes and countersunk nail holes.

After the patch compound dried and hardened, we went to home depot and rented a drum sander. We sanded the entire floor with 60 grit sandpaper. This smoothed the floor, eliminating splinters but leaving some texture. You could easily sand with progressively finer grit paper for a smoother finish. Just a warning, this part generated a ton of dust! I highly recommend removing baseboards before sanding. We didn’t and I couldn’t get as close to the wall as I would have liked. Ideally, we would have removed the baseboards and then used a smaller sander to get close to the walls.

After we finished with the drum sander, we swept and vacuumed up all the dust and applied two coats of Glidden Porch & Floor Paint tinted to match Sherwin Williams Sawdust. This paint is self-priming and super cheap! If you don’t remove the baseboards, definitely tape them off.

This is a close-up of the floor after sanding and painting two coats.

Because we were going for a rustic feel, I didn’t want my faux board lines to be stick straight. I used a chalk line to make lines that served as rough guides for my faux board lines.

Then I used a Dremel with a cutting wheel to go over the chalk lines. I did this freehand so the lines had some interest to them.

This is the floor with the lines Dremelled in.

After I finished all the lines, I vacuumed up the dust and then rubbed the entire floor with Ralph Lauren Glaze in Smoke, making sure to work it into the cracks and crevices that remained as well as into the lines I made with the Dremel.

I’m really pleased with the finished product. It’s not perfect, but it’s also not going to stay this way forever. Eventually we will install bamboo flooring. One added bonus is that our floors are already patched and leveled from the sanding we did, so all we will have to do is start the install whenever we can afford the flooring. Until then, I am just thrilled to be rid of our carpet!

linked at Shabby Nest, A Soft Place to Land