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DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors [Part 1- Installation]

Here is how we installed a DIY wide plank pine floor in our home, using 12" pine boards. I'm sharing how we installed the floors, the mistakes we made, and the problems we had to overcome.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through them I receive a small percentage at no extra cost to you (read my full disclosure).

We are moving full steam ahead on the renovation of our attached mother-in-law apartment in preparation for my in-laws to move into it.  This past week we tackled one of the biggest projects, replacing all of the flooring in the great room and kitchen. The kitchen and dining areas still had the original linoleum and the rest of the great room had the original carpet.  Everything was in pretty bad condition and really needed to be replaced.


DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Before | Hood Creek Log Cabin

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Before | Hood Creek Log Cabin

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Before | Hood Creek Log Cabin

One of the goals in our renovation of this house has been to make choices of materials that fit the house well and honor its uniqueness. 

The floor of the kitchen in our house is original to the build. It's 12" wide pine planks that were top nailed into the joists. 

 The builder and original owner of our home was a wood reclaimer way back in the 1980s, before it was cool. The next time I see him I've got to remember to ask him where these boards came from because everything in this house has a story. 

By the way, when we renovate the kitchen, this original floor will be refinished.

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

We were able to source the new #3 grade Ponderosa pine boards through a local wood supply company for $1 per square foot, and had them delivered.

They are a pretty close match to the originals. 

We let them sit in the room for about two weeks to acclimate to the house.

Once we were ready to get started we began going through the boards, grading them from best to worst and stacking them accordingly. 

We checked for knots that went all the way through, edges that weren't perfect, discoloration, warping, and bowing. 

This photo is from toward the end, I forgot to take a photo earlier.


DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

My Tip: Mark each defect with a piece of blue tape.  By midway through the install the boards were all starting to look the same and we wasted a lot of time looking for the defects again to decide if a board was usable.


DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

We laid down a layer of this vapor barrier paper.  

`DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

We used a square to mark the location of the floor joists on the paper, using the nail line of the subfloor as a guide.  This made it easier to keep our nail lines straight.

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

We set the first board in place and realized the threshold piece that butts up to the tile in the hallway needed to go in first. So my husband cut a piece to fit.  

In keeping with the history of the house, he repurposed one of the 2x4's from a wall we took down. Now it remains a part of the house.

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

 After each board was cut to size, we sanded a small bevel on the top two long edges.  This gave a nice v-groove accent between the boards.

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

We used 1/2" thick blocks of wood as spacers between the boards and the walls. This will allow for movement in the boards with settling and expansion. 

We measured from the walls to the seam in the plywood subfloor to see if that line was square, and it was. So this gave us a good way to make sure our first board was laid square.

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

With each board we used a flooring nailer to nail the edge down and help keep the joints tight.


DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

Then we used a framing nailer with 3" screw shank nails to top nail the boards into the floor joists.  My husband made this template to keep each set of nails evenly spaced and consistent.


DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

We adjusted the nailer to set the nails about an 1/8" above the wood because the plastic collated nails we used made shards of plastic that shot into the wood and blew out the hole.  We had already invested in these nails so we made it work.  For future projects we will definitely use different collated nails.  

Update: This is the nailer we used for the next floor and it worked so much better than the one shown in the picture above. And these are the nails we used with it.

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

So because of this issue, our workflow for each board was setting the nails, cleaning up the plastic shards, hammering the nail heads flush with the board, and then using a nail set to recess the nails slightly below the wood surface.


DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

When we had a butt joint of two boards, only one board actually was nailed into the floor joist.  In the photo below, it would be the board on the right.  

See how those nails line up with the nails in the other boards?  We used Liquid Nails for subfloors to basically glue the ends of the two boards together, so they will move together with expansion and prevent cupping on the ends.  I didn't get a shot of the glue itself, but you get the idea.  

Then we cut about an inch off of some nails to use in the board on the left.  

We pre-drilled the holes through the boards and then nailed through into the subfloor.  This way the nails didn't blow through into the basement ceiling below.



DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

We used a jigsaw to cut out the holes for the floor vents.


DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

A few times we ended up with a board that wasn't lining up well with the previous board, leaving a wider gap than we wanted at one end.  We ended up using our car's tire jack, braced against a board that was solidly screwed into the subfloor, to gently close the gap before we nailed the board into place.


DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

It all came together beautifully, and thankfully square to the last board! 

No, it was not easy, but it was totally do-able if you have some experience.  

And we will be doing it again in other rooms as soon as we can.  

So here it is all done.  Scroll back up and look at those before's to really see the difference!


DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | Hood Creek Log Cabin

Here's the breakdown of the cost of this floor:  

The room was 450 square feet.  

The wood was $1 per square foot and we ordered about 20% extra, so $719 with delivery fees.  

The vapor barrier was $114. 

The nails were about $80.  

So this floor came in at about $900.  


This post is getting so long, I figured I would break it up into two posts.  See how we sanded, stained, and finished the floor at  DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors [Part 2- Finishing]

Update: Please see these other posts for further information on how we installed 12" wide plank pine tongue and groove floors next.

Living Room Renovation | One Room Challenge | Wide Plank Floors

Living Room Renovation | One Room Challenge | More DIY Wide Plank Floors

Living Room Renovation | One Room Challenge | Week 7 Sort of Reveal

Bold & Eclectic Log Cabin Living Room | The Big Reveal

Thanks for joining us on this crazy renovation ride!


How to DIY Wide Plank Pine Floors | $1 sq ft cheap low cost | Hood Creek Log Cabin



13 comments

Ange said...

Great job

Unknown said...

Wow. This is amazing. You guys are so handy. I am always impressed!

Anonymous said...

Fabulous! Joanna

Christina Godwin said...

We are following your tutorial on how to install these floors. Would you please tell me how you sealed them? I have read mixed reviews on which polyurethane is tough enough to stand the test of time. I would love to know what you did and if you stained them or not.

Thanks!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Hi Christina! I hope it's going well! I haven't had time to write the follow up post but I will be happy to email you everything we did. We used a water based system. Can you please email me at hoodcreeklogcabin@gmail.com and I will get right back to you.

Red Brick on the Lake said...

I love this Dara!! I'm showing my husband now, we are really looking into new flooring and especially on a budget! They look amazing!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thanks so much Daraka! I love these floors!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thank you!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thanks so much!

Unknown said...

Daraka, you have no idea how timely these instructions are! We have bought a little steel building (12 x 34) for the mountains we are fixing up as a cabin inside. I also have #3 1x12x14 long planks with slight water damage I got for $1/square foot. Mostly they look straight, I only got 3 extra... You and your husband gave me so many good ideas and tips I will be using (bevel edges, use a template for nails (I'll be using screws), glue butt joints, use floor jack, you guys really have some great ideas! Looks fabulous. Did you set your nails every foot or every two feet? Can't quite tell from the pictures. I was planning on every 2 feet but am open to suggestion. I will lay my boards short-end-wise (across the floor, so I'll cut off a foot off each board as they are mostly split there anyway and avoid butt joints), hope that will work and look OK... Right now I am using "yard wood", scraps from a douglas fir lumber yard to cover the metal beams and insulation in the walls, attaching them to wood studs my husband attached to the steel beams for me. Each board is different and beautiful, some thicker than others, some wider, pretty rustic but looks great. Log siding was my first choice but way too expensive.
Thank you again for all your fantastic and for me very timely ideas!! I'll be laying the floor boards when I'm done with the walls, meanwhile they are acclimating in the center of the floor with spacers for air circulation.

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Hi Mimi, thanks so much for stopping by. That sounds like a very cool project! In answer to how far apart the nails are, we were nailing into the wood floor joists so every 18". I'm not sure how that would translate to your metal building and what you will be screwing into, but hope that helps. You'll have to send me pictures when you're done. If that didn't answer your question, just let me know again.

Anonymous said...

Dara, Thanks for the post, I am having a hard time finding the flooring, at Lowe's they have a "whiteboard" pine 1" by 10" by 12" for like 20$, is this pine like the #3 grade ponderosa??

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Hi, the whiteboard is lighter weight and will be very soft. we found our boards at a local lumber yard, not Lowes or HD. Do you have one near you? We found an even better source since this post. email me at hoodcreeklogcabin@gmail.com and I can send you the info for where we got ours because they have 3 locations in the southeast.

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