Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Plywood!?

Walking through Home Depot, I noticed that the wood floors I liked were pretty pricey, especially since I wanted to do a lot of space with wood.

Then I noticed their birch plywood in the lumber section... about 3/4 - 1 inch thick, 5 or six ply, very nice grain, with razor sharp cuts, nice and square.

I laid two sheets down on their concrete floor -- they seemed to go nicely together.

So my question: is this possible? Covering a residential floor with nice plywood (assuming a good sanding a light finish)? My floors are very flat, terrazzo. The cost -- if this would work -- looks to be about 4-5 TIMES less than the other wood floors I saw.

Anybody got any comments?

Thanks,

Tom
tomandedna@earthlink.net

Tom,
Theoreically it would work(for a while) and look good.

However, the transition from one sheet to the next will be quite obvious. And here comes the real problem: the birch veneer on that pretty sheet of ply is very thin. Down the road, it might take ONE sanding/refinishing job. And, how do you apply it to the subfloor. If you glue, it will be very difficult to remove. Nailed will probably look like crap with all the filled holes. And it will probably squeak. That's my .02

fred

I have seen plywood used as flooring and it looked great-but you knew it was plywood.
If you could get tounge and groove it would make the installation over terazzo easier.
Don't use a water based glue. Use a urethane based glue intended for gluing down prefinished T&G 3/4 " hardwood flooring.
One brand is Bosticks Best It is EXPENSIVE. and also available special order fromThe Home Depot. Bruce also has a urethane glue.If you can't find it email me and I'll get you the information.

If you ever decide to remove it-------- good luck ----------

Hopefully the edges won't stick up--- not being a wood worker-- could you use biscuits to edge join the sheets ??????????

WJS_SR@msn.com

One other problem with plywood used for flooring.
What you have seen available is furniture grade ply and is not made with waterproof glue.
If it gets wet from any kind of leak, it will swell, warp, and be ruined.

fred

I fully agree with Fred.
It would be a mistake to use plywood for finished flooring, especially this type.
I would either re-polish the terrazzo flooring with a floor buffer (will look brand new) and use area rugs, or put wood flooring made for the purpose or carpet and padding over it, IF you must cover it.
Good Luck!
Mike

In my quest for the same information I found this site:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/flooring/msg07163917768.html

Which is a great discussion on using plywood as a finished floor. Pay particular attention to posts by a contributor called "Rivercityman" as he has installed a beautiful plywood floor. Pictures of it can be found here:

http://photos.yahoo.com/myoptinaccount

His results have convinced me. Now if I can just find the time...

Engineered wood floors are basically plywood, but you still must not forget the above warnings.

fred

Not only will then joints become a focus (undesirable) they will become noisy, very noisy. The room when finished will look unfinished. This would be a cheap solution that really looks cheap, no matter the finishing. What is your home worth? Will this improve or degrade the value?