How We Installed Pine Board Flooring

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Hi there!

It’s been busy week installing our kitchen floors! We’re excited because it’s the final push before we can put the room back together and have a functioning kitchen again! It’s been a long 6 weeks friend, but we’re almost there! So today I’m going to talk about how we installed pine board flooring, but if you’ve missed any of our kitchen progress to date I’ll link those posts below!

See how we removed the old flooring HERE!

Check out our tongue and groove walls HERE!

See how we primed and painted the walls HERE!

And the project that started it all in the kitchen, the staircase linked HERE!

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Materials Needed and Cost Breakdown

Pine Boards We used number 2 – 1 x 4 x 16 pine boards from our local lumber yard. It cost a little over $600 for the lumber for our roughly 19×20 kitchen. So about $1.65/sq ft. And yes we know pine is a soft wood 😉 We’re counting on all the wear and tear that will add character over time!

Finish Nailer and Nails We used 2 1/2 inch long 16 gauge finish nails and will not be filling them in

Construction Adhesive and caulk gun – it took almost a case (24 tubes) of construction adhesive

Hammer 

2×4

Pry bar 

How to Start Laying Pine Board Flooring

We started laying the flooring by finding a centrally located point to square off the first board. We choose the doorway that leads the the back living room aka what will be the sunroom. Ed secured a board in the doorway to line the flooring boards up to.

Then we set the first board in place and stood back to check it out from all angles. The house is an oldie, 140ish years, so there is nothing here that’s level, square, plumb, or straight. We learned from the last house sometimes it’s more important that it looks right to the eye then actually being any of those things. But in this case it looked good to us so this is where we started!

Laying the Flooring

Following how the upstairs original wood flooring was laid the flooring planked style. We staggered most of the boards full length across the room. The photo below is what they look like next to the wall. However, every 5 boards or so, we made a cut in the boards at random lengths just to add interest. If you chose to do this make sure to either use 2 different boards or simply flip on over so it looks like 2 different boards instead of a board cut for no reason 😉

First we put down a liberal amount of construction adhesive under each board. Then we set each board on top of it and walked on it. Next we nailed 2 nails on the end and every 24 inches after that. As we worked our way down each board we made sure they were tight to the one beside it. I explain how below.

Staggering the Boards

Where the full length boards were staggered we had to add in some smaller pieces. We waited to do this until we got to the other side of the kitchen where the staircase makes the room narrower. So we used the parts we had to cut off to fill the gaps to reduce waste. It worked out really well!

Getting the Pine Boards Tight

Most of the boards could be brought tightly together by placing a 2×4 next to them, standing on the floor board, and then gently tapping the 2×4 with a hammer.

Some of the pine boards were slightly curved. Ed came up with this brilliant and quick solution to tighten up even the most crooked boards quickly! Place a piece of pine board against the flooring so it doesn’t damage it. Then set the tip of the pry bar next to it between the pine board and 2×4. Next, screw your 2×4 into the subfloor and gently tap the end of the pry bar with the hammer, with wedges the gap closed.

Installing Pine Flooring Around the Exterior Door

Because we removed so many layers of flooring the new pine board flooring is actually the proper height for the door. I removed the original threshold (and yes that’s snow from our freak arctic blast lol) and we’ll attach it to the top of the pine floors once they’re stained, painted, and sealed. Then we’ll add a board between the doors when we redo the inner door frame.

How We Installed Pine Board Flooring

We’re so happy with how these floors have turned out and can’t wait to add them to much of the main level! And honestly as far as flooring installs go they were about as easy as we’ve ever done! Ed has to finish up the last couple of boards this weekend because they required a couple of tricky cuts that I don’t feel comfortable doing myself yet. But I’ve already started staining them and can’t wait to show you! After they’re stained we’ll be painting a pattern on them and then sealing them up! I shared all the flooring details and kitchen plans HERE!

Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today!