Plywood floor in a kitchen?

rosie383

We are starting work on a new extension and kitchen within the next week. I really like the look of plywood and we were planning to do the whole downstairs in it as there is a crawlspace under the floorboards and the place is freezing in winter. It is carpeted at present but we are going carpet-free throughout due to health reasons.

Is it as hardwearing as I think it is? We can't go for tiles on top of the floorboards as they are too uneven, but we don't really want laminate and can't afford anything very expensive. We are planning underfloor heating in the extension too so have to take that into consideration.

System

tbf it doesn't sound like you've put a lot of thought into it!

What kind of plywood are you talking?
Insulation under the floorboards will be better than plywood for keeping the heat in!

What kind of underfloor heating are you putting in? Might not be that effective under ply...
how do you propose to join sheets together?
Have you considered the "health" implications of the off-gassing of the glues used in plywood by heating it?

gmgmgm

Decent plywood (which looks reasonably good) and something to protect it (e.g. Osmo) will cost much much more than laminate flooring on cheap ply.

rosie383

We haven't found a lot of information on plywood flooring as yet which is why I am asking for some guidance.
How difficult would it be to put insulation under the floorboards?
And what is the best type of flooring to have over under floor heating if plywood isn't practical?

keith969

rosie383 wrote: »

How difficult would it be to put insulation under the floorboards?

If you have joists under the existing floorboards then a cheap and easy way to insulate is to use a staple gun to staple plastic netting between the bottom of joists, and lay loft insulation on top of this. Then put your flooring down. Can't say I like the idea of plywood as a floor surface though.

rosie383

So we would have to lift all of the floorboards and relay them. As for a plywood floor, we have only seen them on TV and read about them on blogs etc. We haven't actually seen any in real life, as it were, so it was just one possible idea. We have sanded the floorboards downstairs and were going to stain and varnish as we did upstairs, but it has been so cold underfoot over the past few months that we need something else downstairs.

tonyh66

plywood flooring is great if you want to get that lived in shed look. Seriously put proper flooring down, plywood is not really suitable for flooring, unless its a shed.

keith969

rosie383 wrote: »

So we would have to lift all of the floorboards and relay them. As for a plywood floor, we have only seen them on TV and read about them on blogs etc. We haven't actually seen any in real life, as it were, so it was just one possible idea. We have sanded the floorboards downstairs and were going to stain and varnish as we did upstairs, but it has been so cold underfoot over the past few months that we need something else downstairs.

I did it in a kitchen which had an extension so it was part original floorboards (in not very good condition) and part chipboard. So the whole lot came up and was replaced, which was not as big a job as it might first seem - the sanding and varnishing took longer.

The other option is slippers

Grenage

Plywood is a great subfloor, but not really ideal for the finish.

rosie383

If you look online there are many stunning looking plywood floors but it's good to hear from real people about the practicalities (or not!) of them.

And we have been wearing slippers constantly, but you can feel the cold air coming up everywhere from underneath.

dominoman

If you don't want to lift the floorboards (and if they're on display try not to as they will never look as good after) then insulate in the crawl space.

I found the easiest way was to use expanded polystyrene boards, which are cheap as chips at B&Q. If you cut them to size you can wedge them between the joists and they will support themselves without anything to hold them in place. Polystyrene is easy to cut with a stanley knife. Or even easier with a breadknife (don't let her see you using it!)