Paper Bag Floors?!

As you may have read in a previous post, I ripped up the ugly flooring in the bathroom only to find another layer of ugly flooring...and then I ripped up that layer to find yet ANOTHER layer of ugly flooring.  Kill me.  Lineloum glue has since been added to the things I will forever haaaaaate. 

During the demolition....

But it had to be done...and after many hours of scraping and picking and ripping and grunting and cursing and sweating, I won!  I had my heart set on Paper Bag Floors and I needed the bare, plywood subfloor to install it on.  If you haven't heard of paper bag floors yet, search Pinterest and you'll get dozens and dozens of pins.  It's super affordable (less than 100 bucks), looks fan-freaking-tastic and is incredibly durable.  Apparently, this blog post is one of the most popular references...and she goes into more depth than I'm going to, so check it out. 

I'm in LOOOVVVE with my floor.  I know I say that about everything, but it's true.  I love it.  It is so cool and so pretty and so durable...and if I can convince someone to rip up three layers of linoleum in the kitchen and laundry room, I'd install this flooring again in a heartbeat....

Okay, first step...prep, as always.  In my case, I probably spent more time prepping than I did installing the floor.  After I ripped up three layers of linoleum, I had to sand and sand and sand and sand the glue off the plywood so the floor was level and smooth-ish... I used heavy-duty 60-grit sandpaper with a palm sander.  It took forever and I complained a lot.  After I was completely done with sanding I vacuumed the entire bathroom really, really well to get rid of all the saw dust.  Saw dust and glue don't go well together! 

I ripped out the nasty rubber baseboard trim before I did this, but if you have baseboards you want to protect, make sure to tape them off well with FrogTape.  Or... You could just carefully remove them and replace them afterwards.  I'm sure that'd be a lot easier because this is kind of a messy job....

• Brown paper - I bought this roll of contractor's paper at Home Depot for like 12 bucks and I have a TON left over.  I tried to find a smaller (wrapping paper-sized roll) at Fred Meyer in the mail/shipping section, but no such luck... But if I do this in the kitchen too, I'll have plenty of materials left.
• Elmer's glue - Every blog and Pinterest post I read called for a GALLON of Elmer's glue...and after searching high and low for a gallon of the stuff with no success, I bought four 8 ounces bottles of it at Fred Meyer in the office supply section hoping it would at least get me started.  And I only used 2 of the 4 bottles!  Apparently none of the other bloggers were only doing a 25 square foot bathroom floor.  I was SO glad I didn't end up with a gallon of Elmer's glue...
• Wood stain - this step is optional...you can leave the paper au natural or you can stain it with oil-based wood stain.  I stained my floor with Minwax Dark Walnut (about 7 bucks) and I love the way it turned out.  If/when I do the flooring in my kitchen I think I'll do a lighter color (because my faux granite kitchen counters are almost black) but this color looks fantastic in the bathroom.
• Polyurethane - this was the most expensive item at $40+ but considering the overall cost of the flooring, you're still getting a fantastic deal!  Don't skimp on the quality of the poly... I bought this water-based flooring grade poly in semi-gloss. It dries fast, has no odor and the end result feels smooth and durable.
• Lambskin block stain thingy... I don't know what this is really called, but it's basically a block of wood wrapped in lambskin and you attach it to a painter's extension pole.  It works just like a mop and it's used for staining large areas like decks.  I used it to mop on the wood stain and the poly.  You can also use something like this Shur-Line Deck Pad attached to a painter's pole.
• Chip brush (3 inch) - used to cut in the stain and poly around the toilet, corners, etc. where the lambskin mop can't get to. 
• A couple of paint tray liners for the wood stain.  That stuff will ruin your paint trays in a hurry!

Once you have all your materials, you're ready to get started!   

First step - mix up your glue/water mixture.  I used a 3:1 water to glue ratio and I think it worked perfectly on my plywood subfloor.  I mixed 6 cups of water with two 8-ounce bottles of glue in a bucket and stirred it until the glue was dissolved.  I assumed that I would have to make another batch, but it was just enough for my small bathroom.  I've read that half water and half glue works better for concrete floors, so do your research first depending on what type of floor you have!

Second step - start ripping and crumpling your paper.  You could make a whole pile of paper pieces ahead of time, but I liked ripping as I went... 

Next... Start dunking the crumpled up balls of paper into the glue mixture.  IMPORTANT! You only need to put them in the glue mixture for like, 2 seconds...just long enough to get them wet, and then take them out.  Otherwise they'll just turn to mush when you try to lay them out.  Also, you don't HAVE to crumple up the paper first, but it gives it a really cool, aged, leathery look to it because the stain seeps into the crinkles.  Love.

When you're ripping the paper, make sure it looks random.  The more shapes and sizes you have, the better it'll look.  The pieces with a flat edge worked perfectly along my bathtub and walls.  MAKE SURE that when you're laying down the pieces that they have a fair amount of overlap.  The more overlap, the more durable the floor will be in the long run.  Also, the paper is going to shrink a little when it dries, so overlap is important!

When I uncrumpled a piece of paper and smoothed it out onto the floor, I used a flat brush (in the picture above) to help smooth out the wrinkles and spread the glue mixture around.  The paper-laying part of this project was my favorite... It reminded me of paper mache or hodge podge projects I did as a kid. 

You'll notice that some of the pieces are darker than others in this photo... I didn't know that would happen and it's impossible to predict which pieces will be darker or lighter.  Each side of the contractor's paper had a different sheen to it, so it all depended on which side was facing up.  I love the way it turned out though...I think it made it more interesting.

After my floor was completely covered in brown paper, it was time for my least favorite task ever.  WAIT for it to dry.  I'm so incredibly impatient and this project required a lot of waiting.  Luckily, I had half a dozen other projects going on at the same time to distract me. 

A lot of blogs said the floor would be dry overnight, but that wasn't the case for me.  I think I waited about 24 (agonizing) hours for the floor to be bone dry... Next step: wood stain!  As I mentioned earlier, this step is optional.  You could poly right over the paper as-is, but I wanted a dark, rich color. 

Here I am using the chip brush around the edges.  Pardon the towel on my head... Oh, also... I removed the toilet (by myself, because I am Super Woman!!!) because I wanted the flooring to go underneath the toilet. 

Using my lambskin mop to apply the rest of the stain... One coat was plenty but make sure you spread it out reeeeeeally well.  Do not let any "pooling" happen.  A little goes a long way! 

It's important to use oil-based stain (based on everything I read, water-based stain doesn't work as well) and to let it dry COMPLETELY before you start applying the layers of poly.  I installed my floor three months ago (I'm way behind on my posts!), so it's hard for me to remember how long the stain took to dry, but I think it was about 24-36 hours.

Finally!  It's time to poly...  This is the most important step since the poly is what is protecting the longevity of your floor.  You will need to apply AT LEAST ten coats of poly, if not more.  This isn't as hard as you would think though.  The poly I bought was fast-drying, so I only had to wait about an hour in between each coat.  It still took me a couple of days to finish only because I had a million other things going on... I lost count of how many layers I did, but I think it was about a dozen.

I washed the lambskin block out really well after staining and reused it for the poly and I used the chip brush around the corners again... I found that just wearing socks to apply it worked best.

One random word of advice... Put your hair up while you're doing this!  I have long, dark hair and after the floor was totally done I found several hairs permanently embedded in the layers of poly.  I'm sure I'm the only one who will ever notice, but they still make me crazy...

After I was done with the floor, I figured out how to install new wood baseboards and quarter round trim (again, by myself, because I am awesome) and I think it looks GORGEOUS against the dark floor.  Along the bathtub and toilet I used bright white caulk to match the trim. 

The finished product....

Wow, that was a long post.  My brain hurts.  Next up...the big kitchen reveal.  Stay tuned!