DIY UPDATE: Paper Flooring Repairs!! OH NOOooooo~ Not.
This flooring just blows me away, and everyone else that has come in to see it! Love the dark Jacobean brown color, LOVE the high gloss “piano finish”. Not a problem for showing spots or dirt or much of anything. The varigated pattern from the wrinkled paper and the stain variations hide a multitude of things.
A good four months now in one of the heaviest used rooms in the house and I finally dealt with the first “repairs”. If you can even call them that! The entire business to repair 7 little nicks took about 10 minutes. You can see a super short video about it here. It has withstood full on toilet overflows with standing water at least 4 times since I put this flooring in and daily use by a hoard of 6-9 year old boys. I STILL LOVE IT and am planning on doing more rooms in my house with this technique. Wish I’d known about this years ago!
What type of flooring is this? It looks great and so simple to install.
It’s paper flooring! Made with Elmer’s glue, contractors paper and a Varathane poly topcoat! I LOVE IT and am continuing on to use this treatment for my entire home to replace the carpet. Hooray!
Was your original problem with the brown paper flooring because you used the water-based stain? We’re getting ready to do this and I want to avoid any mistakes and learn from yours.
Thanks!
Yes, our original problem was due to the water based stain. Use oil based stain! Also, I have an update I’m going to post soon about our living room. We did the entire room this way too, but had to use a slightly different technique as the “blotting technique” didn’t work. We used the lambskin applicator on a pole and just applied the stain in circular motion with a light touch and it came out VERY different, but just as beautiful in my opinion. Darker, but very pretty. What room are you planning on doing?
Well, to make sure we could “live with it” and we would really like the end result, we did a table top. Actually, our kitchen table. OMG, it’s beautiful and turned out sooooo much better than we anticipated!
We live on a farm and stuff getting tracked in and out is a real issue. After seeing how this turned out, we’re planning on doing our entire carpeted area.
I was wondering if it is slippery. It looks so shiny and smooth. I am afraid if it gets wet in the bathroom someone might slip.
No problems with slipping….yet. We have two pugs and a 7 year old boy with no problems yet. A little slippery if the dog’s nails are long, and we just finished the floor in the living room with this technique and same finish, and no issues with slipping as of yet. We do have some area rugs though, so perhaps that helps?
Can you do this over vinyl tiles or would you have to remove them first?
I removed the vinyl in the bathroom prior to doing this floor technique. Not sure what kind of result would come from not removing them first. I guess if they were all flat and securely adhered to the floor to begin with, without curling or big gaps, that it might work fine.
I did this in my bathroom over vinyl. Used a coat of primer first to help the “stick” works beautifully! just know that if you have a pattern like tile you CAN see the lines (if you look closely)
Do you have pictures of your living room? I would love to see that too. Wow, what a great idea this is. I’m excited to try it out!!
Pictures of living room to come soon. I’m working on my son’s birthday, planning it and all, so won’t get them on until after the 15th sometime.
You mention stain, did you stain after you put down the paper? I’m wondering if butcher paper couldn’t be used and then stain with color, the possibilities would be endless that way. I have a living room floor that unfortunately is part cement and part particle board sub-flooring. It is not quite even making it difficult to paint or put down wood, and I don’t want vinyl. This looks like it might just be the right trick for hiding inconsistencies!
I had a friend do this on her walls, and it looked really good but a little dark for me. I love that I might be able to use the technique on the floor.
Yes, I stained it after putting it down. You can see how on my Good luck!
I wondered if those spots were from the water based stain as well. Thanks for posting this! The more we learn from you, the *hopefully* less we will have to learn from our own mistakes. I was hoping to do this in the kitchen, so I appreciate all the information. Do you remember how many coats of poly you used in the bathroom?
Thanks Jackie. I don’t think they were from the water based stain, as that mistake was a good two layers of paper dried and days later under the top layer. I used about 10 coats of poly when all was said and done in the bathroom. I am planning on adding about 5 more in the near future for extra durability.
THANK YOU so much for sharing this!
Cant wait to see the livingroom!
Thanks Kimberly! I am going to get the living room pics up and the whole lowdown on that next week. Yay!
Curious: what ratio did you use (water/glue) and also did you brush it on or dip it in to soak whole piece of paper. One more (sorry) ..what did you use to clean your floor before applying the paper? Looks great !
Sorry,,,just found the link to your original post on the “how tos”… It seems like your research came from all the same sites I have found. Thanks for putting it all in one place for me! I did read where someone added acrylic paint to the water/glue mix…hmmmm …anyone out there try that?
Ohh, I hadn’t heard about the adding of acrylic paint. I wonder how that turned out? I must Google that now. LOL!
Hi Donna. I didn’t clean the floor, just vacuumed it up and sanded down the glue bumps left over from the vinyl we removed. You can see the full tutorial here:
Would this be able to be used this for a counter top?
Sure! I’ve heard people have excellent results with it on countertops, stools, walls even!
I love your floors! You’ve inspired me to do this in my home too. I just wondered if you still feel great about it or any negatives. House of 5 plus 2 big dogs here, and it will cover 50% of my main floor!
Hi Jen. Thanks! So far, I’ve done our powder room main floor bathroom, plus the living room. Bathroom has held up great! The living room, however, has a few scratches that I need to figure out. The technique that I had to use for the living room required more stain to be left on the paper, which left quite a tacky surface that I had to poly over. I put 10 layers of poly, but probably should have done 5-8 more. Also, after the room was done, I used one of those Steam Shark type floor cleaners to clean it, and I think it softened the poly, hence the scratches. Actually, tomorrow I’m removing all the furniture from that room, assessing the scratch damage, fixing it, then adding 8-10 more layers of poly. I’m still going ahead in the other rooms regardless because our carpet is ruined right now, so it has to go out no matter what. I will keep everyone posted on how the living room repair and extra-poly holds up. I’m guessing it really was because of the softening due to the hot steam. It doesn’t seem soft now, but I had a few sharp metal edged pieces of furniture that were slid across the floor and perhaps that was part of the culprit too. Needless to say, I’m going to figure it out and fix it! 🙂 Stay tuned!
Oh man, so you can’t use a shark to clean it? That really sucks. So what do you do then to keep it clean and streak free (especially since you used high gloss finish)
Using a steam cleaner is a BAD idea. The heat expands the molecules in the water-based poly finish and makes it microscopically porous during the steam process. This forces moisture into the surface. The moisture may not be able to completely dry out. The outermost “skin” can then close up over the surface, sealing in moisture and leaving your finish cloudy. This can also happen if using water-based poly clear coat on a humid day, OR if you re-coat the layers too quickly. Just because the finish is “dry to the touch” doesn’t mean it is “cured”. It is tempting to be in a hurry, but you should allow at least 2-4 hours between coats, especially after the second coat. The more coats, the longer the curing takes. Hope this advice helps!
I have painted faux tile and faux marble finishes on many floors and learned this some years ago, fortunately on my first project at home, not on the floor of a client. Haven’t tried oil, but using oil based varnish may be different because the surface bonding is tighter, but I still would avoid the steam cleaner. Also, oil based varnish or shellac will cause a darker, more yellow/brown finish olor. It requires much greater drying time, and creates unhealthy fumes. So, just use a Swifter or hurricane mop and try to keep excess water off the floor.
I really want to do this in a bedroom. I am redoing a room for my granddaugters. Two single beds, small room. Not alot of traffic. The problem with the room, the floor is wood planks(oreignal flooring. Not nice enough to just sand and pants. I was thinking this technique might really lok good over the wood planks? Any suggestions?
I would think it would work great as long as your planks are even. If they are all wonky or have large gaps inbetween, then you’ll need to level it and fill the cracks before proceeding. Best of luck!
I have a small area on the back porch that is a wooden fold up door to the basement, do you think that this would work on this type of flooring. It has been painted with an oil base paint but I am looking to do something different and when I saw your pin, I thought this might be a great idea to do but instead of a dark stain use a golden oak, to match the oak trim or a little darker oak. Thanks for pinning this, it is a great idea as long as it is something that will last. I am tired of remodeling. I have been working on my house top to bottom with gutting it and rewiring so I want something that will not occuppy a lot of my time.
I want to share this with a sister of mine who lovesssss to do craft and remodel her house every 5 years.
Not sure how this treatment would hold up in an outdoor setting, even on a covered porch, there are elements that might make it not let the poly topcoat cure fully?
loved your tutorial . my friend is in the process of doing this to her floor, she will be applying the gloss today . i helped her for a while yesterday and it is really interesting . I do believe i will do this to my floors. Your detailed information is great , and your experience , which you are so generously sharing seems very complete. Thanks for your help .
I did this to my whole upstairs and I love it. I did use the oil poly in one room and switched to the water base for the rest of the upstairs. I have two cats with claws and they do put scratches on the water base poly when they dig in from being startled. I use a brown cream shoe polish and fill in the scratches and buff. For the most part it takes care of them what still shows is probably only visible to me and I’m trying to say it is character for the floor. I’m considering doing this in my small bathroom downstairs but am concerned that the brown will make it look even smaller. Have you heard of anyone painting the paper or doing a faux paint job?
I haven’t used the oil poly yet. Do you find the oil poly is more durable? I avoided it because of how long it says it takes to dry and also because I hear it stinks waaaaaaaaaaaay worse. Was that true for you? I’ve heard of some awesome techniques with painting the paper. Some folks added paint to the glue/water mixture, and others did a paint style wash, others did actual painting on the paper itself. Any of that would work I’m sure with a bunch of poly topping it off. Good luck on your project!
About to undertake this in a complete house remodel in the 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a hallway. Heard about someone using marine varnish. Thinking about using that.
Marine varnish will probably work great! I’d be a little leery of the fumes though. 🙂
I never saw any answer on how to keep it clean I know you said the stream cleaning wasn’t good……how do you keep it clean?
I have a Roomba vacuum that works great on it. Sleeping also works great. Thanks for actual cleaning up spills and things I use a regular old mop. I make sure that the mop is wrung out really really well. You don’t want to leave water standing for a long time on this floor. Sometimes if water is left standing for an extended period of time it can cause clouding of the poly. The clouding eventually goes away, but it’s best just not have water standing on it for extended periods of time. I usually use warm water, a little splash of bleach and that’s it. Once it dries the nice shine comes back and I know that everything is clean as a whistle. Swiffers don’t work on this kind of surface. I learned that really fast. There is a slight uneven texture due to the paper and the flat Swiffer wet wipes don’t come into full contact with the floor well enough to clean it.
I just mop our floors with a damp mop. No cleaners – just water. Works really well.
Sent from my iPhone
Recently I saw that someone had crocheted covers for her Swiffer instead of using the disposable wipes…that way she could wash them. Might work for you since the yarn makes for a thicker, knobbier surface. Great looking floor…hoping to do my bathroom soon!
Hi Thank you for your blog, I have polyed my kitchen with just water based poly and paper. I did the glue, oil paper, and oil based poly and it came out with big dark blotches, so we stuck to just water based poly. I polyed the floor all over and then polyed the paper and then polyed over it, and many layers of poly.
I have a few spots that have ridges, what should I do for them, in some of the spots I have picked at and the paper comes up, so I need to put another paper on top. Any other ideas to deal with this?
Love the photo and look of the floor, however, at this time there appears to be NO instructions for your beautiful work. Am I missing something? Can I find the “HOW TO” somewhere else? Thanks so much!!!
Hi, I’m having a situation similar to yours. I’m wanting to re-paper after applying the oil-based stain because I a couple of repairs after the original stain was down and used a more diluted glue mixture. Unfortunatley, this caused those spots to be so much darker than the rest of the floor that I just want to repaper the whole thing and start fresh. My problem is that when I tried to do that, the glue/water mixture wouldn’t work because of the oil-based stain. The water would just bead up on top of it and Even after the glue dried, I could just pull the paper right up. Do you have any recommendations on how to reapply the paper the second time? If I use a poly to “glue” it down, how do I apply the stain? Will the poly prevent the stain from penetrating to the paper? any thoughts you have based on your experiences would be helpful! Thanks! I just love your results.
I didn’t have that problem when repapering over the oil based stain, so I’m not sure how to troubleshoot your issue. I would recommend letting the oil based stain dry longer and use a more glue than water mixture for the next papering.
I’m thinking about doing this to the entire upstairs of the house we just purchased (two bedrooms a landing and a bathroom)! It’s covered in 1990’s carpet that is HORRIFIC — it has to go before we move in! We have three littles and a dog so we don’t want to spend and arm and a leg for wood or tile while the kids are still at home. My husband’s not sold on the paper floor idea…(yet :o)) How have your floors held up over the years? What are the pros and cons of a paper floor?
Now that I’ve done a total of 5 rooms in my downstairs, I have discovered that each has experienced a wee bit different wear resistance. I ended up using two different poly coatings, and found that a slightly different technique for each also had an effect. The one room that I did redo was the living room, as the technique I used for it was rushed, in colder weather, and with a less durable poly than the rest of the other rooms. After that, they all held up really well for the 3 years that I had them. My intention was never to use them as a permanent floor covering solution, but merely as a temporary situation until I could afford to wood laminate floors to replace them. I just installed 2100sqft of laminate this spring for my upstairs and downstairs too, right over the paper floors, and the only room that I left the paper floors in was the powder room, which is the first room that I ever did with the paper floor technique. It is still in PERFECT condition. Not a crack, wrinkle, hole. Nothing. The only thing I had to be careful with in the other rooms was dragging furniture or anything sharp and heavy. Pets, little kids, and Pacific Northwest weather didn’t phase the floors for the 3+ years I had them. Just an occasional touchup with a Sharpie, and it was all good. We had a problem of the cheaper poly not adhering well in one corner of the front living room, but I just repapered over that part, restained and used the better poly, and it was all good after that. I would recommend this flooring for a temporary fix for anyone! Keyword: TEMPORARY! 🙂
I am wondering if you could give an update if you did the entire house or not. Are you still happy with results 3 years later?
Now that I’ve done a total of 5 rooms in my downstairs, I have discovered that each has experienced a wee bit different wear resistance. I ended up using two different poly coatings, and found that a slightly different technique for each also had an effect. The one room that I did redo was the living room, as the technique I used for it was rushed, in colder weather, and with a less durable poly than the rest of the other rooms. After that, they all held up really well for the 3 years that I had them. My intention was never to use them as a permanent floor covering solution, but merely as a temporary situation until I could afford to wood laminate floors to replace them. I just installed 2100sqft of laminate this spring for my upstairs and downstairs too, right over the paper floors, and the only room that I left the paper floors in was the powder room, which is the first room that I ever did with the paper floor technique. It is still in PERFECT condition. Not a crack, wrinkle, hole. Nothing. The only thing I had to be careful with in the other rooms was dragging furniture or anything sharp and heavy. Pets, little kids, and Pacific Northwest weather didn’t phase the floors for the 3+ years I had them. Just an occasional touchup with a Sharpie, and it was all good. We had a problem of the cheaper poly not adhering well in one corner of the front living room, but I just repapered over that part, restained and used the better poly, and it was all good after that. I would recommend this flooring for a temporary fix for anyone!
You sure are a brave one! I also think it’s smart that you have held off on committing to this flooring for the whole house until you live with it in one room for a good while. That’s a lot of work to have to un-do if you run into trouble after a while. It’s also good that you mention the stain bleeding into the adjacent carpeting, for anyone wanting to try this project who does not want to tear out the carpet in the next room.
I must say I really had my doubts as I read through your chronology, but in the end it came out just gorgeous.
And kudos to your husband for going along with this crazy idea! Mine would never ever ever. (Even though historically throughout our marriage I have never been wrong once in over 16 years. Hehe.)
Wonder how this would work on concrete slab floors? i really want to rip up all of the carpet….like yesterday. Can’t stand it much longer, lol.
I’ve heard others have great success with doing this on concrete slab floors.
How has this floor held up over the long haul. It’s been a few since the post
Now that I’ve done a total of 5 rooms in my downstairs, I have discovered that each has experienced a wee bit different wear resistance. I ended up using two different poly coatings, and found that a slightly different technique for each also had an effect. The one room that I did redo was the living room, as the technique I used for it was rushed, in colder weather, and with a less durable poly than the rest of the other rooms. After that, they all held up really well for the 3 years that I had them. My intention was never to use them as a permanent floor covering solution, but merely as a temporary situation until I could afford to wood laminate floors to replace them. I just installed 2100sqft of laminate this spring, right over the paper floors, and the only room that I left the paper floors in was the powder room, which is the first room that I ever did with the paper floor technique. It is still in PERFECT condition. Not a crack, wrinkle, hole. Nothing. The only thing I had to be careful with in the other rooms was dragging furniture or anything sharp and heavy. Pets, little kids, and Pacific Northwest weather didn’t phase the floors for the 3+ years I had them. Just an occasional touchup with a Sharpie, and it was all good. We had a problem of the cheaper poly not adhering well in one corner of the front living room, but I just repapered over that part, restained and used the better poly, and it was all good after that.