Our DIY Pallet-Wood Floor Cost Only $100

#1 The Final Results

We had this weird windowless room with no purpose so we thought to make it a pantry. It needed quite a bit of work to come around to the functional side. Some shelving went in but the floor was a train wreck awful cheap disgusting carpet.

#2 The awful cheap carpet

After that got ripped out, I had to figure out what to put in its place that was sturdy, looked good, and was inexpensive. After visiting a pallet rehabber, the idea was hatched.

We couldn't even vacuum it. It would shred and get tangled in the vacuum. Awful. Terrible. Had to go.

#3 Block collecting

I started collecting little blocks of wood already pre-cut from a pallet rehabber over the course of several months. They were for free. And as we know, free is good.

#4 A Step

We have one little step down into this room which I covered using smaller, thinner pieces of wood I collected. As you can see, the nails were still in the wood (albeit trimmed by the pallet guys), the wood varied in type, age and size.

#5 Installation

I got some foam floor insulating roll stuff, rolled that out and put all the blocks back over it. With a nail gun, I tacked down each block with one or two brad nails.

#6 “Grouting”

I mixed up a concoction of fine sawdust, gloss oil based polyurethane, and mineral spirits to thin for the "grout." I can't say this was an easy process. It wasn't.

#7 Hand Scraping

The next day the floor was a wreck and I thought I had ruined it. I hadn't done the best job with the grout and ended up having to hand scrape the whole floor. Ugh.

#8 Sealing

The last step was two coats of the same gloss oil based polyurethane. It's all I had time for but it's holding up well.

#9 Last step: enjoy

We love it. It's unique, custom, and all for less than $100, with all the wood being free.

#10 We Made It Ourselves

Yeah it's a tad uneven, but sock footed or barefooted is no problem. We wanted the wood to stay in "as-found" condition. There are no splintering pieces as I was very selective, and since this particular room doesn't vary in temperature or humidity throughout the year, the floor has held up exceptionally well.