# Paper bag flooring



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

When you are putting down paper bag flooring how do you keep your hands from getting too sticky?


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Disposable latex gloves. When they get sticky, peel off and don another pair.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I think I would go through a lot of pairs of gloves. The room is 13' x 15'.

I'll be using water based polyurathane so I'm hoping having a bucket of water to dip my glove into will work.


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

I've never heard of paper bag flooring before. I'm actually thinking this technique might look good on my dining room walls. There is a lot of nice woodwork in the place, but the current wallpaper on that section is floral, and my artistic husband hates it.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I had a cold floor in one room so I laid down 1" foam and then 1/2" particle board that was stained walnut. Then I put down 4 coats of water based polyurethane. It came out pretty good but it's slippery for the dog.


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## cindilu (Jan 27, 2008)

They actually turn out beautiful. I have seen it done before in real life and my friend was happy with the results. I have thought about doing this project myself. Here is a link to what it is and how they did it. 
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T921UmkXeMg[/ame]


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

How did they keep their gloves from getting so sticky it became hard to get the paper off the glove?

I saw some brown craft mailing paper in the dollar store yesterday that should work. It should cost about $6 for the paper to cover the entire room.


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## Little Mt Farm (Jan 21, 2013)

We used brushes instead of dipping it. We also used pieces that were bigger, which made it a lot faster to put down. We found our paper off Amazon in 2 ft wide rolls. Tore the pieces roughly 12" x 14-18". Crumpled the paper. Uncrumpled the paper. Brushed the glue/water mixture on the floor (about a 2'x3' square). Brushed the glue/water mixture on one side of a piece of paper. Then layed it glue side down on the glued floor. Then smoothed it out while applying glue/water to the top It doesn't make it totally unsticky, but it was much better than dropping the crumpled balls in, then unrolling the glue soaked paper. When we used really small pieces, like someone else recommended on their blog, it seemed to take forever and there was so much overlap.
Also, make sure you use looots of poly (4-6 coats), and that your floors are even. We put a coat of stain on top the dried paper, before the first coat of poly, and it made it look great!


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

What do you mean by "floors are even"?

There isn't anything level, square or plumb in my entire house.


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

fishhead said:


> What do you mean by "floors are even"?
> 
> There isn't anything level, square or plumb in my entire house.


Floor leveler is wonderful stuff for resurfacing old floors. When doing linoleum you can't have any bumps or it will tear later, paper floors can bend with the surface more, but large cracks or level changes that are not smoothed out may cause weaknesses. Get the powdered leveler, mix it a little thick if you just want to smooth over bumps, thinner if you want to pour it out and get a very level surface.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...oor+leveler&storeId=10051#product_description


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

My floor is masonite nailed to tongue and grooved boxcar siding. The only cracks are where the masonite sheets meet. I'm going to vacuum them out and then nail them every 3" or so.

The floor is pretty solid so I'm not worried about it bouncing and cracking.


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## am1too (Dec 30, 2009)

fishhead said:


> How did they keep their gloves from getting so sticky it became hard to get the paper off the glove?
> 
> I saw some brown craft mailing paper in the dollar store yesterday that should work. It should cost about $6 for the paper to cover the entire room.


I would use paper grocery bags. And they are free. I am thing about doing a floor with feed bags. BTW they usually have brown paper liners.


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## Little Mt Farm (Jan 21, 2013)

fishhead said:


> What do you mean by "floors are even"?
> 
> There isn't anything level, square or plumb in my entire house.


I hear you! We're in an older mobile home. I just mean that any cracks, like you're talking about, need to be fixed. Put some putty or caulk into them, make sure they're smooth, then wait for it to dry before doing your floor. We had a couple places to fix where we patched the floor to cover up old vents and it wasn't quite level/even. A chair got dragged across the area and tore the paper.


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## CFarmerLady (Dec 1, 2011)

I saw plans once to do a desk with this technique using brown package paper. They put on two layers of the paper flat, then crumpled up the last layer and flattened it back out. Ended up lookng like a leather covered desk. Very cool. And they used a brush to apply the wallpaper stuff.


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## ItchingDuck (Jan 25, 2012)

This is fantastic. I am definitely doinng this in my kitchen and a couple bathrooms that have unsightly concrete floors. Our home used to be a bar so you can imagine the layout :yuck: However unconventional it is, this would go a long way to spruce it up and make it feel like home. I can even afford it! lol


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