Okay, so I’ve been wanting to redo my flooring for a while, and I finally dove in. I decided to go with this batten dancing plywood assembly thing. It sounded cool, looked kinda modern, and, honestly, I was just itching for a project.

First thing I did was clear out the entire room. Man, that was a workout in itself! Moved all the furniture, rolled up the old rug… the whole nine yards. Then came the fun part – ripping up the old flooring. It was some ancient, glued-down linoleum, so it took some serious elbow grease and a few choice words, I won’t lie.

Once I had a nice, clean subfloor, I laid down the battens. These are just basically strips of wood that create a framework. I used some construction adhesive and screws to make sure they were good and stuck. The key here is to get them level. I spent a good chunk of time with my level, shimming things here and there until everything was perfect. Gotta have a solid base, right?

• Batten Spacing: I went with a pretty standard spacing, something like 16 inches apart. I checked some online guides, but honestly, it seemed like there was some wiggle room there.
• Plywood Time: Next up, the plywood! I got these big sheets of plywood. It says Dancing on it, it seems very light and strong. I chose the thicker, I guess.
• Cutting and Fitting: I had to cut the plywood sheets to fit the room. A circular saw made pretty quick work of that. The tricky part was working around doorways and corners. I messed up a couple of cuts, but hey, that’s part of the process, right? Measure twice, cut once, is what I want to say.

Then, it was just a matter of laying the plywood down on the battens. I used screws for this, too. You could probably use nails, but I like the extra security of screws. I made sure to stagger the seams of the plywood, like you do with bricks, for extra stability. The key here is that it is flat. If you do well at the previous step.

Finishing Touches

After all the plywood was down, I filled in the screw holes with wood filler. Once that dried, I gave the whole floor a good sanding. Started with a rough grit, then worked my way down to a finer grit for a nice, smooth finish. I use a very large piece of sandpaper for final sanding, to make sure that it is very flat and smooth.

Finally, I applied a few coats of polyurethane. This protects the wood and gives it a nice, finished look. I let each coat dry completely before adding the next. It took a few days, but it was totally worth it.

And that’s it! My new batten dancing plywood floor. It was a lot of work, but I’m super happy with how it turned out. It feels solid underfoot, and it looks way better than that old linoleum. Plus, I did it myself! There’s something really satisfying about that.