Sunday, October 13, 2013

Penny Floor!!


How to create a penny floor:

1. Gather pennies... I mean really get A LOT of pennies. We hit up friends and family for pennies, they were happy to get rid of them and we were happy to take them. We got about 2000 pennies this way. Then go the bank and ask for more, they will either be excited about your project or look at you like you are crazy. FYI you cannot get rolls or new pennies from the bank. I went to several branches and they said they come in mixed. According to the teller you can order them online. That seems like too much work and the mix of new and old pennies turned out great! We used about 6300 pennies. I figured it to be $2.88/sq ft, just in pennies.

You can clean the pennies in a mixture of 1/4 cup vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt to make them SHINE! It works like magic : ) I did this to a few hundred pennies.

Loctite Polyseamseal 10 fl.-oz. Almond All Purpose Adhesive Caulk




2. Caulk - my husband sealed below the baseboards and around the sink and toilet with this Loctite All Purpose Caulk. This is to keep the epoxy from sticking to everything. We needed four tubes but we had a huge gap between the baseboard and the floor.
3. Glue! I used this Loctite  Spray Adhesive and it worked wonderfully! Just spray a small section and put the pennies down. I put them as close together as I could and I started from the doorway, which gave me a nice straight line to work off. Mine are placed randomly, I just tried not to have too many shiny ones or too many dull ones together.


4. Keep Gluing! Here is my progress about every hour or so, I'd work about 45 min then take a break. I also wiped them with a damp towel after the adhesive dried to clean any that came up between the pennies.
 




5. Epoxy - We bought this Epoxy "Super Glaze" at Home Depot. We used two of them, probably could have used 3 but it was kind of expensive. Make sure the floor is clean clean clean. We have two big dogs, keeping dog hair out of it was a challenge. Just followed the instructions on the box. Definitely a two person job, you have to mix it for six minutes. Then just poured it on the floor starting behind the toilet and sink and working towards the door. I used a plastic putty scrapper to smooth it out and make sure it got all the way to the edges.
6. Done! - Here is the finished product:
 
  
 
 
There are a couple of unique pennies in the mix. Kinda fun to challenge people to find them. There are 2 Canadian pennies and 3 of these old really old pennies that just say "ONE CENT" on the back.
 
Before and After. I love the teal!

2 comments:

  1. This an amazing look and novel idea. Easy to follow instructions. I love the teal with the copper too! Laura

    ReplyDelete