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After reading the title of today’s post you may have thought – I will never need to build a dance floor. I thought the same thing. But you might and when and if you do this post on How to Build a Dance Floor will come in handy. Be sure and Pin it so you know where to find it when you need it.
Portland, Oregon area readers: This dance floor is available to rent. For more information on availability and pricing email me at yourhomebasedmom@gmail.com
I shared with you in a previous Wedding Carnival post the story of our dance floor. When we decided to book a live band for the Wedding Carnival I thought we needed a dance floor. My husband did not. We have a large backyard and plenty of grass and he thought dancing on the grass would be just fine. I did not.
I am not easily dissuaded or discouraged.
I got on line and immediately started pricing dance floors from rental companies. They are not cheap, between $700-800 for the size we needed. It wasn’t in the budget so I decided I needed to get creative.
To make a somewhat long, 5 month long story, short, I had a dance floor and then I didn’t have a dance floor, I had a dance floor and then I didn’t. In fact I thought I had a dance floor until the Sunday before the Wedding Carnival. It fell through – five days before the event.
Remember I am not easily discouraged so I decided we were going to build a dance floor. Or rather my daughter Cali and her friend Hannah were going to build me a dance floor (with some help from dad of course.)
By this time I had totally broken Jim down and he agreed so we headed to Home Depot on Monday night (the Wedding Carnival was Friday).
How to Build a Dance Floor
We loaded up the cart with wood and nails.
Supplies Needed for a 12×16 Dance Floor
6 sheets of 1/2″ plywood
30 eight foot long 2 x 3′s – cut 18 of them into two 45″ pieces (you will have pieces leftover) This will leave 12 of the boards 8 ‘ long. They cut them for free for you at Home Depot.
Nails and hammer
Floor Paint and supplies for painting
Painters Tape
The dance floor measured 12 x 16 and was created out of 6 sections that were 4 x 8. The size of a sheet of plywood.
The whole neighborhood got involved or enjoyed watching the process taking place out in front of our house.
The above photo is about how involved Tessa got – she held a hammer for a photo but she was working full time so we need to cut her some slack.
From the 2 x 3′s they created 6 frames that measured 4 x 8.
They then added four support pieces to each frame.
The next step was nailing a sheet of plywood to the top of each frame and nailing it down along the edges and across the support pieces.
The moms got involved in this step of the process. Had to bring in the big muscles!
The next step was the painting process. I decided that I wanted the floor to be checker board to go along with the carnival theme so I purchased black and white floor paint. We primed the boards first and then added a coat of white paint to each section.
After it was dry, yes I sat in a chair and watched it dry! I like watching paint dry.
The girls used blue painters tape to tape off the squares. The squares measured 24″ x 24″ so each 4 x 8 section had 2 x 4 squares.
Using small foam rollers the girls rolled the black paint into the taped off squares.
We waited for the paint to dry, removed the tape and we had a dance floor!!
We then numbered the pieces so that we knew how to put it back together once we moved it into the backyard. Can I tell you something? It was perfect and it was a wonderful addition to our carnival and YES, we needed a dance floor. Even my husband admits that now. It added such a fun element to the carnival and really got people dancing.
Total Cost of Dance Floor (including paint but not including labor) Approx. $300.00.
If you are in the Portland area and need to rent a dance floor – let me know!! Ours is available.
Who wouldn’t want to dance on a black and white checkerboard dance floor!!!
For more Wedding Carnival posts check out these:
Carnival Pictorial can be found here
The Wedding Carnival}The Food Part One
The Wedding Carnival}The Food Part Two
The Wedding Carnival}Decorations
The Wedding Carnival}Carnival Games
The Wedding Carnival}Music, Dancing and a Flash Mob
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Awesome. Don’t anticipate needing a dance floor any time soon…. but it’s good to know! Are you going to have Jim post about how to make the carnival booths? I think he should. They looked great- and I could see that coming in very handy for me.
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Just like the carnival booths, I will be renting my dance floor from you should the need ever arise LOL! Amazing and FUN! Thankfully you live close enough to allow me to do this.
Kymberlee recently posted..Words have meaning and names have power. ~Author Unknown
Thank you so much for sharing this and all of the wedding carnival projects/awesome creations with us, I have really enjoyed them! You are so creative, kind, a wonderful cook, mother and wife. Please keep sharing and blogging. I receive your blog thru my email and I really enjoy it.
I have questions!
Did you attach the sections to each other in any way? How did you manage to keep it all level once it was down? Did they ever tend to separate as people danced? Just wondering! I should also say, the wedding seems like it was just lovely and a lot of great fun!! Congratulations to the happy couple and your family!
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Nancy, Those are all good questions because I had them too. The sections were attached with some metal plates that were about 2 x 3 inches that had little metal claws sticking out of the back that we placed over the seam of two of the sections and hammered in. We got them at Home Depot – can’t remember what they are called.
Our lawn is fairly level so the floor laid nice and flat and the sections didn’t separate at all or come apart as people danced on it. I was worried about it being level but I think it just settled into the grass so that it was nice and flat. We thought we might have to use some shims to get it level but we didn’t have to.
How far apart are the support beams?
Each measures 4 x 8 and there are 4 cross beams spaced evenly in the space. The dance floor is in storage and I can’t access it to measure exactly.
This looks great, I’ve been looking for a DIY dance floor for my daughter’s graduation party. Were the metal plates attached to the bottom of the dance floor? How many metal plates do I need to purchase?
The metal plates were put on the “seams” where the sections of the dance floor comes together on the sides. There were 6 pieces to the floor and 6 seams or places where they pieces came together so we had 6 metal plates. So the plates were visible on the sides – they were not underneath the floor. They were put on after the floor was put into place.
Thanks for sharing your awesome dance floor with us! I have the same questions about how you attached the metal plates to keep the pieces together. I think it would be super helpful if you posted a pictures of the bottom of the dance floor. That way we could all get an idea about how to do it ourselves and not bother you with all of the same questions over and over. Thanks again for sharing.
Laura, The metal plates are just hammered into the wood. The next time we have the dance floor out I will take a photo of the metal plates. They just have little metal claws in them that go right into the wood.
Love it!!! you never know!!
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I am considering building a dance floor as well for our wedding next year (sept. 2013), but many of our guests just so happen to be coming from the Portland area… and could potentially bring it along!
Are you interested in selling your dance floor, or renting it? I’m not sure the white and black would match our wedding, which is why I ask- as we would maybe need to change it.
Look forward to hearing from you!
We do rent the dance floor out. Where are you located? I would not want it painted though.
How does the dance floor stay together
I need to add this info into the post – we used metal plates that were about 2 x 3 inches that had little metal claws sticking out of the back that we placed over the seam of where the two sections came togethered and hammered in. We got them at Home Depot – can’t remember what they are called.
This would also be great to have friends over and play a live chess or checkers game. That would be loads of fun.
How much do u hire it out for? Do u hire it to geelong? Can u put it onto concrete??
Omg! This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much for sharing. Just one quick question. It was heavy enough that on grass it didn’t move around? I’m planning my wedding and the dance floor would be on grass.
We also had it on grass. we used some metal claw like plates (don’t know what they are called) that joined the pieces of the floor together. You just hammer them in and they have pokey metal things that go into the wood and hold the pieces of the floor together. They are about 3 x 4 inches in size and we got them at Home Depot – sorry I don’t know what they are called. The floor stayed right where it was suppose to be.
Hi,
Your dance floor looks gorgeous!! I was wondering if you are still hiring it out? We are looking for one to hire in April and yours looks perfect
Thanks for sharing your stories.
Clare
Clare, if you are in the Portland, Oregon are we do rent it out.
We are in the Portland area and would be interested in renting it in August. Please let us know if its available!
I am looking at building a dance floor for my wedding as well. I just wanted to make sure– the directions say to purchase sheets of 1/2″ plywood but in the pictures it looks like it is 3/4″ ply. Obviously I’d rather use the 1/2″ because that is significantly cheaper but I was concerned about it bowing under the weight of many people dancing. Was that an issue at all if you did indeed use the 1/2″??
We used 1/2 inch plywood and with the cross braces we didn’t have any problem with it bowing at all.
Hello,
I just love this dance floor. My fiance and soon to be father in-law plan to make this for our Aug 3 wedding this summer! What paint did you use to paint. I noticed it said floor paint… could you go more in depth as to what brand etc…
Thank you so much!
I bought the paint at Home Depot and it was just called floor paint. I no longer have the cans so don’t know the specific brand name – sorry.
Thank you sooooo much for posting this! I am going to do this for my wedding as I want to have a back yard bbq for the reception instead of renting a stuffy hall