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Home / Latest Posts / Life / Party Ideas / How to Build a Dance Floor

How to Build a Dance Floor

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By: Leigh Anne WilkesPosted: 9/20/12Updated: 3/07/22

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see disclosure policy here.

dance floor

This tutorial will show you how to build a dance floor using 2 x 2’s and sheets of plywood. So easy and less expensive than renting one.

dance floor

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 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).

Dance Floor

Dance Floor Supplies

  • 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
  • 6 Mending plates to join the pieces together

How Big is the Dance Floor?

The dance floor measured 12 x 16 and was created out of 6 sections that were 4 x 8 which is the size of a sheet of plywood.

Dance Floor

How to Build A Dance Floor

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.

  • Create 6 frames from the 2 x 3’s that measure 4′ x 8′.
Dance Floor
  • Add four support pieces to each frame
Dance Floor
  • Nail a sheet of plywood to the top of each frame. Nail 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!

How to Paint a Dance Floor

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.

Dance Floor


Yes, I sat in a chair and watched it dry! I like watching paint dry.

Dance Floor



After it was 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.

Dance Floor


Using small foam rollers the girls rolled the black paint into the taped off squares.

Dance Floor



We waited for the paint to dry, removed the tape and we had a dance floor!

Dance Floor

Finally, we numbered the pieces so that we knew how to put it back together once we moved it into the backyard. 

The mending pieces were hammered into to hold the pieces together.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Dance Floor

Total Cost of Dance Floor (including paint but not including labor)  Approx. $300.00.

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.

Wedding Carnival
Wedding Carnival
Dance Floor



Who wouldn’t want to dance on a black and white checkerboard dance floor!!!

Building your own dance floor is easy and so much less expensive than renting one. Use this step by step tutorial!
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  1. Sean Nelson says

    Posted on 8/1 at 1:31 pm

    Hi Leigh Anne,
    My partner and i love the dance floor. we’re going to build one for our wedding August 11. My only question is how did you install the mending plates? I did not see any pictures showing this step. Can you let me know how you’ve done this?

    Thank you Sean 🙂

    Reply
    • Leigh Anne says

      Posted on 8/1 at 1:44 pm

      Sean, You just hammer them into the wood. they have little metal teeth on them.

      Reply
      • Evonne says

        Posted on 8/15 at 6:20 am

        Hello Leigh Anne, thank you so much for sharing. My friend and I just built this floor last weekend, we will be using it this weekend in Clinton, MD. We are at the mending plates stage and setting it in place. You said you only put the plates around the outside and the middle stayed in place? We also used wood screws instead of nails, too old for all thst hammering, lol. Just the 2 of us finshed the floor. My email is evonnenutall@gmail.com

        Reply
        • Leigh Anne says

          Posted on 8/15 at 7:16 am

          Yes, you only need the mending plates around the outside and it stays in place just great. Happy dancing!

          Reply
  2. Stephanie Zee Fehler says

    Posted on 1/17 at 2:21 pm

    I am thinking of doingthis – but the last bit escaped me : “the mending pieces were hammered in to hold it together?” Did you just hammer them together at an angle from the outside edge? toenail them? Inquiring minds etc 🙂

    Reply
  3. Janet says

    Posted on 9/18 at 6:47 pm

    How did you secure the sections together?

    Reply
    • Leigh Anne says

      Posted on 9/18 at 7:57 pm

      If I remember right we got them from Oriental Trading.

      Reply
  4. Tony, Ct. says

    Posted on 9/12 at 2:13 pm

    Absolutely so simply great! I’m a contractor and was going to rent one for our barn wedding. Now I’ll build it so we can keep it for all our barn parties. Thanks

    Reply
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