Have you ever wondered about Exterior Vinyl Floor Decking for a screened in porch? My brother recently tackled this problem and came up with a great solution – and even took pictures along the way to share with you guys!! This is perfect if you have a screened in porch but bugs are still getting in through your regular decking.
Screened In Porch
When we had out house built we opted for the screened in porch.
Looking forward to a bug free outdoor environment sounded like a great idea but we quickly realized that while the outer wall was screened, it did nothing to keep wasps, spiders and all sorts of other bugs from invading us through the gaps in the floor.
Exterior Rated Vinyl Floor
- We looked into putting in a ceiling on the underside that had a built in gutter system, but it was extremely expensive.
- We considered stapling up screen from the underside but felt that it wouldn’t look good and would end up collecting crumbs, dust and whatnot between the floor boards.
- So after pricing some wood panels and peel and stick vinyl flooring, I decided to try something that I couldn’t find a single piece of information on – an exterior rated vinyl floor.
How to make a exterior vinyl floor decking for a screened in porch
Porch Floor Decking Underlayment
I started out by caulking the first few inches of every floor board gap. I knew I would have to install an underlayment to have a smooth surface, and also so I didn’t ruin my deck in the case that this would all need to be ripped out.
A quick measurement of the floor area, I drew up the plans. As you can see, our area was quite simple and my underlayment using 4×8 sheeting was easily adaptable. I offset the underlayment panels to help prevent buckling from constant expansion and contraction since this is outdoors.
A nice air staple gun and worm drive circular saw made the cutting and install of the underlayment quick and easy. On a side note, I was going to use a pressure treated underlayment but that style of panel is always warped. I needed something completely flat. So while i may regret it in the future, I went with 1/2′ pine paneling.
Also, if I were to do this again, I would leave a 1/4′ gap between all the panels (I already left one between the panels and the house). I did have one area where the expansion caused a section to lift up a little, but nothing that wasn’t able to be fixed in just a few minutes.
Peel and Stick Vinyl Flooring
Once all the paneling was stapled down, I caulked all the seams so completely seal off any gap or hole in the floor. After that the floor got a good sweeping and wiping down with a wet cloth to eliminate any dust since after all, I’d basically be putting stickers on top of it.
I picked out a peel and stick vinyl that matched our floors the best. When installing any flooring product you want to find the center of the install area and start from there. I adjusted this center point slightly to make sure that my vinyl planks evenly went over the gap in the wood paneling, also making sure the ‘wood’ ran the same direction as the house flooring.
From there I just started working the the edge and worked my way out both sides, making sure all the planks were offset as a wood floor would be. I saved the outer and inner walls last since they would require cutting pieces to fit.
Finishing Outdoor Flooring
Once it was all installed, I caulked the end where the floor met the walls/doors all the way around.
Installing Drainage
I then needed to put in a drain for any water to escape in the case that it were to rain with a south wind. From the underside of the deck I measured approx 1 foot back from the exterior wall and in a gap between the actual deck flooring, ran a drill bit up through the gap on both sides of the joist. Then from the top side, drew a line connecting all the dots and simply ran my worm saw down the line, with the depth set to where it wouldn’t cut the actual deck floor.
Exterior vinyl floor decking for a screened in porch
And there’s the finished project. I did this all in about 5 hours and surprised my wife with it when she returned home. This was done back in January and it is now mid July. It looks just as good as it did when first installed. At first I would have an occasional tile pop up on its edge, but after repeated walking around out there to get it all to stick down real good, they stopped doing this.
Other Popular DIY home projects by Matt
If you love home DIY projects, Matt has tackled and shared a few others that have been a HUGE hit in internet land, so be sure to check them out:
Wow, I can’t believe how much you did in here, and it all looks amazing! You rocked – I’m so impressed. I really love your floor transformation. Thanks for the sharing this.
Amazing!!! I like your post information. It’s really beautiful and helpful post. I like your floor changing system. thank you for share it.
One of the realtors suggested if only we could want a wide walk deck in our future house. Hmm, that’s why I’m looking for a specific topic where I see suggestions and tips if how I can choose a house with a walk deck.
Hi there! Thank you for providing such informative and useful content!
Does it still hold up after two years?
so far so good!
Hi Mandy,
I was really excited to find this post on Pinterest. I’ve been wanting to do the same thing on my screened in porch, but I could never find any information on it. So in the end, you just stapled down the pine paneling, no glue? Do you ever have any standing rain water on your floors? Do you think that would damage them? As things are now, I do get rain that blows in and keeps parts of the floor wet.
I’d loved your thoughts on this. Yours looks great and had stood the test of time!
I have been looking to do this very same thing and have not been able to find any information on how to do it. Thank you so much for posting this information. I was wondering if you ever have any standing rainwater on your floors? Sometimes during a hard rainstorm, we may get water that sits on part of the floor for a day or two. Do you think this would cause problems?