Abe Lincoln flooring. Advise needed.

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT]

My wife and I have decided to pull the carpet and tile everywhere except the bedrooms in our house. We decided when we bought the house it wasn't going to stay. We kicked around the idea on concrete staining for a long time. Long story short, our son has childhood asthma. That's our tipping scale for giving us a boost to kick the carpet. However, I was doing an internet search for unique floors. Came across a penny floor. Wheels started turning. Grabbed a handfull of pennies and sifted through them. Thought about how much work it was going to take. Measured all the areas that would be affected. Figured up how many pennies I needed. Decided I wanted to use 95% copper pennies exclusively due to the color tone as they age. Much better than the newer ones that are 95% zinc and only 2.5% copper.

I'm currently gathering and sorting pennies. It's going to take a while to get them all... My last piece of the puzzle is that I want to do a oil based clear epoxy over the top to protect the color of the pennies when I am done. I've seen people use sealer in multiple coats. That may be the route I take if I can't find a concrete staining company that is willing to come out and put a nice thick layer or three of the good clear epoxy stuff.


So my question is, does anyone know of a good flooring specialist that can lead me in the right direction for the best clear polyurethane epoxy that I should use for large amounts of epoxy grout and copper?

Just for reference, here is a picture of what we are going for.

http://mandolinmosaics.com/resources/penny9.jpg

 

[Glockster69]

WOW, that's ambitious! LoL

My main thought while reading was to do test patch(es), one not even in the house. Maybe the garage or on a concrete block. Good luck.

 

[Mic]

That's a cool idea. How hard is it to find the pennies old enough?

 

[itchin]

I'd get em from the bank. Keep cycling til you pick out enough. Looks awesome. I've never heard of that before.

 

[deemus]

Pretty cool idea! Looks great too.

 

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT]

That's a cool idea. How hard is it to find the pennies old enough?

I'm yielding about 20% in my sorting so far.

I'd get em from the bank. Keep cycling til you pick out enough. Looks awesome. I've never heard of that before.

That's exactly what I'm doing $25 at a time. I take them the loose pennies and they bag em, send them to be counted, and deposit the amount in my account. Then I get more. Also put an ad on Craigslist for anyone wanting to save pre 1983 pennies from their change to text when they get a decent amount. I'll give them face value for what the have.

WOW, that's ambitious! LoL

That is an understatement at the moment. I need over $2000 in pennies. Lol that is part.of the reason for the all copper pennies. I figure if I achieve getting all the pennies it will motivate me to complete the job.


We are also going to use 1943 steel pennies to make a Texas Star in either the entry way or the kitchen. Haven't decided which yet.

Other reasons we like it so much. After installation, the floor will be older than my wife. Plus, they are pennies... They're rugged. A table or couch won't do too much harm. it will also truly add value to the house, and gain value as time goes on.

We figure using a nice Texas Star area rug in the living room maybe. Less to attract dust and can be vaccumed daily very easily. Going for that rustic Texas look.

 

[tdwhite03]

One thing to consider is if you ever plan on selling your house! That will greatly increase the difficulty in selling as it will only appeal to certain buyers.

I think it's a pretty cool idea but as a contractor I wouldn't touch it! Lol.

 

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT]

For sure we thought about that! We are planning on paying this thing off. So at least 20 years. No plans on moving. It's only 1480 sq.ft, but its very efficient with its use of space. Just the living room has as much usable floor space as a living room that has an extra 3'x15' on it. Working through other modifications that will make it hard to want to move as well in the years to come.

 

[Dawico]

One of the restaurants I build used to epoxy their kitchen floors with clear epoxy and sand. It was like walking on 40 grit sandpaper.

I have no idea where the epoxy came from but it should be readily available somewhere. That was years ago and I don't even know where to begin to ask.

That is a very ambitious undertaking and I wish you luck.

 

[BG1960]

that is so cool, thanks for the post!

 

[Stukaman]

Thats awesome man!

 

[Glockster69]

One of the restaurants I build used to epoxy their kitchen floors with clear epoxy and sand. It was like walking on 40 grit sandpaper.

I have no idea where the epoxy came from but it should be readily available somewhere. That was years ago and I don't even know where to begin to ask.

That is a very ambitious undertaking and I wish you luck.

Good point and validates my test area suggestion. I'm not a flooring guy but my guess would be w/o sand or some other type grit which would obscure the view of the pennies, the epoxy would be incredibly slippery when wet, maybe even so when dry. I dunno ....

 

[benenglish]

I'm yielding about 20% in my sorting so far.

I hope you're accounting for the fact that the yield will decline over time due to penny hoarding.

Just FYI for those that don't know - the copper in pennies that age is worth nearly 2 cents. (Edited to add: at current spot prices, those pennies each contain about 2.42 cents in copper value.) That shouldn't be a problem since it's illegal to melt pennies and sell them for their scrap value (or to deal in pennies as scrap, rather than as legal tender). However, a *bunch* of people are betting that someday soon, the U.S. Govt will stop making pennies. There are enough in circulation, they're ridiculously durable, they're expensive to make, and most people just wouldn't care if we started pricing goods and dispensing change in amounts rounded to the nearest nickel. After all, who still misses the half-penny?

*IF* the govt stops making pennies, though, it will become legal to melt those old copper pennies and sell them as scrap, instantly doubling (or more, by whenever this happpens) your investment. There are people out there with literally tons of pennies in crates in their basements waiting for that day to come. There are even people who make machines to do the sorting automatically: Ryedale Coin | Copper Penny Sorter

So if you're sorting through $25 worth at a time with a yield of 20% and you need over $2K to do the job and actually make the bank trip to do this twice a week, it'll take over 7 years to get the amount you need. You may have other sources, but do they make up for the declining yield that you'll see over the next few years? Also, consider that if pennies go out of production, your yield will drop to zero overnight since every person in the country will be picking out their old pennies and selling them for scrap.

All I'm saying is that you might want to pick up the pace a bit.

 

[Acera]

Penny Hording not uncommon. Even the MSM is reporting on it.
If Laws Change, 'Penny Hoarders' Could Cash in on Thousands of Dollars - ABC News

 

[Glockster69]

... it'll take over 7 years to get the amount you need.

All I'm saying is that you might want to pick up the pace a bit.

 

[matefrio]

304 pennies a square foot. 15 ~ 20 min per square foot.

 

[benenglish]

Wow. I wouldn't have imagined that so many people do this!

 

[benenglish]

Thanks for the video link that took me to several others. However, something's been nagging at me. Specifically, reconciling this:

304 pennies a square foot.

with the statement by FrEaK_aCcIdEnT that he needs $2K in pennies and lives in a 1480 sq ft space. Rounding, if $3 in pennies covers a square foot, then that's 666 square feet, or 45% of the floor space of the entire house.

FrEaK_aCcIdEnT - I admire your dedication to the project but I question the aesthetics of using such an attention-grabbing surface on half of all the floors. This is, of course, entirely your call but if 4 courses of a 9-course meal are ice cream, how much of a special treat is the ice cream dessert?

On second thought, I've seen plenty of households that were 100% hardwood floors in every room and thought they looked great so I'm sure you know what you're doing. It just struck me as kinda odd for a while. Then again, I've got no room to talk; in the home that exists only in my dreams, all the floors are terrazzo in some pretty wild colors and designs.

Good luck and I'm sure it'll turn out great.

 

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT]

Couldn't delete, so removed content to prevent accidental double post.

 

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT]

It's actually 678 sq.ft. which includes the entry way, dining room, kitchen, short hallway, living room, 2 bathrooms, and 3 small closets.
Also, I was wrong about the sq.ft. of our house. It's 1448 sq.ft. Everything but the 3 bedrooms and the closets associated with them. The actual penny count I came up with was 206,112. At 20% yield, we have to sift through roughly 1,000,000 pennies... I am seriously thinking about purchasing one of those Ryedale sorters. At $500 it is expensive, but if I can sell it for $400 used then it would be worth the $100 cost to sort through a box of pennies in less than 10 minutes! Especially when we need to sort through box after box after box...

Edit: oh and the 3 bedrooms do not make up all the leftover space. The cabinets, tubs, shower, etc. also take up sq.ft. and are sitting on the concrete foundation. The percentage is closer to 56%+ of the floor. This helps drive the idea to have them a deep rich brown. Something we have seen in tile in a home down the street that looks really good. It's easy on the eyes. The high percentage is because we want to do what we can to help our son with his asthma. We want to keep the feel of carpet in the rooms, so we will change the color to a color that compliments the dark hue of the pennies.