90# roofing felt???!?!

I had thought about cement, too, but wondered at the weight of it. Would 1/2" be enough thickness to keep from cracking??

Before reading the article, I assumed (and we know what 'assume'ing will do for you) that the roll roofing flooring was going on top of bare dirt... to be a very cheap flooring. From the article, it's plain that they're putting the roll roofing on top of an "existing" floor.

So, if you're building a home, more'n likely you're going to have either 3/4" sturdifloor (tongue and groove plywood), or 3/4" tongue and groove planks. Either of these subfloors (I'd go with sturdi-floor) will make a great base. You "can" live with just these floors. With the sturdi-floor, you can just sand down the rough spots, patch the few knotholes, and paint over it. Or, not! My upstairs stayed unfinished plywood for about 8 years.

I read an article a decade ago, about folks putting paper bags, torn in random patterns, glued down on their floor, then stained to look like stone, and then sealed. Cheaper than asphalt roofing.

With a good sub floor, you can put real permanent flooring down. Stone, tile, ceramic, mexican saltillo tile. Saltillo last I checked was less than 80c/foot. These are natural products (except for the ceramics, but I've never heard of offgassing) that will last a lifetime.

If you have a new home construction, and you're doing it yourself, you can have an edge perimeter frame, and have 'unfinished' rooms, with nothing but sand on the floor. When money becomes available, you can lay a thin cement base and then stone tiles, or even Stone! If you have quarries or rock nearby, it's a viable option. There's a book called Green Building (I believe) that has a lot of alternative ultracheap options. You could lay flagstones on a compacted sand floor, and then mortar in the cracks.

....yada yada yada...

in short, the ultimate cheapest lifetime floor is one you can build yourself, from scrounged materials...

I've got 'scrounge' in barns, pastures, everywhere... including some roll roofing... but I'm going to use the roofing for roofing. On road trips, I have to take 'nature breaks'... especially when I spy potentially useful flagstone .

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Good ideas. I already have subflooring down....it's tongue-and-groove OSB meant for subfloors. It just doesn't look very nice, and especially now since it got wet so many times, the joints are feathery and buckling. Maybe I can just nail it down better, sand it down, and throw paint on it for awhile.

I'll have to google "saltillo". Never heard of it. Thought about some sort of ceramic, stone, slate, or something for the kitchen, sunroom, foyer, and baths.....but I have that in my current house and don't like it real well. Easy to clean, but cold in the winter and hot in the summer....and hard on the feet! You're right...ceramic is cheap and permanent.

CC

OMGoodness ... I did this on the bathroom walls (to cover over yucky wallpaper) and it looks fantabulous ... looks like suede leather.

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i dont like to think tooo much before i speak ... heehee ... i like to be just as surprised as you are.