Wallpaper as flooring

Q: I'm interested in trying a crazy flooring idea and I'd like your opinion. My plan is to lift the carpet in my dining room, create a smooth surface on the subfloor, then put down some wallpaper under several coats of urethane. This would give me lots of choice in colour and pattern, and look better than if I tried the same thing with paint. What's the best way to prepare the subfloor? Could a textured wallpaper work? Am I thinking too far outside the box?

A: I think your plan is worth a try, so long as you don't mind if it doesn't work out as planned. Give yourself permission to fail, then go ahead. If I were tackling this job, I'd start by fastening a layer of 1/4-inch thick underlay plywood on the existing subfloor with screws, after removing the old carpet. You'll need to fill the cracks and screw heads with something to create a completely smooth surface for papering. Autobody compound will do a good job for you. Choose the kind without fiberglass reinforcing strands in the mix. As for wallpaper, just make sure you don't choose anything with a vinyl coating. This would prevent solid adhesion of the urethane you plan to add on top. The textured paper you mentioned would probably be fine, except that it could be damaged quickly by the dragging of wooden chair legs. Depending on how adventurous you are, you could either go ahead with the actual project, or make a large test sample on some plywood panels first. Not only would this allow you to experiment with your finishing approach, but you could also put the sample down on the floor for a while, in a high-traffic area, to see how it wears. That's the real question here. Will the wallpaper stand up under foot? My guess is that some types might do pretty well, though success depends on how carefully you treat the floor. Keep me posted on how things go. Your technique could make a great article topic.