Cheap/low/no cost floor covering ideas?

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

I like the book/magazine/newspaper  idea as a wallpaper, I may need to "borrow" that for elsewhere.

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

I like it! That would have been the ticket a year or so ago, but the way ply prices are at the moment, I reckon I could almost lay cheap floorboards for the same price.

In reply to Appleseed :

Not great, being away from the cities has its drawbacks. But I do and will continue to keep my eyes peeled for bargains

Ok, I went bargain hunting today after a bit of research and think I've done pretty ok. 

For the kitchen, I got an end of roll sheet vinyl that looks like wood plank.

For the dining area, which actually currently serves as a loungeroom I got en end of roll cheap as chips nylon renter spec carpet. Visually it looks pretty decent, is ok to walk on, but I wouldn't wanna roll around on it. Carpet guy joked that this stuff teaches kids to walk fast.

Those two set us back $195, that worked out to be about $7.80m² or about ¢77sqf. Both can then be rolled up once we demolish the current extension and receive use in the shed.

For the bathroom, we found a stencil set for about $20 on bezozon. We got a 4lt can of discontinued line of paving and masonry paint for just shy of $12 and they happily dumped a bunch of tinter in it to darken it up for us free of charge. I have half a tin of wall paint on antique white I scored off a job the other week that we'll probably use to roll in the stenciling. If that's no go, then we'll grab a couple of cheap rattle packs and spray in the pattern. There's more than enough paint to do the laundry and back foyer too if we want.

So that's all the flooring sorted for under $250. Aussie dollars too, so more like $180 freedom bucks.

Hooked in and got some floors down in the kitchen and lounge. Massive improvement over what we started with.

Probably a little counter productive to do floors first, but as can be seen above, the concrete was beyond gross. We can always dropsheet the floors while we paint etc.

In reply to daeman :

Looks great!

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm surprised floating flooring wasn't mentioned in this thread. 
 

A "click floor" is a tongue and groove floor that interlocks, but it is not attached to the floor. It floats. 
 

So, you could install it normally, but remove it and reuse it later. 
 

You'd have some waste. Perhaps 10%. 
 

The only caveat is that flooring styles change frequently. Buying more later when it's time to reuse might not be possible. Make sure to buy enough now and store it so that you can finish the future job later. 

ShawnG said:

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

I think I just found what to do with my old copies of GRM...

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

Just a can of wallpaper paste from home desperate and a brush.

The drywall underneath was in bad shape because this was a kids room. This hides all kinds of sins and beats sanding filler.

ShawnG said:

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, gonna have to steal that idea for a wall in the workshop!