In this first picture you can see the initial cut-away of the water damaged area near the old patio door. The night before the door was replaced, I pulled the laminate back to the left further to expose and clear out the remaining area. |  | |
This shot of the kitchen area shows the new french doors that replaced the old slider. |  | |
Now the work begins. With the furniture removed, this is what the old rooms were like: |  | |
Of course, the furniture had to go somewhere. Think of it as an expensive game of Tetris! | ||
 |  | |
With the carpet removed and a large section of linoleum taken up. You can just make out the repaired section of the floor near the door where the wood is a different color. That repair goes under the door, by the way. |  | |
The start of the next day we indulged the kids and let them "ride" a bike inside. The plywood layer they are riding on brings the floors level so there's no funky transitions going on. This picture is more like the "end of day 1" progress picture. |  | |
End of Day 2: |  | |
End of Day 3: |  | |
End of Day 4: (Opposing views) | ||
 |  | |
End of Day 5: (again opposing views) | ||
 |  | |
End of Day 6: (End of the Big Stuff) | ||
 |  | |
Friday, February 20, 2009
Laminate Flooring Recap - Pictures!
Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 6
This coming weekend doesn't provide much time for working on the floor so I took the opportunity of a small lull at work to flex some time and headed home early to work flooring before the kids came home.
2:45 - start of last row by cabinets, initial pieces needed to be cut down.
3:30 - 4 rows later, start cuts on vents.
4:15 - now the trickier side, the 2nd row at the vents (the way it happened, I had to cut out the majority of the vent from the 2nd row, leaving only 1/4 inch of the board. Decided to lay the row immediately behind at the same time for stability -- to keep from shattering/splitting the 1/4 inch sections.
5:10 - Time to start the last row on the main part of the floor. Each one will be measured and cut as the wall is a little wonky.
6:20 - 6:45 - Eat the dinner my wife kindly brought home.
8:00 - The main area is now done. Yay!
Summary:
4' x 21' aprox (one longer row in front of the cabinets) covered.
3+ (probably 3.5) boxes used.
To Do:
Pantry and hallway. All floorboards (which it seems we're inclined to get a larger, slightly fancier cut to add a further formal touch, stained of course.)
For now, I'm going to relax. After that, I'll see about putting together the photos of each day into a post.
To do:
2:45 - start of last row by cabinets, initial pieces needed to be cut down.
3:30 - 4 rows later, start cuts on vents.
4:15 - now the trickier side, the 2nd row at the vents (the way it happened, I had to cut out the majority of the vent from the 2nd row, leaving only 1/4 inch of the board. Decided to lay the row immediately behind at the same time for stability -- to keep from shattering/splitting the 1/4 inch sections.
5:10 - Time to start the last row on the main part of the floor. Each one will be measured and cut as the wall is a little wonky.
6:20 - 6:45 - Eat the dinner my wife kindly brought home.
8:00 - The main area is now done. Yay!
Summary:
4' x 21' aprox (one longer row in front of the cabinets) covered.
3+ (probably 3.5) boxes used.
To Do:
Pantry and hallway. All floorboards (which it seems we're inclined to get a larger, slightly fancier cut to add a further formal touch, stained of course.)
For now, I'm going to relax. After that, I'll see about putting together the photos of each day into a post.
To do:
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 5
tonight (back to real-time), after a full day away from working the floor, I decided to work in a little bit of flooring between cooking dinner for the kids, starting recorded kid shows, refereeing and time between dinner and bed.
6:30 - 8:30 pm - interspersed putting down rows of laminate with parental duties.
2 more boxes down. Covered about 4x40. We should have around 2 boxes left over. Not too bad considering we purchased based on maximum floor dimensions without accounting for space taken up by cabinets.
The next row starts with ripping down boards to go up against the last set of cabinet faces. Only about 4' left of width to cover. Of course, that includes the work around the cabinets, the door, and the floor vents. Oh, and figuring out the pantry closet and most likely the hallway. I'm reasonably certain at this point we'll end up doing the hallway. Not a large task, just need a piece of transition strip so we can change directions. Then there's figuring out how to end at the stairs and the other transitions/thresholds to do.
I'm going to pretend that all the floorboards are going to stain and install themselves.
6:30 - 8:30 pm - interspersed putting down rows of laminate with parental duties.
2 more boxes down. Covered about 4x40. We should have around 2 boxes left over. Not too bad considering we purchased based on maximum floor dimensions without accounting for space taken up by cabinets.
The next row starts with ripping down boards to go up against the last set of cabinet faces. Only about 4' left of width to cover. Of course, that includes the work around the cabinets, the door, and the floor vents. Oh, and figuring out the pantry closet and most likely the hallway. I'm reasonably certain at this point we'll end up doing the hallway. Not a large task, just need a piece of transition strip so we can change directions. Then there's figuring out how to end at the stairs and the other transitions/thresholds to do.
I'm going to pretend that all the floorboards are going to stain and install themselves.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 4
I should have been at work. I was planning on going to work. The head cold/virus/whatever had other plans for me. It really would not have been pleasant for coworkers to have to deal with me -- the drugs weren't working well enough and my headache and general exhaustion was debilitating. Instead, with the kids home for President's day and my wife having to sacrifice her day to be home with them, I fought through the pressure to try to complete more floor, taking a much easier pace and trying to return the home back to normal sooner.
8:30 - after eating a granola bar, started placing more wood. Today will include cuts around the island (which should be highly entertaining given my mental state and mood) thankfully followed by long runs of open space.
10:00 - start working island.
10:36 - the first row at the island is in. Examined remaining space and decided it best to move the stove.
11:03 - vacuumed out the work area, threw the circuit breaker and pulled out the stove. OMG are the sides of the stove and the floor under it disgusting. There's barely an eight of an inch (1/8") gap to the counter on either side, but liquids and small crumbs have found their way into a protected area.
11:21 - stove is out, linoleum under it is removed.
Noon -Lunch.
12:20 - back at it, groaning a little.
12:50 - 1:10 - Hobby Horse repairs: 4 new springs placed, attempted to run a stringer between support bars for the feet, but the rod is a little too wide.
2:30 - the width of the island has been covered. Several PITA pieces to cut, but they're done. Wife starts helping as Little Trooper is napping and our lady in waiting is entertaining herself with TV and playtime in the basement.
3:50 - Little Trooper wakes up, back doing the boards alone (I miss the company)
4:50 - enough of the floor done to put the stove back in place.
5:05 - anti-tip hold down hardware relocated and installed. Determine the original placement never worked. Power restored to the stove and it still works. Done for the day.
5 more boxes completed. Only about 6' of width remain (that's slightly under 1/3 of the floor). Should be interesting to work the vents and around the cabinets.
Addendum:
9:30-10:00 pm - discuss what we're going to do about pantry closet and hallway at the garage door. We're leaning to working those. Fun, especially since the boards in front of the pantry have been in place for days now - we'll be working those in kinda backward. Most likely will need to purchase a direction-change transition runner to go from the kitchen to the hallway.
8:30 - after eating a granola bar, started placing more wood. Today will include cuts around the island (which should be highly entertaining given my mental state and mood) thankfully followed by long runs of open space.
10:00 - start working island.
10:36 - the first row at the island is in. Examined remaining space and decided it best to move the stove.
11:03 - vacuumed out the work area, threw the circuit breaker and pulled out the stove. OMG are the sides of the stove and the floor under it disgusting. There's barely an eight of an inch (1/8") gap to the counter on either side, but liquids and small crumbs have found their way into a protected area.
11:21 - stove is out, linoleum under it is removed.
Noon -Lunch.
12:20 - back at it, groaning a little.
12:50 - 1:10 - Hobby Horse repairs: 4 new springs placed, attempted to run a stringer between support bars for the feet, but the rod is a little too wide.
2:30 - the width of the island has been covered. Several PITA pieces to cut, but they're done. Wife starts helping as Little Trooper is napping and our lady in waiting is entertaining herself with TV and playtime in the basement.
3:50 - Little Trooper wakes up, back doing the boards alone (I miss the company)
4:50 - enough of the floor done to put the stove back in place.
5:05 - anti-tip hold down hardware relocated and installed. Determine the original placement never worked. Power restored to the stove and it still works. Done for the day.
5 more boxes completed. Only about 6' of width remain (that's slightly under 1/3 of the floor). Should be interesting to work the vents and around the cabinets.
Addendum:
9:30-10:00 pm - discuss what we're going to do about pantry closet and hallway at the garage door. We're leaning to working those. Fun, especially since the boards in front of the pantry have been in place for days now - we'll be working those in kinda backward. Most likely will need to purchase a direction-change transition runner to go from the kitchen to the hallway.
Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 3
Roll the clock back a couple of days, here's what happened on project day 3:
8:30 - move refrigerator, pull linoleum with my daughter's help ;). Take out remaining floorboard. Resume laying down laminate.
Noon - break for lunch which we could assemble in the little remaining kitchen space.
12:30 - back to the boards.
2:15 - enough of the floor done to put the fridge back and rip some more linoleum.
2:30 - done for the day. Time to clean up to celebrate my birthday with extended family.
4 more boxes placed, about 1/2 the width of the floors completed.
The time with family was a welcome break, getting all of us out of the house for an extended period of time and away from the noise of construction. Unfortunately, dinner wasn't much quieter and my head was not clearing up.
8:30 - move refrigerator, pull linoleum with my daughter's help ;). Take out remaining floorboard. Resume laying down laminate.
Noon - break for lunch which we could assemble in the little remaining kitchen space.
12:30 - back to the boards.
2:15 - enough of the floor done to put the fridge back and rip some more linoleum.
2:30 - done for the day. Time to clean up to celebrate my birthday with extended family.
4 more boxes placed, about 1/2 the width of the floors completed.
The time with family was a welcome break, getting all of us out of the house for an extended period of time and away from the noise of construction. Unfortunately, dinner wasn't much quieter and my head was not clearing up.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 2
You'd think that my body might decide to cooperate, given the large amount of work ahead. Instead, I woke nice and early. This is the Day2 recap (posted the next morning as I had no finger energy left to type last night):
5:30 - Wake up, take drugs for stuffy head. Lay in bed and try to get some rest.
6:30 - Start of the morning routine, Little Trooper woke up and was not to be deterred from breakfast.
8:00 - After the family is completely up and breakfasts are completed, send everyone else but me to the basement. There's plywood yet to place.
9:15 - First row is down. 2nd row is going to either end at the closet or need to be cut to go in. Decide with my wife that we need to do the coat closet. Fun, more ripping and staples. (Just cant' get enough of those staples.)
9:40 - 2 Birthday calls and lots of Tetris with plywood, the closet is now ready.
10:46 - Plywood underlayment is now complete. House and garage are vacuumed to remove as much sawdust as possible. Bring up compound miter saw and prep work areas to start laying laminate in earnest. Rest of the family heads to swimming classes.
11:30 - Oh yeah, need to do more undercutting of the door frames. It's not fun to run a hacksaw as close as possible to the floor and my hands have a lot less skin on the knuckles.
12:30 - Family is back from swimming with lunch. Break for lunch and settling the kids down for a nap.
1:30 - Back at it. Cringe at how slow things seem to be going. Spacers are pivoting under the drywall (most of which stops about 1/2 inch short of the floor) and the previously laid rows are bowing against the large open doorways between rooms. Curse at myself for agreeing to start on what isn't a very solid continuous wall. The results had best be better than starting against the outside wall of the house. My wife is able to assist while Little Trooper is napping and the princess is watching Dora/Max & Ruby episodes in the basement.
5:00 - Stop, discuss dinner, break for dinner.
6:50 - Return from dinner, banish everyone to the basement again while I continue work on the floor. (Did I mention my wife is doing an extraordinarily good job dealing with all the noise and constant kid needs while I'm banging around and she's still fighting off a bad headache? Kudos.)
7:30 - Did you know it can take nearly 1/2 hour to size/cut/re-size/re-cut just one board? Yeah, an ugly cut that has a 1 inch strip that runs 23 inches until it spreads back out to full width. And that has to go into a space where I'm pushing the board in next to a wall. Ugh.
8:20 - Need a break. Little Trooper went down for bed on the early side. That was good as he will sleep through the noise. Go down to watch part of a show with my daughter and take a rest.
9:00 - Oops, long rest. She's going up with my wife to get ready for bed, I'm going to try to work some more.
9:30 - Done for the night. We're at a break in the room where the next row must extend into the kitchen and under where the refrigerator is now. That will wait until after breakfast tomorrow. Clean up work areas, put tools out-of-reach of kids.
10:30 - My wife poured me a bath in our indulgence tub. Bless her soul, she's still making sure I have some time to relax on my birthday.
Summary:
4 boxes of laminate used, about 6' x 18' of floor covered. Gee, that only leaves 12' x 36' now that we're to the long runs!
About 300 brad nails to hold plywood in place (not even worrying about the centers of most boards).
5:30 - Wake up, take drugs for stuffy head. Lay in bed and try to get some rest.
6:30 - Start of the morning routine, Little Trooper woke up and was not to be deterred from breakfast.
8:00 - After the family is completely up and breakfasts are completed, send everyone else but me to the basement. There's plywood yet to place.
9:15 - First row is down. 2nd row is going to either end at the closet or need to be cut to go in. Decide with my wife that we need to do the coat closet. Fun, more ripping and staples. (Just cant' get enough of those staples.)
9:40 - 2 Birthday calls and lots of Tetris with plywood, the closet is now ready.
10:46 - Plywood underlayment is now complete. House and garage are vacuumed to remove as much sawdust as possible. Bring up compound miter saw and prep work areas to start laying laminate in earnest. Rest of the family heads to swimming classes.
11:30 - Oh yeah, need to do more undercutting of the door frames. It's not fun to run a hacksaw as close as possible to the floor and my hands have a lot less skin on the knuckles.
12:30 - Family is back from swimming with lunch. Break for lunch and settling the kids down for a nap.
1:30 - Back at it. Cringe at how slow things seem to be going. Spacers are pivoting under the drywall (most of which stops about 1/2 inch short of the floor) and the previously laid rows are bowing against the large open doorways between rooms. Curse at myself for agreeing to start on what isn't a very solid continuous wall. The results had best be better than starting against the outside wall of the house. My wife is able to assist while Little Trooper is napping and the princess is watching Dora/Max & Ruby episodes in the basement.
5:00 - Stop, discuss dinner, break for dinner.
6:50 - Return from dinner, banish everyone to the basement again while I continue work on the floor. (Did I mention my wife is doing an extraordinarily good job dealing with all the noise and constant kid needs while I'm banging around and she's still fighting off a bad headache? Kudos.)
7:30 - Did you know it can take nearly 1/2 hour to size/cut/re-size/re-cut just one board? Yeah, an ugly cut that has a 1 inch strip that runs 23 inches until it spreads back out to full width. And that has to go into a space where I'm pushing the board in next to a wall. Ugh.
8:20 - Need a break. Little Trooper went down for bed on the early side. That was good as he will sleep through the noise. Go down to watch part of a show with my daughter and take a rest.
9:00 - Oops, long rest. She's going up with my wife to get ready for bed, I'm going to try to work some more.
9:30 - Done for the night. We're at a break in the room where the next row must extend into the kitchen and under where the refrigerator is now. That will wait until after breakfast tomorrow. Clean up work areas, put tools out-of-reach of kids.
10:30 - My wife poured me a bath in our indulgence tub. Bless her soul, she's still making sure I have some time to relax on my birthday.
Summary:
4 boxes of laminate used, about 6' x 18' of floor covered. Gee, that only leaves 12' x 36' now that we're to the long runs!
About 300 brad nails to hold plywood in place (not even worrying about the centers of most boards).
Friday, February 13, 2009
Laminate Flooring Recap - Day 1
A brief history:
We have about the cheapest carpet made down on the floors in the house that date to when we had the house build 8 1/2 years ago. As we made the carpet selection -- mostly what color of cheap carpet -- one thing we did do right was to listen to suggestions and upgrade the padding. That decision turned out to pay for itself many times over.
Now, with 2 kids and 8.5 years of general use, there are well-worn tracks in the carpet where even the upgraded padding can no longer compensate having been broken down under the relentless traffic. There are stains that give rise to fun memories yet which "decorate" the high-use areas. And now that the kids are proficient walkers we don't feel the need to keep the same level of "crash zone" padding around.
In short, it's time to bring in the wood! You can read my wife's post on the agony of making the decision on what to do and where to stop. Keeping this down to a reasonable size... (yeah, right)
Monday: New patio door (in this case, French doors) installed, with a defective astroglade (sp>) unit -- it's the thing that holds the door closed by pushing rods into holes in the door jam.
Tue-Thur: catch up at work for time lost to door install.
Thur pm: bug very good friend to help pick up plywood underlayment to level floors. After he comes over, while not feeling tops, we make the clarification that the underlayment is 4x8 sheets of plywood that won't fit in his SUV. (BTW, I'm extremely grateful for his willingness to help and I will make it up to him)
Now for today's recap:
6:30 - out of bed, help with morning routine
7:45 -take kids to daycare
8:15 - back home, time to start working!
9:10 - complete Tetris game to move the furniture out of the 2 rooms getting the new laminate flooring.
10:00 - Completed removing baseboards (minus the one behind the refridgerator that will come out when I get to working that part of the floor)
10:25 - cut-out and removed the largest square of carpet which is then in a lump in the middle of the garage.
10:36 - grumble and groan after vaccuming up a cigarette butt that was closed up behind the baseboards.
Noon - OOOOOWWWW! Most of the carpet padding is now removed, way too many staples removed (needle nose pliers and I are now really good friends).
12:35 - after 3 phone calls, clean-up of pulled staples and padding, along with removal of a few stragglers, is completed. Time to go shopping for the plywood and maybe some lunch.
1:00 - decided to pull up an additional section of old linoleum to see just how bad that effort would be and to expose the transition area. Finally going for lunch and flooring.
1:20 - 3 - The trip to the store didn't work out as smoothly as planned. I picked out the plywood, went to rent a truck to bring the full sheets home, found out my insurance card needed to be updated to the most current one which I had already paid for. Purchased the wood and placed it on hold for pick up later. Returned home, dug through the pile of mail to find the cards. Returned to the store, rented and loaded the truck. Returned home again, unloaded wood. Searched owner's manual for type of gas the truck uses (required to bring it back at same level on tank with accompanying gas receipt). Giggle at the fact it took as long to figure that out as to load, move and unload the wood. Buy 2 gallons of gas. Return the truck. Wait for it to be checked back in. Guess what... I went a whopping 9 miles. While waiting for check-in, laughed with sales clerk because the hadn't written down my departure time and were surprised I was back to soon.
3ish -4:15 - Valentines part for both kids at daycare.
4:30ish - show kids around the floor, cover dangerous areas, coverse about plans for the night, and return to working by starting to lay plywood.
6:20 - dinner break - Pizza in the basement.
6:50 - back to work with lots of cuts (corners, vents, etc) on the docket.
7:30 - kids meltdown, stop work for the night, put kids to bed.
9:00 - for whatever reason, type this up.
On the plate for tomorrow:
All the complicated cuts of plywood.
Plan out if we're going to do closets, a hallway, etc. and finish preping those areas (or leave them as-is)
Finally get to laying laminate and pray it gets done.
We have about the cheapest carpet made down on the floors in the house that date to when we had the house build 8 1/2 years ago. As we made the carpet selection -- mostly what color of cheap carpet -- one thing we did do right was to listen to suggestions and upgrade the padding. That decision turned out to pay for itself many times over.
Now, with 2 kids and 8.5 years of general use, there are well-worn tracks in the carpet where even the upgraded padding can no longer compensate having been broken down under the relentless traffic. There are stains that give rise to fun memories yet which "decorate" the high-use areas. And now that the kids are proficient walkers we don't feel the need to keep the same level of "crash zone" padding around.
In short, it's time to bring in the wood! You can read my wife's post on the agony of making the decision on what to do and where to stop. Keeping this down to a reasonable size... (yeah, right)
Monday: New patio door (in this case, French doors) installed, with a defective astroglade (sp>) unit -- it's the thing that holds the door closed by pushing rods into holes in the door jam.
Tue-Thur: catch up at work for time lost to door install.
Thur pm: bug very good friend to help pick up plywood underlayment to level floors. After he comes over, while not feeling tops, we make the clarification that the underlayment is 4x8 sheets of plywood that won't fit in his SUV. (BTW, I'm extremely grateful for his willingness to help and I will make it up to him)
Now for today's recap:
6:30 - out of bed, help with morning routine
7:45 -take kids to daycare
8:15 - back home, time to start working!
9:10 - complete Tetris game to move the furniture out of the 2 rooms getting the new laminate flooring.
10:00 - Completed removing baseboards (minus the one behind the refridgerator that will come out when I get to working that part of the floor)
10:25 - cut-out and removed the largest square of carpet which is then in a lump in the middle of the garage.
10:36 - grumble and groan after vaccuming up a cigarette butt that was closed up behind the baseboards.
Noon - OOOOOWWWW! Most of the carpet padding is now removed, way too many staples removed (needle nose pliers and I are now really good friends).
12:35 - after 3 phone calls, clean-up of pulled staples and padding, along with removal of a few stragglers, is completed. Time to go shopping for the plywood and maybe some lunch.
1:00 - decided to pull up an additional section of old linoleum to see just how bad that effort would be and to expose the transition area. Finally going for lunch and flooring.
1:20 - 3 - The trip to the store didn't work out as smoothly as planned. I picked out the plywood, went to rent a truck to bring the full sheets home, found out my insurance card needed to be updated to the most current one which I had already paid for. Purchased the wood and placed it on hold for pick up later. Returned home, dug through the pile of mail to find the cards. Returned to the store, rented and loaded the truck. Returned home again, unloaded wood. Searched owner's manual for type of gas the truck uses (required to bring it back at same level on tank with accompanying gas receipt). Giggle at the fact it took as long to figure that out as to load, move and unload the wood. Buy 2 gallons of gas. Return the truck. Wait for it to be checked back in. Guess what... I went a whopping 9 miles. While waiting for check-in, laughed with sales clerk because the hadn't written down my departure time and were surprised I was back to soon.
3ish -4:15 - Valentines part for both kids at daycare.
4:30ish - show kids around the floor, cover dangerous areas, coverse about plans for the night, and return to working by starting to lay plywood.
6:20 - dinner break - Pizza in the basement.
6:50 - back to work with lots of cuts (corners, vents, etc) on the docket.
7:30 - kids meltdown, stop work for the night, put kids to bed.
9:00 - for whatever reason, type this up.
On the plate for tomorrow:
All the complicated cuts of plywood.
Plan out if we're going to do closets, a hallway, etc. and finish preping those areas (or leave them as-is)
Finally get to laying laminate and pray it gets done.
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