::laying it down

As promised, details on the weekend project. Let me start by saying my dad and Aaron are Mr. Fantastics. What we had anticipating taking 1 day took 3- and even then it didn't come to completion. Let's back up a bit shall we.

Anytime we have to go to Lowes now, Aaron just gets that sad 'this is going to take a while' face while I light up and demand to walk through every single section of the store. Remember the days of going to HQ with your dad. You just couldn't wait to leave because "How interesting can wood be anyway?". Suffice it to say, the last Several trips to Lowes involved a stop in the flooring department. We generally stop by the tile as the bathroom floors desperately need to be redone - but this time...we stopped by the wood floors.

Fastforward to New Years weekend. We decide to run by Lumber Liquidators just to see how their prices compare. Turns out, they were having a sale. That ended that day. Done. :) We loaded up the car and headed home.

Let's remember what the floor used to look like:

Onto the installation process:

1 - Let the floors acclimate to your home's humidity. They say to leave the wood in your home for at least 72 hours before putting down the floor. We waited a week.

2 - Prepare your subfloor. We chose a floating wood floor to go right over the tile. However, the tiles were uneven so we got self leveling grout from Lowes to even out the bumps.

Step 3 - Once the grout had completely set (24 hours) - we put down a plastic barrier so to keep moisture away from the flooring. We purchased this at lumber liquidators as well ($20 for 300 sq. ft.).


Step 4 - Lay down the floors. Easier said than done :) Getting the cuts correct took a bit of time, but once you got going...everything went down very quickly. Make sure to start your next run of flooring with the leftover piece of scrap from the previous row. It will help stagger the joints and ensure your floor's solidity. Also - leave a quarter of an inch space between your walls and the floor as wood expands and contracts and you want to give it room for this.

Step 5 - Add molding (we choose quarter round instead of shoe molding because it was a bit bigger and we wanted to make sure to cover up all the seams. Add transitional pieces (piece between your wood and whatever other type flooring you have - in our case, carpet). We actually glued down the piece by the front door and will prob add some to the piece between the carpet as well. This was recommended by the man at Lowes. (That's what the books are for)

And here we have the final product. I have yet to paint the trim or caulk around the door casings. But I just couldn't wait to see what it looked like. I find myself just sitting in my den staring into the room. I realize far too much time has passed and then walk away awkwardly still casting side long glances. :D


Budget breakdown:
Flooring/plastic barrier/transition pieces $250
Grout $20
Quarter round $10
Labor (free -way to go team!)
Total Cost $280 Woot!

Yay for finished projects! Now I'm taking a break.