DooWopRidge-WOOD-FLOOR-PROJECT

WOOD FLOOR PROJECT

Several months ago Pop decided that he would like to have another pool table. So, with that it was decided that we would need to install a wood floor in the living/dinning room. After a lot of research, and numerous trips to flooring centers, we settled on a beautiful African Mahogany, wide plank floor. We made a trip up to Jacksonville, FL. to Lumber Liquidators (closest one to us) and purchased everything we needed. 10 Days later and another trip to Jacksonville we had our floor in 17 large cartons. Below is our adventure in flooring.

After Patty and I moved ALL of the furniture out of both rooms we had a clean slate to start with. One of our biggest challenges was moving the china cabinet. We unloaded everything but it still weighed a ton. Pop could not be of any assistance so Patty, utilizing her new found strength, stepped up to the plate. Luckily the unit came in two pieces. The top piece needed to be removed and placed on a dolly. If Patty had not been working with a personal trainer for 9 months I don't think she would have been able to handle it.

Starting off we put a moisture barrier down on the bare floor. I used spray adhesive on the edges to hold it secure while starting the first course of boards. This material was .06 mil. thick. The individual planks had a pre-installed underlayment which really helped.

Getting the first row down was the toughest. We had to measure the room and calculate the board size to determine how much of a first row to lay down. We didn't want to get the the other side of the room and find that we had to cut a 1" strip. I used a laser level to get the first row absolutely straight and perpendicular to the window wall. We installed spacers (the little black things along the baseboard) to maintain proper spacing around the parameter of the room.

The first picture in this row is as far as I got on the first day, Saturday. On the various websites that I visited everyone remarked about "getting the hang of hooking the boards together" It does take a while but once you develop your own technique it goes pretty quickly. The instructions included are a joke! Spacers kept the proper distance between the ceramic tile of the foyer and the wood floor. Abner was there to insure everything was "up to snuff".

When we quit on Saturday evening we had only done about 8' of floor. When we came in and looked at the floor on Sunday morning we discovered a huge gap along the window wall. The gap was about 2.5 inches wide and decreased to about 3/4 of an inch towards the middle of the room and opened up to about 2 inches near the other wall. After studying our options for about an hour we decided to pull the floor up and start over. After all, we already had the "knack" so it shouldn't take us as long the second time around. This reminded me of an old mechanic that I worked with in the early 70's. He used to tell me "do it nice or do it twice" another he used to tell me was "never time to do it right, but always time to do it over" How true!

After getting everything straightened out we made good progress finishing all but the last 3 rows. Making cuts around the door moldings slowed me down a little. Making things even more difficult was the fact that the entire house has radiused "bullnosed" corners on all the walls. While It's a really nice detail it makes doing anything like moldings and flooring a pain! Another trip to Lowes for a profile gauge and a little practice and we're back in business.

One problem that we encountered was the pull bar that you use to close the end gaps between the boards was not made very well. After installing about half of the floor the tool had bent so bad it was almost unusable. Several trips to the shop for a session with the vice and hammer saved the day. I would not recommend the installation tools sold at Lowes. Unless your doing a very small area, like a hall, I would suggest that you either purchase or rent a good tapping block and a Sinclair pull bar. We installed almost 400 sq. ft. and both were worn out. In fact, the tapping block broke about half way through the project.

After a day off to recoup, we completed laying the floor on Tuesday afternoon. We kept the spacers in place for several days to allow for expansion of the floor.

Next came the trim work. Again the radiused corners and door frame moldings made life difficult. Fortunately, I purchased 2 good saws before starting the project. I got a SKILL table saw and a compound miter saw. The compound miter saw made joining the trim with the proper undercut and 45 deg. corners much easier. The table saw really helped with ripping boards and cutting the tabs off of the end boards. A word of caution. Invest in a GOOD saw blade. I purchased an 80 tooth DEWALT carbide tipped blade that worked well. However, that blade was just about worn out (burning the edges of the flooring) 3/4 of the way through. I replaced the blade with an 80 tooth FREUD blade and believe me there is no comparison. The FREUD was a bit pricy but well worth it.

A tube of calk and several hours on my knees and the job is done. I'm still waiting for one piece of trim that I had to order online. A special THANK YOU goes out to Frank who got several "what the hell do I do now" calls. He particularly talked me through cutting and installing the trim. Thanks Frank!!