This weekend was one full of puzzles, strenous labor, teamwork, precision tinkering and pain. 4 days in the making and the floors are in and look AMAZING (if I do say so myself).
Thursday:
Luke and I ripped all the carpet out of the room. It was full of dirt, drywall mud and who knows what else. While not exactly difficult, carpet is just bulky and heavy to remove. The pad also kind of grossed me out thinking of the years of spills.
The tile in the entry way also had to be removed and that was no picnic either. Between prying sheets of tile off plywood and the damn Pergo removal, my pent up aggression is now at bay.
Friday:
After realizing that real hardwood floors didn't fit into our budget and to be honest, looked like WAY more work than we were willing to put in, we agreed on click-and-lock laminate floors from IKEA. The laminate is pretty much exactly what you expect from Ikea. It looks really great and while not the best quality, it gets the job done for a fraction of the price. The tool kit also was along these same lines.
Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning were all devoted to ripping this damn Pergo out. Piece by piece (and I don't mean square piece but each 1 inch strip), had to be individually removed using a hammer and crowbar. My ears were ringing, my back aching and I definitely lost track of the number of times I hit my hand with the hammer, but it was worth it and we worked for it.
Saturday:
Uncle Blaine, Luke's Dad and Luke and I started on the floors about 4PM on Saturday. By 11PM, we were more than half way done. We read the ambigous paragraph of directions from IKEA (complete with odd cartoons and had watched a few YouTube videos on how to install. It all looks easier than it is.
Starting was the hardest part. Since it's a floating floor (no glue or nails), you have to be careful about keeping the whole thing parallel to the wall and not going cock-eyed. The spacers ended up being more of a pain than a help and the click-and-lock wasn't as easy as it sounds (until you learn the secret trick - about halfway into laying the floors). Eventually, we got a system going of 1-2 people measuring and cutting, 2 people installing and Cheryl laying the underlayment.
Sunday:
Luke and I woke up to inspect our work and realized that we needed to apply the secret technique to the planks that we started with. So we spent an hour redo-ing a few lines and then moved on to the demolition room. After finally removing all the Pergo from the dining nook, we were ready to resume laying the laminate into the next room. 3 times was about par for the day on the number of times everyone hit their head on the low-hanging light fixtures. Luke's brother also came over and was a big help finishing some of the difficult cuts in the entryway/closet.
After all the floors were finished in the late afternoon, my Mom helped us move all the furniture back in.
Now, it finally starts to look like home!
UP NEXT:
Baseboards, dishwasher/dryer hook-up, and trim - how hard can that be?
AMAZING!! Great work guys!
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