The carpet in the house has been a disaster for years. I finally started to replace it this summer with flooring from Harmonics. Costco put the flooring on sale for the summer and I jumped at the chance to save $8 per box. This ultimately saved over $300 on the project.
Elizabeth, Mike, and Sarah came over one Friday and helped rip out the old carpet. Slowly, new flooring is being installed. After a full week and a few days, one room is done and a second one is almost half complete. The delays are due to the cuts needed to fit around objects and my overly cautious approach to edges. It’s faster when two people are working but most everyone works during the day and leaving me to try to get flooring installed.
My biggest mistakes were not wearing knee pads the first three days, trying to be too cautious on cuts, and not cleaning the floor well enough before and after putting down the new flooring. My knees were swollen after the first few days. Aspirin stopped the pain but it was clearly damaging my knees. I bought knee pads with gel and my knees are now okay. It was a silly mistake. Next, I was way too cautious on cuts. Since the base moulding is going to hide the edges then it’s okay for that area to not be perfect. Finally, I ended up ripping out some parts when it was obvious that the floor was not clean enough before installing the new floor. It turns out that tearing apart the boards is faster than installing them the first time 🙂
This is how the floors need to be cleaned prior to adding the boards. First, the area must be swept several times so that debris is removed. Next, vacuum several times with a regular vacuum and a dry vac. Finally, mop the floor several times to collect anything small. Anything missed will make noise under the boards. It’s best to get the area very clean.
Finally, I learned a big lesson on the plastic. The barrier is very important but my first few tries in the family room were bad. The plastic would shift around and bubbles would form. Elizabeth and I came up with a great method. After cleaning the floor, I’d lay out the plastic so that a portion would ride up the side of the wall. Next, I’d place a box of flooring and slowly move it from the wall. This would push out the plastic so that it was spread evenly on the surface. Finally, we taped down the plastic so we could freely walk on the plastic as we were working. We could also sweep the area if new dog hair fell onto the plastic.
