 Now that I’ve gotten to gloat about my floor a bit, I’ll outline how we installed it. It’s a laminate with the click and lock feature, so it basically floats on top of the subfloor. It came with the pad already attached to the underside, so that eliminated one installation step as well as saving us money since we didn’t need to buy a pad.
With the subfloor down, we put in the vapor barrier. We already had a roll of vapor barrier paper, so we used that. Once that was down, we started to lay out the floor to figure out a pattern so that the reoccurring marks in the planks wouldn’t be on top of each other. We then figured out where our cut planks would go and how they would fit together, since any time you cut a click and lock plank, you create a flat side that no longer clicks together. (This is also when we discovered that the double planks could separate from each other. Hey, it was our first floor installation. Sometimes those aha moments are actually more like uh duh moments.) Then it was all about layout. We clicked and locked like mad. We set a spacer around the perimeter of the room at each plank, making sure that we had a gap. We quickly ascertained that when we cut a plank, we could use half of it on the right side and half on the left and eliminate any wasted planks. The room’s alcove is not square, so as we got to the final row of planks, we had to get even more creative with our cuts. We played with layout and ideas until we came up with the best option for the space. Then I pulled up all of the spacers, swept and mopped the room, and moved in my desk. Hooray! We still need to install base boards, and like I mentioned in the last post, paint the ceiling and create a built-in bookcase for the alcove. Plus, my Charles mangled the bottoms of the door frames, so we’re probably going to have to redo those as well unless I can figure out a way to fix the lowest couple of inches that he cut away at weird angles. Then we need to get a sleeper sofa of some sort for guests, and I’m waiting for another Bruce Campbell painting from my friend Chris. This time, Chris is going to paint me a current, Burn Notice looking BC. I’m so excited! He’ll hang next to my young, Evil Dead II BC. Finally, we’ll replace those old, leaky, sliding glass doors with pretty French doors, and my office will be a thing of envy-inducing beauty. |