Prepping the Floors

We decided when we closed on the house in the spring that we were going to add hardwood flooring over our time off of work at Christmas. At that point we started saving and started some shopping. Of course thanks to my inability to make a decision, I did not decide which floors to buy until after Christmas with only a few days left of our time off.  However, I'm glad I waited and went to "just one more place" before deciding because that one last place was ultimately the one I had been looking for.

After lots of research and shopping we  decided on bamboo floors in the end for three reasons.  1. They are very durable and we have two very active dogs and will eventually have little Jacobs and Kims  2. We liked the way they look 3. They are environmentally friendly

We bought the floors at Home Depot. They are strand woven bamboo in a walnut finish with click n lock installation. I highly recommend the click and lock. It was super easy. Time consuming, but easy.

Once we loaded them up and took them home, we started the prep process the next day. We had heard that wood needed a minimum of 3 days before installing the floors once they are in the house, but this manufactor said that it was unnecessary with these floors. (So far, so good)

The first step was to rip up the carpeting in the dining room. Thankfully it came up very very easily and took about 10 minutes. We then removed all the tack strips and swept everything up before laying down the moisture barrier and underlayment. We decided not to rip up all the linoleum to save time and energy. We had also been told that it could be used as a moisture barrier if it is in good shape, which it was.

Emma bear loved the cold, concrete floors. She is still mad at us for putting in real floors.

The next step was removing all the quarter round. I forgot to take any pictures, but basically we used a spackle knife and a hammer to pry off each piece. We were actually able to save all of the quarter round and save some money. I marked them all on the back so we would remember where they went. We ended up giving them a fresh coat of paint before putting them back on.

To finish up getting ready to actually start laying the floors we had to cut off the bottoms of the door frames. We initially used the saw in this picture but it was really hard work and didn't do a great job, so we ended up borrowing J's dad power dremel multi max tool which was fantastic. I want one of my own ASAP. To know how much to cut off of the doors we used a scrap piece of floor and underlayment under the saw like the picture shows.

After the prep on the first day, we couldn't wait to see some flooring actually on the floor. This is how far we got laying floor the first day since we had plans in the evening.

 Andddd our family room looked like this...