The new floor - Week 5 already!

Rennie Heuer

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I stopped by the local Lumber Liquidators today and placed a deposit on the flooring the LOML and I will be installing over the Labor Day weekend (and probably a few days more). We had reached a tie on the species (if you can call laminate a species :rofl:). We were going for the Buckingham Oak, but they were out of stock and the transit time (trains - trucks are now too expensive) for a special order put our installation date in jeopardy. So, since they had bunches of our second choice, Embassy Mahogany, we went with that.
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Actually, now that I look at it a little more, I'm rather happy they were out of the oak! This floor will look great holding up my Green & Green furniture that I'm going to build someday!:rofl:

We start this week ripping up the carpet that we have come to despise over the years. Once that is up I'll spend quite a few hours breaking in the "Chuck-O-Matic" screw gun. :D The builders must have been short on nails when they put our house up. In re-flooring other rooms I've found 4 x 8 sheets of particle board underlayment with as few as 12 nails!:eek: So, the first thing I'll do once the carpet is up is to snap a 12 x 12 grid on the floor and put screws in 12" OC in the field, 6" OC on the perimeter. This should also help with our very squeaky floors - 2 x 6 T&G over post & beam. I figure that I'll probably use over 700 screws.:eek:

What concerns me more is that in other rooms of the house the floor drops about a 1/4" to 3/8" within a foot of exterior walls. It does not seem as bad in the living room, but it's hard to tell with the carpet. Once I'm looking at the sub floor, I'll know or sure.

I promise, there will be pictures!
 
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Rennie, now I see why you put off the fence rebuild and kitchen remodel...you have a few other projects to get done first. Looking forward to the picture trail....
 
Looks like a nice color Rennie. Also sounds like a great excuse to get yourself a new shop-vac. :thumb: We've got hardwoods through-out our house and we had the house piped for the central vac, but haven't every installed the unit. I had started using my 20 gallon shop-vac to clean the floors 6 years ago. So far it's worked out just fine and my wife doesn't really care about spending the $1200 for the central vac unit.
 
Looks like a nice color Rennie. Also sounds like a great excuse to get yourself a new shop-vac. :thumb: We've got hardwoods through-out our house and we had the house piped for the central vac, but haven't every installed the unit. I had started using my 20 gallon shop-vac to clean the floors 6 years ago. So far it's worked out just fine and my wife doesn't really care about spending the $1200 for the central vac unit.
Hmmmmm..... Something to keep in mind. We have a 'part' collie who's one goal in life seems to be to shed his entire coat at least once a month.:eek::rofl::rofl:
 
OK - first snag. We've given much thought to laying the floor out at 45 degrees to the walls (a la Gamble house :D). I knew we would be likely to have more waste and a lot more cuts. That part did not bother me too much. However, I also knew we might run into clearance problems trying to tip up the individual planks (in order to lock them together) along the wall when the angle is cut so that the wider part of the plank is away from the installed section it's snapping into.

Is that clear?:dunno:

Won't the point of the angle hit the wall preventing us - maybe - to tilt the plank back far enough to lock it in? I've looked around at several website and can't find any that give tips on how to install at a 45.

Anyone out there have any experience in this area?:wave:
 
Last summer i installed a new 3/4" white oak t&g floor in the ground level of our house. The subfloor was off by an inch and a half in some areas, so i tore up sections of the diagonal plank sublfoor, sistered in new joists to level things up, and installed new subflooring. I also put in many hundreds of ring shank nails and screws to tighten up the remaining original subfloor. Then came the felt paper and installation. I'd never done one before, but with narrow plank flooring (1-1/2" wide), it took several days to get the floor down.
Driving the last nail was a proud moment. After the finish was on, it looked great.
Have fun with it. Hope all goes well.
paulh
 
We'll be spending the weekend doing the same thing. Only ours is engineered red oak that gets stapled down. We're only doing one room, but I'm figuring 1/2 day to remove the old carpet and the 1M staples holding down the padding, 1 day to install the floor, and a 1/2 day to put the trim back around the doors and install shoe molding. Then 1 day lying around in pain. :eek:
 
Won't the point of the angle hit the wall preventing us - maybe - to tilt the plank back far enough to lock it in? I've looked around at several website and can't find any that give tips on how to install at a 45.

Anyone out there have any experience in this area?:wave:

Rennie,

Nope, never tried that. I *have* built a floor to ceiling cabinet that fit just fine, but couldn't be installed because I couldn't tip the darn thing up to get it in place. Does that count? ;)

If I understand correctly, it sounds like half the floor would be easy, but the other half.... :doh:

It could be that the lack of web info means it's not a problem, *or* that no one does it that way because it's impossible... ;)

So here's my extremely silly idea. Are you ready to laugh? ;)

You could lay one (or two or three or four) widths all round the edges of the room, making a kind of frame. Since no room I've ever seen is actually square,
you might have to rip a couple lengths at a slight angle to make the inside of the frame square, but then you'd have clearence and a great look to the floor.

The whole thing would be an awful lot of trouble, turning what is essentially a simple carpentry project into a woodworking project. But it would also be fun, and nobody in your neighborhood would have a floor like that! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Rennie,So here's my extremely silly idea. Are you ready to laugh? ;)

You could lay one (or two or three or four) widths all round the edges of the room, making a kind of frame. Since no room I've ever seen is actually square,
you might have to rip a couple lengths at a slight angle to make the inside of the frame square, but then you'd have clearence and a great look to the floor.

The whole thing would be an awful lot of trouble, turning what is essentially a simple carpentry project into a woodworking project. But it would also be fun, and nobody in your neighborhood would have a floor like that! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
Not really that silly at all. It would look nice. The problem I see is that I'm not sure how I would connect the border to the individual planks - no locking lip on the 45 cut ends. :dunno:
 
Last summer i installed a new 3/4" white oak t&g floor in the ground level of our house. The subfloor was off by an inch and a half in some areas, so i tore up sections of the diagonal plank sublfoor, sistered in new joists to level things up, and installed new subflooring. I also put in many hundreds of ring shank nails and screws to tighten up the remaining original subfloor. Then came the felt paper and installation. I'd never done one before, but with narrow plank flooring (1-1/2" wide), it took several days to get the floor down.
Driving the last nail was a proud moment. After the finish was on, it looked great.
Have fun with it. Hope all goes well.
paulh
:eek::eek::eek: WOW - I hope I don't need to rip up any subflooring! Sounds like you got a lot more than you bargained for.

We'll be spending the weekend doing the same thing. Only ours is engineered red oak that gets stapled down. We're only doing one room, but I'm figuring 1/2 day to remove the old carpet and the 1M staples holding down the padding, 1 day to install the floor, and a 1/2 day to put the trim back around the doors and install shoe molding. Then 1 day lying around in pain. :eek:
Sounds like you have the schedule down pat..... except for the last part. I'd allow at least 2 days!:rofl:
 
I haven't put any in at a 45 but you need a 1/4" gap between the wall and the flooring. I would think this would be enough room for the snap. The last one I put in didn't need to come up far for it to snap together. It all depends on the flooring manufacture.
You are going to have smooth sailing up until you hit the other 2 walls when the 45 starts to come back the other way. The only other thing is to make sure that the long run corner to corner does not exceed the manufactures run requirements. Or they are going to want you to put an expansion joint down the middle.
Rennie don't let that gun get the best of you like it did my boy Bruce or it will end up looking like it did when you got it.:thumb::rofl::rofl: He made it look like that in under 2 hours.:thumb:
I'll be careful with the gun... promise!

I think the only way to tell if I'm going to have issues with the 45 is to lay down a few pieces close to the wall and give it a try! :huh:
 
Day 1 - The "before" shots

Behold the despised contractor grade carpet. Root of all evils and denizen of your deepest, darkest nightmares.:eek: Soon it shall meet a fitting end - to become a moist rotting rag, home to worms and microscopic creatures, buried deep in the bowels of our local landfill.

Today is day 1 - I brought the flooring home and stacked most of it on the fireplace. Yes, I despise the rose colored tile fireplace too. It's on my to-do list to turn it into a beautiful Greene and Greene styled mantel with bookshelves on either side. However, that's at least a year away. For now I just have to live with a fireplace that resembles a bathroom turned up on end. I don't understand what the last owners were thinking.:dunno:

My goal is to have the flooring down in less time than it takes to roof a shed - should be all done by September 5th. We begin tomorrow pulling up the carpet. Wish us luck!

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Hi Rennie :wave:,
Great project! Nice choice of boards:thumb:
What is the floor plan of the rooms you are doing, not to scale but to give us an idea of how you plan to run the 45 degree flooring? Wish we could help! :D Thankfully I love to work.:D
Shaz :)
 
Hi Rennie.

From your comments and some of the pic frames that I see on your pics I assume that you like Greene & Greene work and art & craft style as much as I do.

I do not want to wander off thread here but I believe that many of us like their work. Maybe this could lead to another thread.

BTW. I like your floor as well, although I wonder where did you find that black & white four legged apprentice that appears in almost all pics?
 
It's not that bad, goes well with the rose colored chair next to it. :D:rofl::rofl::rofl:
Funny how things work out. We purchased that chair from a friend that no longer needed it about 20 years ago - as a temporary fill in for our livingroom 3 houses ago. Never intended to keep it more than a few years. Anyway, it too is scheduled for replacement with my first Morris chair - in about a year or so.

Hi Rennie :wave:,
Great project! Nice choice of boards:thumb:
What is the floor plan of the rooms you are doing, not to scale but to give us an idea of how you plan to run the 45 degree flooring? Wish we could help! :D Thankfully I love to work.:D
Shaz :)
Unthankfully, you don't live closer! I could use the help of an experienced and accomplished craftsman!:D Floorplan? How's this?
View attachment Base House Drawing Layout1 (1).pdf
We're having second thoughts on the 45 thing. There are some corners that would be near impossible to work - like the small wing wall behind the front door. Also, we purchased more than needed because of the higher waste factor - now we're thinking that if we lay it along the walls we might have enough to do the kitchen. That would help dress it up till we can afford to replace it.:D

Hi Rennie.

From your comments and some of the pic frames that I see on your pics I assume that you like Greene & Greene work and art & craft style as much as I do.

I do not want to wander off thread here but I believe that many of us like their work. Maybe this could lead to another thread.

BTW. I like your floor as well, although I wonder where did you find that black & white four legged apprentice that appears in almost all pics?
Yes - G&G is near the very top of my list of favorite furniture styles. Lokai is my helper, keeping an eye on things when I'm not around and warning me of approaching strangers. Except if I'm using anything connected to an air hose - then he runs to the other end of the house and hides behind the bed.:dunno::rofl:
 
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Guten Mogen Rennie :wave:,
That is the extent of my german.:rofl:
This drawing of the diagonals helps alot. The floor plan left me with unanswered questions but this plan shows why you decided to go parallel with some walls.:D
You will do wonderfully with this project! Just wait and see.:thumb: Consider making solid stock thresholds for ending at doorways and pass thru's starting now!:rofl:
Eye's upon you.
Shaz :)
 
This drawing of the diagonals helps alot. The floor plan left me with unanswered questions but this plan shows why you decided to go parallel with some walls.:D
Yep - too many little corners. If it was 3/4" wood flooring, that I could cut the tongue or groove off of and face nail, it would be a different story. Having to snap/lock pieces in place just presents too many problems.

About the thresholds - I purchased the trim to match when I got the flooring. I'll see how it works out.

I've read two conflicting suggestions on how to lay the floor along the walls. One says perpendicular to your primary light source - the bank of windows along the front wall and the french doors in the dining area wall. The second says along the longest wall, which would be parallel to the windows.:doh:

I think we'll just open a box or two and see how it looks both ways.:rofl:
 
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