I know it’s been a while since I wrote on the flooring project. It has been incredibly time-consuming, I’ll tell you that. It’s the sort of project that you can’t ignore. When I come home from work and find couches stacked on top of more couches in my kitchen, it’s a not-so-gentle reminder to get off my ass. Which, ironically, I couldn’t have been on in the first place since all the couches are stacked in the kitchen.
When last I spoke of it, I had really just started on ripping out the old floor. Well, I did a lot more of that, and true to form, there was a fair amount of bleeding and yelling and wall damage.
I used a digging bar to get these sheets of laminate and backer board up. It worked wonders. The bar is very heavy. I had some sore man-boobs.
This is another great example of when to wear gloves. The nails on the bottom of these sheets put a few holes in my fingers. I was wearing gloves until I ripped a few glove-tips off on nails, and then discarded them. I ended up duck-taping over the ripped fingers and putting them back on, because I can only be stupid for so long. Speaking of stupid.. I’m wearing flip-flops. This is actually a step up from where I started; which was barefoot. I’m a no-shoes-on-in-house guy, and it took a little time for my mind to transition from “you’re in the house” to “you’re in a construction zone”.
Here you can see where the dividing wall was when the house was built. The wooden floor used to be the dining room, and where there is no wooden floor, there was an extra layer of old-school linoleum, because it was the original kitchen. We’re talking like three kitchen-additions ago, here.
Apparently I neglected to take (or can’t find) pictures of the stripped-bare floor. This one is off of my phone. You get the idea. I had to take all the radiator covers off to get at the flooring underneath them. Now the whole subfloor is exposed, though. It’s tongue-and-groove 3/4” planks. I went around and pounded in some nails that had wiggled their way loose over the last 75 yrs. Overall, the floor was in good shape. Except for the bathroom.
Yeah, that’s floor rot. All around the toilet. It was an unwelcome discovery after removing the toilet, sink, and all the contractor-grade tile. I could push my hammer right through the wood. I’ll probably do a brief post later on how I fixed that.
At this point, I’ve got all 800-some-odd sq ft of old flooring ripped out and piled in front of the front door, including carpeting, padding, the original hardwood, and two layers of laminate. Most of it is still there. Along with a toilet. [sigh]. I’m that guy, now.
Next up; prepping for and doing the install!
