Testing my Patience
Laying laminate flooring is a test to anyone's patience and ability to cooperate with others. Others who have laid it agree. But laying laminate in my living room is different story entirely. I live in a 110 year old farm house. When we got here we raised the house and had a foundation put around the outside edge and beam supports under the center, (we think). The goal was to level the house. And it did sort of level it. It was no longer a world class skate board arena, nor was it level like an ice arena. With time, the center has sagged and well, we use shims under everything to level things out.
The directions say to start with a clean, level floor. No slopes greater than 1/4 inch per 5 feet. Hah! Where is the challenge in that? I did buy a couple boxes of laminate and put them together in a sloping area to see that they would sage into conformity and it appeared they would. So we went for it. At first, my roommate and I worked alone. The room is 15 x 15. We found we had to piece together 4 planks to snap into the previous row all at once. We started where the floor was reasonably level. After laying 5 rows in 4 hours we decided we really needed a third person to manage the 15' expanse.
Saturday was the day. Travis the strong joined us. We should have taken a video.
We ran a string from one side to the other to see how great the slope was. And then built up the sloping areas with cardboard and foam mats to level it enough to snap the boards together. It is an exercise in absolute coordination and infinite patience. Everyone had to get their section to click into place and stay there. If the planks began to separate or if the seam was gapping in the least you had to wait or start over. Let me say we had 3 rows that went down easily! And 5 rows that took more than 10 tries. We had to work again on Sunday to finish.
When all was said and done, there were only 2 places where cardboard had gotten left under the floor. One I was was able to get out with a 4' mantal yardstick and lots of maneuvering. The other piece is still there causing a mushy spot but a chair sits over the area. Maybe that cardboard will flatten out with time? It looks great now. The laminate did sag to match the floor. We lived to tell the tale.
Did I say we had 4 dogs helping? Did I mention that they perferred to be in the middle of the action? You might wondoer at our sanity about that but one we are dog sitting so she had to be in. Then the others were jealous and aggravated us so asking to be let in that that seemed easier than keeping them out. The new puppy, Rooti, (that doesn't like to be touched) wanted to help. His idea was to peel the duct tape off the floor for us. We used it to help keep the planks aligned when we were snapping them in place. Rooti was so determined at this task that I had to remove all tape Saturday night before going to bed so he wouldn't eat it. We never gave him a chance to eat it but he did chew on it after pulling it up. He's teething. I wasn't taking any chances.
Like I said, the process was an American Home Video moment. We did look around for a camera more than once. Now we have a new floor. It looks great! We did it ourselves. It is another great why for loving my life so much!
The directions say to start with a clean, level floor. No slopes greater than 1/4 inch per 5 feet. Hah! Where is the challenge in that? I did buy a couple boxes of laminate and put them together in a sloping area to see that they would sage into conformity and it appeared they would. So we went for it. At first, my roommate and I worked alone. The room is 15 x 15. We found we had to piece together 4 planks to snap into the previous row all at once. We started where the floor was reasonably level. After laying 5 rows in 4 hours we decided we really needed a third person to manage the 15' expanse.
Saturday was the day. Travis the strong joined us. We should have taken a video.
We ran a string from one side to the other to see how great the slope was. And then built up the sloping areas with cardboard and foam mats to level it enough to snap the boards together. It is an exercise in absolute coordination and infinite patience. Everyone had to get their section to click into place and stay there. If the planks began to separate or if the seam was gapping in the least you had to wait or start over. Let me say we had 3 rows that went down easily! And 5 rows that took more than 10 tries. We had to work again on Sunday to finish.
When all was said and done, there were only 2 places where cardboard had gotten left under the floor. One I was was able to get out with a 4' mantal yardstick and lots of maneuvering. The other piece is still there causing a mushy spot but a chair sits over the area. Maybe that cardboard will flatten out with time? It looks great now. The laminate did sag to match the floor. We lived to tell the tale.
Did I say we had 4 dogs helping? Did I mention that they perferred to be in the middle of the action? You might wondoer at our sanity about that but one we are dog sitting so she had to be in. Then the others were jealous and aggravated us so asking to be let in that that seemed easier than keeping them out. The new puppy, Rooti, (that doesn't like to be touched) wanted to help. His idea was to peel the duct tape off the floor for us. We used it to help keep the planks aligned when we were snapping them in place. Rooti was so determined at this task that I had to remove all tape Saturday night before going to bed so he wouldn't eat it. We never gave him a chance to eat it but he did chew on it after pulling it up. He's teething. I wasn't taking any chances.
Like I said, the process was an American Home Video moment. We did look around for a camera more than once. Now we have a new floor. It looks great! We did it ourselves. It is another great why for loving my life so much!
posted by Patricia @ 8:04 AM
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