Hardwood Floors With A Twist

When we built this house some 18 years ago (where did the time go!) we had the same berber carpet put in all the bedrooms. Fast forward those 18 years and it was time to change our bedroom flooring. The other bedrooms see very little traffic so they will probably outlast us.

Back in the spring we set out to order hardwood flooring, knowing it would have to acclimate for a period in the house, and well…life got busy. So the 9 boxes of flooring sat patiently in the hallway waiting to be installed.

We scooted past those boxes for months, single file. Every visitor would have a question and want to check out the new flooring. On their second and third visit, they would give the flooring the side eye…”When are you starting the flooring” they would say. “Soon, hopefully” I would reply.

With the skid steer in for repairs, almost everything outdoors came to a screeching halt. That’s when we decided to tackle this job. Now or never.

The flooring we bought is birch hardwood, I believe it was select grade, so no knots and less variation in color than regular birch. And here is the pattern we decided to do at each corner working our way to the center. Maybe that’s why we kept putting it off, hmm.

Up early on a Saturday, we ambitiously thought if we work hard we can have the room put back together by evening. We began by emptying the room of furnishings, everything ended up in the living room and dining room. Then we cut the carpet into strips, rolled it up and put it outdoors. We did the same to the underlay, and also removed all staples and carpet tack strips.

Instead of removing the baseboards, we decided to undercut all the way around the room using a piece of new flooring as a guide.

I followed along behind Jim digging out the pieces that needed to be removed.

Now we were ready to start the fun part. Wait…hold the phone…the new birch flooring turned out to be about 1/16th of an inch higher than the hall hardwood (which they don’t sell anymore). Now you might say, that is a minuscule difference. And to that I would say you are right, except if it is there I will continuously strike my toe on it. That’s just my life. Also, Jim wanted the two floors to meet seamlessly as if they were put in at the same time.

Shims to the rescue!! With a piece of new flooring in hand, we added shims, just to raise the hall flooring up ever so slightly to meet the new flooring.

Then we cut off any excess shim so the new flooring would sit right next to the old flooring. Worked like a charm. Only one thing wrong. It was now lunch time and we hadn’t even laid one piece of flooring. It was going to be a long afternoon if we were to meet our evening deadline.

After we had the paper layer in place and to speed up the process, Jim gave me a quick demo on using the flooring stapler. Then we were off to the races.

Only made a couple of mistakes by not hitting it hard enough.

By supper time, here is how far we got. lol The first few rows were a learning curve with the corners. Also every board needed to be cut or trimmed or routed, sometimes more than once. All cutting was done outdoors. That’s a lot of trips back and forth for Jim.

Guess we won’t be sleeping in here as planned.

The next morning we were ever more determined to get this project finished, even made other plans for the afternoon on Sunday. Apparently we are slow learners.

We continued around the room in circles, inching ever closer to the center.

Check out this corner…

We left a note for anyone who lives here in the future and decides they like carpet better in a bedroom.

With the main part of the floor finished, we tackled the closet, laying the boards in the normal way.

Ready to see our masterpiece…

One more.

By this time it was 7pm. Yes, I said it, 7pm Sunday night. But we were finished and with everything moved back in, we could sleep in our own room again.

Although it took longer (cough) than we thought to lay this floor, it was worth it in the end. We can now enjoy this flooring for the remainder of our days cause it will never be changed again. Mark my words.

Later