June 22, 2009

Installing hardwood floors

Hi there, it's been a while since we've posted or done much with the house. We finally got a weekend and some money to put down a floor over the OSB I put down. We had planned to do a laminate floor since they are tough and less expensive and easy to put down. But our experience with Ikea's cheap $1.29 s/f floor made us decide on a high quality (thick) laminate that was $2.50 s/f. And at that price it only a little more to go hardwood and hopefully add some value to our house.

We found some Brazilian Teak at Lumber Liquidators on sale for $3.99 a s/f. It's supposed to be the 80% harder than oak and therefor tougher. Were doing the living room, kitchen and hall way, about 320 s/f. This weekend we had to move all the furniture into the yard for the 4th or 5th time and started installing it. I rented a air powered toe nailer for $35 a day and went at the floor all day Saturday and Sunday. Most of the living room and kitchen are done... Still need to rent it again. I floored under the fridge because that will make rolling it our easier or possible actually. Not sure what most people do about that. Do they floor under the slide in stove? I only went under the front legs just past where the toekicks of the cabinets end.

Looks great so far! It's got tons of variations in color and grain which is what we wanted. Brodie has been totally afraid to come inside this weekend, the air nailer, compresser and us hammering the wood totally freaks him out. So I don't know if he will scratch the floor yet.

I'll post more pics later.

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