Call Me Mr. YouTube

 

The painting went fairly smoothly and I kind of enjoy it. A couple years back, I bought a pair of ISOtunes earmuffs that sync with my phone via bluetooth so I can listen to my favorite music or podcast while still receiving ear protection from loud sounds around me. I bought it mainly for entertainment while mowing lawn but it works well while I'm in the shop though I try to use caution when wearing them around running power tools lest I forget they are running.

After the paint dried, I started rehabbing the closet. I will do another post on that so won't bore you with the details other than to say, I was missing parts and so had to stop. Thus I decided to get started laying down the new floor.

I have done a few tile jobs over the years, namely small bathroom floors and our walk-in shower and with our three year old addition and kitchen remodel, I became experienced in laying solid tongue and groove wood flooring. But laying a floating vinyl planking floor was new to me. I knew the pieces locked together and I needed to leave about 1/4" expansion gap all around the edge so thought it was as easy as that. I ripped open the box and started laying flooring.

Soon however, I was hot, sweaty and extremely frustrated. Nothing was fitting right, gaps were appearing and even pieces coming unconnected. It wasn't a pleasant experience. So I got up, walked out of the room and sat down to rest a few minutes. Then I fired up the internet and started typing in search words for laying vinyl plank flooring and soon had a few videos under my belt. There was a lot more than just clicking them together.

My chief sin was that I started right next to the far wall, leaving the 1/4" gap of course and assuming it was straight. It wasn't. Then with the closet doorway soon into play, I was trying to cut pieces around obstacles and trying to keep everything straight. It just didn't work well.

The videos taught me to start away from the wall, (I can evidently fill those in later working backwards) and to just concentrate on laying at least 3 or 4 rows, clicking them together and ensuring there were no gaps instead of trying to align them to crooked walls. So I uninstalled everything I had done up to that point and tried again. Once I had four rows together, the entire section was very stiff and straight at that point. From there, I measured and created halfway marks on the floor from the wall leading to the bathroom and family room area. I figured I wanted to hit that wall parallel and the far wall above could just remain crooked as it wouldn't be noticeable. 

Once I marked the halfway point of the room on the floor, I aligned the rows I had snapped together to the line only something was very wrong. I couldn't believe that far wall was that far out and finally started double checking my halfway measurements and realized one was almost 2" off. Not sure how that happened, measure twice, cut once and all that. So I corrected my mark and aligned the floor again. This time things looked good and the four rows were now straight and parallel to my marks. From there it was off to the races.

The adding of additional rows went easily and I got more done in the following hour than I had accomplished the three hours before. I did have to remove the baseboard trim after all. It was just always in the way of getting a good connection with the next plank. It sucks because now I will most likely have to go back, tape up the reattached trim and do touch up painting where the trim no longer met my fresh paint line. But at least I can scoot around doing that on a nice smooth floor.

I wasn't too sure about adding planks backwards towards the far wall as the instructions said nothing about going backwards. But Mr. YouTube influencer assured me it was possible and so I tried by adding two partial rows you see along the far side. They indeed went in fairly easily and so I can work my way back to the wall and cut around the doorway after everything else is in place, straight, and not so easily bent in unwanted directions. I figure one more day will allow me to finish this room's floor, including all the cutting and piecing in the walk-in closet and then the rest in the hallway and great room can wait for a day when everyone is settled in their new bedrooms.