Prepping... For the Big Project

After fixing my tablesaw fence, I set about winterizing the garage. This meant mostly getting my snow blower from it's place in the corner and putting it in the center of the back wall of the garage so I can retrieve it for use clearing the driveway without pulling either of the vehicles out of their snug places in the garage. All the summer garden hoses, produce wagon, buckets and other things get tucked in the now vacant corner where they are out of way until spring when I reverse the process. 

With that done, I set my eyes on prepping for the next project. Some may recall that last year, I did the great bedroom swap. My eldest moved downstairs to the MIL suite, my MIL moved up to my youngest room and the youngest moved into the eldest room. As part of that swap, I had to replace the carpet in the new MIL room upstairs and took the opportunity to start redoing the laminate flooring downstairs in the now eldest bedroom. 

Over the years, I've touched every room and just about every surface in one form or another as I have fixed things up. One of the surfaces that has bugged me that entire time but I haven't touched was the flooring in the basement. It was a very cheap laminate floor installed over the concrete basement floor that had no vapor barrier used when it was poured 50 years ago as was the custom back then. As a result, water vapor has migrated up through the concrete slab and been absorbed the the cheap wood laminate flooring causing it to blister and pucker at every single seam. It looks hideous when one looks at it closely in good lighting but the dark color and poor lighting of the basement mostly kept it hidden from being easily noticed which is why it has taken me this long to fix it. 

I started by tearing it out in the new eldest bedroom and installing a luxury vinyl plank (LVP) product in it's place. The LVP is water proof so is unaffected by moisture migrating through the concrete and best of all, should the basement ever flood, I could remove the flooring, clean it, dry it, and reinstall it without issue.  I got my daughter's bedroom done, the first piece of the great bedroom swap, and then stopped so I could completely redo the other two bedrooms in the swap. By the time that occurred, spring was upon us and time was short. The rest of the LVP planks (which look just like wood planks) have sat in my basement storage room waiting for another winter to arrive.

That day will soon be here and so I have begun to prep for replacing the rest of the basement flooring with LVP. Part of that prep involved getting kneepads, something I regrettable didn't have last winter. The other part was coming up with another cutting method. Last winter, I used my cross cut saw that I use in woodworking. It worked well but it very heavy and hard to carry down the stairs and so I wheeled it underneath our deck and used it outside on the patio. Going in and out of a house during winter, tracking in snow, and having to tarp it whenever there was rain or snow in the forecast wasn't a pleasant experience and so I sought an alternative. For a reasonable penny or two, I could buy a laminate flooring cutter seen at the top of this lengthy post that allows me to cut the flooring to size while emitting no dust, was easy to carry and portable so I could use and keep it inside all winter as I work. I haven't tried it out yet to verify it can indeed cut the LVP but if it does, it should make the project much more enjoyable.