Basement Flooring Project... Begins Again
Last spring during the big bedroom swap project, I refloored the room to be my eldest new bedroom, formerly the mother-in-law suite, down the hallway to the right in the above photo. Running out of time due to the return of the mother-in-law, I opted to not continue the flooring down the hall and into the family room, despite having bought enough to do all that, so I could finish up her new room which had formerly belonged to my youngest and then finish up the youngest room, formerly belonging to her older sister. Clear as mud?
By the time I got all the bedrooms repaired, repainted, items hung as desired, etc., it was spring and so the remainder of the flooring project got put on hold for outside things, like gardening, working in the garage/shop, etc. But with more snow than we typically get in an average year and more than we had gotten in the last three years combined, and temperatures bottomed out 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, I decided perhaps I should restart that project again.
Previous occupants had ripped up most likely carpet and installed cheap laminate wood flooring on top of the concrete floor. The problem with that is in the early 70's when this house was built, there was no concerns on things like water vaper coming up through the porous concrete slab because we didn't but moisture absorbing products over it as flooring and houses weren't very air tight so any vaper that did come through could evaporate straight away. What this means is that over time, moisture has been absorbed by the cheap laminate wood flooring causing the finish along every seam and joint to blister and bubble. It looks hideous.
The solution at this point is to tear out the flooring and either install a vaper barrier on the inside of the house preventing moisture from getting in or to install vaper permeable flooring like carpet again. We went the former route by installing a vaper barrier and new "wood" looking flooring product called vinyl planking. It certainly isn't my favorite product especially when most of the upstairs has solid wood flooring, but since we mostly just spend winter weekends down in this room enjoying the fireplace, i.e. not a lot of time, I thought it would be sufficient for our needs and as a bonus, won't look like crap when it is time to sell the place, if ever.
Laying vinyl planking was a learning experience which I wrote about last spring and how difficult it was to get everything straight and clicked together, especially working through door jambs. The hallway above has three such door jambs in about six feet! Fortunately I had done some YouTube research in the ensuing months and figured out ways to get the floor in place and interlocked without having to remove the entire door jambs of three doors in order to get everything tilted into place. It was a bit of tedious work but I am definitely much happier with the end result.
It was also tedious getting all the planks to come out of the hallway into the family room and lay straight and correctly interlocked with no straight or square walls to reference. I had to fiddle with things for half a day before I got everything just right and perfectly straight. Unfortunately, my cuts close to the sliding patio doors (with the curtains) ended up being quite a ways off when I achieved straight so there is a large gap there. My hope though is that after I finish the rest of the room, assuming I have the extra I planned for, I will cut new pieces to replace the miscut pieces and backfill. Not as easy as working forward in the direction as told, but I found out with my daughter's room last March, can be done.
After the above picture was taken, after nearly an entire day and a half of work, I was able to double the area floored in about 10 minutes. Vinyl plank flooring is like that, hard to get straight but very fast once you do. I had to stop, shift about half the furniture over against the now completed wall, to expose the middle third of the room so I can repeat the process. Not having anyplace to move all the furniture to be out of the way except upstairs and I sure as heck wasn't going to move all the furniture upstairs, I'm having to do the flooring in stages. Fortunately, Vinyl planking is good for doing that as well.
I am floored by your capabilities.
ReplyDeleteI have found that hard labor induces sleep, a perk to those of us who don't sleep very long hours.
DeleteNice choice in flooring, it looks great!
ReplyDeleteI don't particularly care for the feeling of walking on plastic but I think it will serve its purpose and I do like the lighter color of the "wood". It makes the small room look twice as big as it did with the dark colored engineered wood floors I tore out.
DeleteBeautiful flooring! Vinyl plank is the way to go these days it seems. It's cheaper, easier and less likely to scratch. (although according to some friends, still possible to damage)
ReplyDeleteI don't know about easier, unless you are counting proper tools. I much preferred to install solid wood flooring as it was much much easier to work around obstacles. But it did require a pneumatic nailer that vinyl doesn't require.
DeleteLooking good! Again, like many of your projects, it's way beyond anything I'd feel comfortable tackling.
ReplyDeleteI think with about 10 minutes of verbal instructions, even you could do this in a square room.
DeleteWe put in vinyl plank flooring downstairs - it was pretty fast and easy with the 2 tools - one thing pulls and the other is a block that is whacked by a hammer to snap the lengths together. It doesn't feel as good as real wood flooring but we covered up old sheet laminate that was starting to separate and looked terrible. I also liked how furniture just glided over it into a side so the other side could be done.
ReplyDeleteI give you a LOT of credit for being able to remove and refit pieces that were eyesores for you. I cheated and used their "wood" putty. Doesn't look that great but it suffices.
I expect Hawaii is pretty tough of anything but vinyl flooring humidity wise.
DeleteI think that looks great! When we had our original carpet taken out, we opted for laminate flooring. It seemed the best option at the time (we had Rottweilers living in the house) and we've never regretted it.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty biased as I grew up in old houses with 50+ year old solid wood flooring. But I do admit that every type has it's place and time.
DeleteGood job! I tried to follow your first paragraph describing the history of the room and the hallway, and I think I've got it, but would not want to be tested! :-) But good job, as usual! I'm glad the flooring has gone quickly.
ReplyDeleteShort version is that three people switched bedrooms all at once.
DeleteWe have 3/4" oak flooring upstairs, but I went with vinyl plank when I finished out the basement. In our new addition, the basement will remain concrete (it'll be a shop) and the floors on the other two levels will be cork (my daughter works for a cork importing company, which is the only way I could justify the expense)
ReplyDeleteI really like solid wood flooring but it can't be easily installed everywhere. Thus far, I am pleased with the vinyl planking.
DeleteWe (Art) put in flooring that wasn't wood and it has lasted beautifully for 15 years+ now. It looks like new and doesn't have a scratch on it that I can see. We made the mistake of putting in real maple (I think) wood flooring in our Chicago kitchen. The fridge leaked water and the wood shrunk and warped where the moisture seeped. That's why Art decided against real wood here in Hawaii. PLUS termites!
ReplyDeleteI think with real wood flooring, damage in inevitable due to the lifespan, i.e. it can last for 100+ years. The old farmhouse I grew up in had plenty of damaged spots, some repaired. But with a good sanding to make everything smoothish and some clear finish, I think it looks beautiful blemishes and all and I hope ours will do the same. I'm not optimistic at all that the vinyl planking will last even 20 years, but I think it was the best choice for the room and situation at hand.
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