New floor

Well, some time has passed since Carlos installed the laminate flooring in the living room/dining room/kitchen.  Let me back up a bit to tell you about our floor purchase:

We initially wanted wood floors.  The whole rest of the house has hardwood flooring, and we love it.  They are beautiful and easy to take care of.  We considered bamboo, (for its durability, environmentally friendly, and its beauty) but it cost more than we were ready to spend. We also like, and considered, cork flooring, (it’s environmentally friendly; it’s antimicrobial, water resistant and fire retardant; it’s though, soft and warm; it’s acoustic insulator; looks great, easy to install and its affordable) but with five large dogs cork was not the way to go for us.  I was disappointed about having to walk away from cork, but Carlos and I try hard to be logical with our purchase decisions.

So after doing some research on-line, we decided to start considering laminate flooring.  Laminate flooring’s thickness can vary between 3 mm and 12 mm.  Lumber Liquidators carries 12mm laminate flooring which we did not find at Lowe’s or The Home Depot.  The thicker options are not necessarily higher quality, but that usually ends up being the case.  When laminate flooring is installed, a moisture barrier should be put down over the original flooring first to prevent damage to the underside of new laminate.  After that, a sound insulating layer should be put down.  Thicker options of laminate flooring usually come with the moisture barrier and sound insulating material pre-attached, so it makes installing a snap.  The total cost of tools for installing the laminate flooring was about $15 (we already had a hammer).  We actually could have installed the floor without buying any new tools at all, but since it was our first time putting laminate down, we decided to get the block and spacers.

Take a look at the ugly laminate flooring that we had hiding under our carpet.  You can actually see a little of the carpet that remains, peeking out of our pantry door.  Pulling the carpet up was a job in itself, but the worst part was pulling the laminate up and then the ten gazillion staples and nails that were all over the entire floor from the carpet install years ago.

In this picture you can also see the wood paneling that was on the walls.

And here is a shot of the space with the new floor and drywall.  We still hadn’t painted the walls yet, and there isn’t any trim around the French doors or where the walls meet the floors.   I’ll put photos of those finished projects soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We love how the space looks now with the new laminate and the drywall in place of the wood paneling.  It’s so easy to care for, and with five dogs, let me tell you, ease of cleaning is a must!  Now we just need a couple of area rugs to separate the spaces and set off each room.

Has anyone else installed new flooring?  Share your deets = )

~ L.

Hey, check out this post over @younghouselove.  John and Sherry installed cork floors, but the process is similar, if not the same, as installing our laminate floor.

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• How to Install Laminate Flooring (answers.com)