a (very) basic lesson on installing hardwood floors

you know how right after something traumatic happens, you don't want to talk about it for a while?
like talking about it almost brings back all of the pain and aguish?
that's a little bit how i feel about installing hardwood floors!
(i am kinda joking about that, and kinda NOT joking at the same time!)
i also happen to feel that way about moving!

anyway, i just wanted to give y'all a very breief intrciduction to how my husband and i spent about 300 hours of our lives:
i wouldn't use this as a guide on exactly how to install hardwood floors, but it will defeintely give you an idea of what you are getting yourself into if you decide to tackle this yourself!

for best results, a 15 pound felt underlayment should be laid down on top of the subfloor, which acts as a vapor barrier. (that's the black stuff you see! it comes in a big roll and is available at any home improvement store.)

be sure that the floor is swept and free of debris before the felt is laid down. any lumps or bumps could create uneven spots in the floor.


we stapled down about half of the felt, but ultimately found that NOT stapling it down worked the best to reduce wrinkling and bubbles.

hardwood comes in bundles, like you see here. the woods needs to be acclimated to the space where it will be installed because it is sensitive to moisture levels and temperature and will expand and contract. bringing it inside a few days before it will be laid will allow it to "get used" to the air in your house.

bring over at least 2 bundles of wood close to where you will be laying out the floor.
mixing two bundles will ensure an even distribution of lengths, color and grain.
we laid red oak #2, which means that the wood has some "flaws" like wormholes and knots. we actually love the "flaws", and feel like it gives a floor more character. there are also on occasion, boards that cant be used due to missing tongues or grooves, or really large knots and imperfections. we found that, on average, about 10% of the boards were "undesirable" or unusable.
(red oak #1 is a more "even" product--less variation, fewer worm holes and knots. it also costs more that #2.)

carefully cut the plastic straps that hold the bundles together. it is best to cut on the underside of the wood, so you don't score the face of the planks with your utility knife. (the underside of the wood has grooves on it that allow for air movement and help the wood to lay flat on an uneven surface. the top surface is flat.)

next, you "rack" the wood, which means you lay it out on the floor exactly the way in which it will be nailed down.

a few things to consider:
make sure the joints are not too close together. a good rule is at least 2.5 widths of wood between each seam. this will ensure a stronger floor.


make sure that each plank fits together nicely. sometimes they are milled wrong or are missing a tongue or groove.
we found that the work went faster when the "racker" was 4-8 rows ahead of the "nailer".

leave enough space in between where you are racking and where the wood is being nailed in place so that there is room for the nailer to hammer in the staples.
at the end of each row, there will almost always need to be a cut made.

for this project, we used a table saw (for long narrow rips along walls), a chop saw (for end cuts), and a jig saw (for cuts around heat registers and door casings).

each plank gets tapped into place with a rubber mallet. sometimes they go in smoothly, but other times they need some serious whacking.

once the plank is in place, the rubber mallet is used to drive the nail or staple in place. we used staples,
and drove them in about every 6". even though the nail gun is pneumatic, it still takes a pretty hefty swing of the mallet to drive the staple in! translation: it is hard work and will make you sweat a lot.


the staple should fit nicely, right at the top of the tongue. see how you can barely see the staple? that's what you want!

sometimes, the staple splits the wood or doesn't go in properly.
if that is the case, it must be removed with with a hammer and chisel, and the entire area cleaned of wood chips and debris.
loads of fun. 
(can you hear the sarcasm dripping off that comment? i hope so. that part was the WORST.)

as you move along, the area where you will be laying the wood needs to be cleaned to ensure that everything lays perfectly flat.

once you get close to a wall, the staple gun cant be used becuase there is not enough room to swing the hammer. a nail gun must be used instead.

of course, laying the wood is just the  beginning of the process...

 but the hard work...

 is definitely worth it in the end!

have a great thursday everyone!

shopping for carpet

confession.

i actually picked out my carpet a while ago, but i have been so wrapped up in other selections, and carpet installation seemed EONS away, that i just totally forgot to share my selections with you!

a friend of mine with incredible taste had just remodeled her house and gave me a a tour.  she had done a lot if digging around to find a really affordable source for her carpet, and generously shared with me where she bought hers. (buy direct flooring in layton, in case any of you locals were wondering. this friend is also how i "found" the elongated hex tile that i used in my upstairs bathroom!) 

anyway, i went there, and headed straight for their "bargain" priced carpets, only to find that i didn't like ANY of the carpets that were in my price range. 

(i know y'all are SHOCKED!)

all of the carpets in my budget were multi-colored frieze carpets except for one, which was really thin and looked like matted doll hair. 

yuck, right?

i think i have a pair of pants thicker than that carpet! it was plasticy and yucky, and felt like it would wear out within MONTHS.

i have had multi-colored frieze carpet in the last two rentals houses we have lived in, and while they actually wear pretty well, and hide dirt really well (and small toys, jewelry, and who knows what else!), i wanted something more solid in appearance--almost like a natural fiber rug. 

SO, i asked if there were any loop (often called berber)  or low pile patterned carpets that i could afford....

i managed to find three that i liked:

(they were still a little out of my budget, but thank goodness the owner at buy direct worked with me!)

two of the carpets were a cut pile carpet with touches of texture due to some looped accents.

they were all really soft and pretty, and were all 100% nylon, but in the end, i liked the loop style the best.

 i love how it mimics a sisal rug!

 it also had a great selection of colors to choose from.

i wanted a color that wasnt' brown, tan or grey, but something in between all of them.

and dark. i really wanted the carpet to be a grounding element in the upstairs, and, like ANY mom, i want it to hide the dirt that i know my kids will drag in!

i ended up selecting the "soft pewter"color.

some people would freak out about choosing a carpet this dark, but not me. i love a dark carpet!

another view:

it is called "high style loop". 

it is manufactured by shaw, and part of thier HGTV home flooring selection.

a few things to consider before you shop for carpet:

1. price will be affected by the material the carpet is made from. generally, synthetics like olefin and polypropylene are not as crush resistant or soft as nylon, but cost less. nylon is the standard, but, like any fiber, there are things which affect the pricing. natural fibers like wool are more expensive than nylon.

2. the density or "weight" of the fibers packed into the carpet will effect price and performance. generally,the more fibers per square yard, the higher the cost and the better the performance.

3. most carpet is priced by the square yard, which can be tricky when trying to compare costs of other types of flooring.

4. there are different grades of padding. the padding you choose can affect the wear and lifespan of your carpet, so this is not a good place to skimp!

5. installation is generally included in the price, but make sure your quote includes both pad and installation. things that affect installation costs are stairs, angled rooms and carpet type. (for instance, some installers charge more for loop carpets because the seams are harder to "hide" and they take longer than with a cut pile.)

first look-master bathroom shower floor

the tile installers just finished laying the patterned tile on the shower floor in the master bedroom.

it is every bit as gorgeous as i imagined it would be!

 (i seriously didn't want to leave the house yesterday evening! i kept walking into the bathroom and fawning over this floor.)

the 3 x 6 tiles were purchased at home depot, and the black squares were cut from the larger tiles of  slate that is also in my sons bathroom upstairs and in the laundry room.
i love how the pattern references the herringbone that is laid on the rest of the floor, but the black accents really add some drama and fun!
this is not a pattern that i see very often, but it is really easy to pull of with only two sizes of tile and simple cuts. a lot of the patterns that i was considering had lots of angled and mitered cuts, and were really complex. i think the "design payoff" of this pattern is hard to beat! (simple + easy yet bold + sophisticated)



what do y'all think??
i absolutely love it!

 check out Bathroom 365 for a great selection of all you bathroom remodeling needs!

construction progress: week 15-18

the last few weeks have been a blur. we have been doing a lot of work ourselves and have been at the house at least 4-5 nights a week, which has been exciting and exhausting. the house is really starting to take shape!

here is an idea of what has been happening:

we decided that we wanted to fully enclose the shower for a more custom look. here is my husband and a helper installing the ceiling curb.

we primed the entire main floor. we ran out of time to prime the upstairs, so that will be happeining in the next 2 weeks. 

the custom exterior doors were delivered...

...and installed. they are alder. although i thought it might be fun to paint them with a dark high gloss finish, my husband really want to see some of the natural grain, and so we are opting for an opaque stain. 

and, the HARDWOOD floors were started!

THIS is the main thing that has happening at the house the last 3 weeks.

we decided on oak floors, and in particular red oak. oak is affordable, looks great, and is very durable. when purchasing oak, you can get different grades. we always get RED OAK #2. this means that there are more imperfections that if you opted for grade #1. i love the worm holes and knots and variations that come with the #2 red oak. it adds a lot of character. another factor that affects the price is the width of the wood planks. the wider the plank, the more it costs. we chose 3 1/4" planks. 

we purchased our wood through al stosich at sunwood distributors in midvale.

the wood comes with a tongue on one side and a groove on the other, and must be fitted together and then nailed in place. after it is all laid, it will need to be filled (large knots and any gaps), sanded, stained, and then coated with polyurethane. yes...that is a lot of steps....but once you have had hardwood floors that have been finished on-site, you will realize how wonderful they are. manufactured and pre-finished wood floors just can't come close to the look and feel!

its been exciting to see the wood floors slowly going in.

keyword...s-l-o-w-l-y.

since a lot of the cost of hardwood floors is in the installation, we are saving a ton of money by doing it ourselves.  it is a lot of work, but SO worth it! we actually decided to run the hardwood in the master bedroom, because it was cheaper than carpet! crazy, right?

my kids have been troopers! they have spent a lot of time in the last couple of weeks, curled up on those camp chairs. they have been reading up a storm and getting some ipod time in as well.

we are ALMOST done. we are literally just a few hours away from being completely finished. i can't wait! phew!

another exciting day---the doors and trim were delivered, and we have started to install both. my husband has some great friends that have come over and helped. they have been fantastic!

as always, we continued to get snow. it snowed every single week of the last month. blech!

other happenings:

narrowing down carpet....

choosing cabinet colors...

narrowing down a stain color for the exterior doors.

trying to find tile in our budget that i like...(harder than i thought it would be. *sigh.)

looking at stone slabs. i hope we can afford to put in stone counter tops. we still have a few things that may "shift" our budget....

and FINALLY---the exterior siding is going up! the entire back side of the house is done, and they are working on the sides and the front. it has been exciting to drive up to the house and SEE the changes! my husband has tweaked the exterior details on the front of the house a bit, and i am excited to see his ideas come to life!