When we bought the house it had laminate wood floors. Not Pergo but some other fake wood like product. We will be having new hardwood installed in the kitchen and main floor hallway so we decided to tackle floor preparation next.
This task is really two separate tasks. Step one is to remove the existing floor and step two is to fix the floors so they are level. There are actually several places in the house where we have dips or slants in the floor. The dining room floor drops off about an inch towards the living room (this is the problem we have been jacking the house up to fix but there is still a slant). There is a pretty large low spot in the bedroom that we will use for an office also.
First, since the kids were home over break we decided it would only be right if we got some free labor out of them. We had a ripping out party in late December - 12/23 to be exact.
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This is what we started with - fake wood all through the Dining Room and Kitchen (not shown) |
Using various pry tools the floor came up pretty easy. Well easy in my opinion. Mark and Matt did most of the work. I just had to haul the trash out to the dumpster!
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After the fake wood was removed - Dining Room looking into the Kitchen |
The white stuff that you see on the floor in the middle of the picture is some kind of leveling material. The kitchen floor had a layer of linoleum on it which made it an 1/8th of an inch higher than the Dining Room. Rather than bring up the Dining Room floor they made a transition to compensate for the difference. We also found that the Dining Room and Kitchen are higher than the Front Hallway so we will be installing plywood to fix that before the new wood floor is installed.
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Emily got tired of hauling and decided she should pry some flooring up |
While we were taking out the flooring, we also took out a lot of wall and door trim. It is all piled up in the picture below.
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Working hard while Dixie sleeps in the background |
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The Dining Room to the Hallway wasn't the same either - the Hallway is 1/4 inch lower so more leveling mess. I scraped all that white stuff away and we will cover the hallway with plywood to make it flush with the Dining room. |
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Teamwork - Emily pries it up, Matt kicks it (with a sprained ankle) to break it off, Mark advises and I take pictures. |
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Almost got it! |
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It takes two to pull it apart! |
After we got the flooring all taken out, we met with the hardwood floor guys who advised us on how best to prepare the floor for the new wood. In the dining room, some kind of pressed board was used. It looked like saw dust mixed with glue and formed into rectangles. It is not a good surface for installing hardwood as the nails blow right through it so we had to remove that subfloor. We took the opportunity to fix the slope in the floor as well and installed new plywood so we now have a good strong subfloor for the new hardwood.
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New Dining Room Plywood Subfloor |
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Looking back into the kitchen |
The Dining Room area is ready to go but we still had a challenge in the Hallway and Kitchen. That challenge was hundreds of staples that remained behind when we pulled up the fake wood floor. While this job was really annoying I was happy to have it completed as I was getting really tired of my shoe getting caught on them as I was walking around. Nothing like feeling like you are tripping all the time.
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Tiny staples that had to be pounded in or pulled out |
Mark chose to pound them in. I pulled them out with a side cutter. I tried pounding them in but half the time I missed and the other half I was pounding them in sideways so then they weren't flush. In my completely anal-retentive way I wanted the floor perfectly smooth when I was done. It gave me a feeling of great accomplishment. Oh the little things in life.....
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Mark using a heavy hammer to pound the staples in |
When we got to the back hallway we discovered that there was an area in front of the door that was covered in linoleum which was making it a 1/4th of an inch higher than the rest of the hallway. I pulled all the staples out and then scraped up all the linoleum. It was kinda hard work but it didn't take all that long to get it done. Part of the subfloor also had substantial mold and rot so we cut it out and replaced it.
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Back Hallway with moldy rotten subfloor replaced and linoleum removed |
The entire surface is now staple-free from the front door all the way through the hallway, dining room, kitchen, laundry room and back hallway. The only thing left to do is put in the hallway plywood and the floor will be ready for hardwood.
We had other places to fix the floor too.
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Dip in the office floor - before |
We could put a long board across the floor and there were places that it did not touch the flooring. Not good. I can just see my pencil rolling off the desk every time I set it down.
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We used this board to see how low it was |
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Newly installed level subfloor |
The subfloor in the front hall closet as well as the upstairs hallway had to be replaced as well because it was the "sawdust" board. Not sure why the proper subfloor was used in some places but not in others. Can't quite figure that one out.
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Upstairs hallway partially complete |
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Another view of upstairs hallway with new subfloor |
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New subfloor in front hall closet - ready for hardwood
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