The original floor in the living room was this weird bamboo parquet squares. It was paint splattered and dirty. All the other rooms had been stripped of flooring down to the original subfloor underneath. We of course wanted seamless matching flooring in all the front public rooms.
According to FHA rules we needed to get the house up to "living standards," in order to move in, which included new floors. Unfortunately, the rules also required the use of a contractor. Between, the fancy dark oak we wanted and the estimates for the installation by the contractors, we were looking at some major dough.... So, to save a little money we thought we would do the demo ourselves.
How hard can removing 4x4 parquet square flooring be?
Apparently, really, really HARD!
So first we thought we could remove it be using a tile scraper.
Nope, ended up busting the rented machine (thank goodness for insurance)
Not only were the parquet squares connected by interlocking lips, but also wire and glue!
The best, and only tool for the job was a crowbar and hammer. Unfortunately, we could only do one square at a time and the glue had fused with some of the subfloor in certain areas. Where the floor was soft and weak, when we pried the parquet with the crow bar, it would also pry huge chunks of the subfloor with it. It was horrible. Not to mention a very arduous process that required us to be bending over for hours at a time. Clean up was just as hard. We shoveled, broomed, and shop vac-ed forever.
It took us at least a week to finish it all. Done?
Nope! We also made the mistake of thinking we were done
Oh but that is not all! The contractors could not start till the floors were "install ready," and we could not move in till the floors where installed. But remember that when we were demo-ing and in certain areas we also accidently pried huge chunks of the subfloor. Apparently, this made the floor not "install ready" according to the contractors and if we couldn't do anything about it within the next two days the floor contractors could not install our floors for another MONTH cause they were getting called away to another project.
So what were we to do? Well, lets just say this is where Greg and I's Virgo instilled OCD climbs to a whole new level. This is where I add a little disclaimer and advise you not to repeat our actions. During work I did some research on laying down 1/4 inch plywood on top of all the subfloor, creating a seamless even surface for the hardwood installation. It also happened to be on sale at Home Depot. I called Greg, told him about my idea and he agreed that it was our best and cheapest option. So after Greg got off of work at 6 PM we hightailed it to Home Depot, bought 25 pieces of 4x8 ft plywood sheets, and rented a nail gun. Eight hours later, (yes, you are not hallucinating we were at it till about 3 AM) we were able to go home and pass out, only to get back up and go to our real jobs 2 hours later...
Thankfully, we were able to call our general contractor the next morning demanding he inspect the newly installed plywood and get the floor installers to come out ASAP or I was going to be very very unhappy. Greg and I were off early that day and were able to take photos or our hard work the night before. Nice right? The general contract was so impressed. I am pretty sure he was practically ready to offer Greg a job, but he called the floor guys and told them to come and install immediately.
And so.... after all that work and sleep depravation, (Greg and I promised ourselves to NEVER do that again), our dark oak hardwood floors where finally installed.
Was it worth it? If you would have asked me the day after, I would have said no. Today, I would say yes, and doesn't it make a nice DIY story later?
No comments:
Post a Comment