The Floor

We decided that since this was a long weekend, we would tackle the floor in the living room. Currently, the room is carpeted with no distinction between the living room and the kitchen area. We want to lay ceramic tile in the kitchen area, and hardwood in the living room. We purchased some flooring (clearance) from Home Depot that we wanted to use.

I don't know if you have ever tackled a hardwood floor, but the key is preparation. We rolled back the carpet and cut off the padding which we saved for possible future use. The old floor had been patched with an odd layout of luan sheets. These had to come out and needed to be replaced with something a little more stable, like half inch plywood.

We finished the day having only torn up the old floor and nailed down the plywood sheets. Well, we did quite a bit more than this, but most of it involved driving around the area looking for plywood sheets and picking up the hardwood floor nailer. I found the nailer in Syracuse at the Syracuse Tool Shed, Inc. The only problem was that they were only open until noon on Sunday, and because of the holiday, they were closed all day on Monday.



Remember when I said the key was preparation? Well, we woke up Sunday morning, taped down the vapor barrier and then discovered that we didn't have the right nails to use on the first two rows of strips. The first couple of rows are nailed by hand, because the hardwood floor nailer will not reach them because they are too close to the wall. I had to leave to return the rented tool at 11:30 with only 3 rows completed. It was at this point that a frantic search of all local hardware stores began.