Saturday, February 25, 2012

Before and Afters of wood floor install

As any do it yourselfer knows, each home improvement project comes with it's own surprises...twists and turns you might say. We hired my uncle from MN to come down and help us minimize some of those surprises with his re-modeling expertise, and he was so helpful. Not only did he have the know-how, he had the brawn as well. We started by pulling up the carpet in the master bedroom. I was glad to see it go...

First surprise, the padding was GLUED down as well as stapled. Which added time to prep work, we had to scrape padding that was stuck to the floor as well as pulling staples. Another road bump, was a small area of vinyl that was very stubborn at coming up. My DH's solution... a heat gun and a scraper. The boys got that up toot-sweet and we were ready to roll.



The bulk of the flooring was pretty strait forward, glue, plank, pound in place, and move on. It's the areas around the walls and closets and doorways that takes so much time. But Uncle D has pride in his work, and it was done RIGHT.

Now for the before and after pics. Below is before with the carpet. Not so bad in the pic, but definitely stained and smelly, and as I see now, it lacked color and depth.

And now, it's all clean and purdy. I like the contrast the wood ads as well as the warmth and depth. I don't think I'll ever install wall-to-wall carpeting in a house again. (note the new lamps as well)


The stairs had been carpeted in this house and so that had to go as well. The stairs were tricky, but Uncle D got it done beautifully with new oak treads that we stained to match the existing wood in the floors. He even rounded that bottom one, like it was before.
There were lots of other honey-do's that became uncle-do's while he was here, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I still have work, I need to paint the areas he repaired, and do some clean up, but we have plenty of time for that.

Here's wishing you luck with all of your home improvement projects coming up.

Margo and the demo team!!!!!

10 comments:

Country Gal said...
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Country Gal said...

love it ! Looks so nice ! Its amazing how a good wood floor makes rooms look so rich and warm ! Awesome job guys ! Like Papa here who is my D I Yer with old houses like ours riping up and redoing often opens up a whole new can of worms of taking longer then ya planned lol ! Have a great day !

TinaTx said...

It looks awesome! Know you are loving it!!!

Sam I Am...... said...

I want wood floors so bad! I always had them and now I have a house with 40 year old carpeting with plywood underneath (I think). YUCK! I hate carpeting...it is just one big germ collector and I have 2 dogs. I thought you were going to show me that I could do this all by myself but I see you had professionals! LOL! But there's always Google and Ehow and You Tube hopefully when I get to that point. I'm about ready to just pull up the carpet and paint the plywood!LOL! And I may yet!
Your floor looks beautiful and it makes everything "pop" and adds depth as you said. So nice of your Uncle to help you. Are yours wood or laminate? I imagine you got wood from the looks of it. I'm thinking with the dogs I might get a laminate...but high quality one. Thanks for the post! But I wold have preferred a "tutorial"! LOL!

Jane said...

Beautiful transformation!!
Jane

Donna said...

The results are stunning and beautiful! There is just nothing like the warmth of a wood floor. When we built our home (almost) 2 years ago, we went with all hardwood and no carpet. We added tile to the laundry and full baths. It is so much cleaner and easier to take care of too.

Vickie said...

Great job, Margo & your dream team! Floors look great and I know you're going to really enjoy them!

maddyrose said...

I've been wanting to tear up the carpeting and do wood flooring and now even more so. It looks fantastic!!

Patricia @ 9th and Denver said...

That wood flooring made such a difference in your room. The before and afters were a true testament to that! I love the way the floors look now. And the stairs.

Pat

Marji Laine - Faith Driven Fiction said...

Oh that is GORGEOUS! So comfortable and the colors sharpen each other. What a great blessing!

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