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Need Advice Wood Floor Installation - Who and What

Discussion in 'Homeowners Corner' started by Villager, Jul 22, 2010.

  1. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    I'd like to put some wood floors in our study (and maybe more of the house) and am looking for advice about who to buy it from, install it, and what I should know in advance as far as tips or been there done that.

    I searched the forums and found a recommendation for K&K Floors, which received excellent reviews on the Service Magic website. Any other recommendations? Home Depot, Lowes, or a carpet/flooring place?

    Currently there is carpet in that room and the cat has made it his own litterbox. It's time to solve that problem by removing the cat from the house and removing the carpet. I don't think that pee in the subfloor will be a problem but we'll definitely need to replace the pad underneath, although I think that's typically done as a matter of course when replacing floors anyway (?).

    Thanks in advance for any help!


    P.S. - If anyone would like a sweet, loving lap cat and has a good setup for the cat to live outdoors (or take your chances indoors...) I have an otherwise lovely cat that needs a new home (4 years of this is enough).
     
  2. Thunderchild

    Thunderchild New Member

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    I installed hardwood flooring in my house last summer. I did the most of work myself, it was one of the easier projects that I have done. It is very time consuming, as I tried to be as much of a perfectionist as I could. I did most of my house including the stairs. I'm still finishing some of the trim work and going to redo one section that I am not happy with. I bought the flooring from Lumber Liquidators in Chantilly. I didn't pay for delivery, (Should have) I'm cheap like that! The flooring has to be in the room you are going to install it in for about 2 weeks, (mine was in the room about 1 month) The Bellawood product has a 50 year finish warranty, which could outlive me. If you decide to do it yourself, buy a good blind nailer, and nail gun. If I remember correctly, it was about 50.00 a day to rent and about 400.00 to buy. If you don't have a laser level, go ahead and buy one also get a square as well you will need it too. The walls in you house WILL NOT BE SQUARE! Keep that thought in your head when deciding where to start and try to start at a point where you can get the most full pieces installed with fewer small (width) pieces. Also, this would be a good time to replace the baseboard as well so plan on that as well.

    Lumber Liquidators has a couple of contractors they can recommend. I had one of them come out as a repairman damaged the floor while he was there. The guy was nice and courteous (wife met him) he gave a couple of estimates and possible ways to fix the damage. Can't remember the name right now or I would post it. I believe they were also in Chantilly.

    As for the cat urine, Kilz's is your friend as long as the sub floor is not damaged. My guess is that the padding may have saved your sub floor. And yes the padding has to be removed; you will also have to pull all of the staples out. You will then install an underlayment (I used tar paper) and you will nail the wood planks down on top of the underlayement. Are you doing this on the main level? If so, check the area around all of the exterior doors, I found the sub floor had water damage as the builder did not put any flashing on the floor prior to install the door frames and since the doors leaked, the sub floor had mold and it the area had to be removed and replaced. (This set me back at least a day.)

    Can't take the cat, as we have allergies in the family.

    I think that's enough for now

    Good luck
     

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