Adventures in DIY Flooring - Cutting the Rug VIII

If you have been popping in to check on things here, you know that I've been focusing on remodeling our library/studio/auxiliary guest room. That room was the last of the carpet and I decided that while the room was completely empty and before the new floor was installed I would take care of all the other issues and start turning this room more officially into a capital-L Library*:

• remove wainscot, chair rail, and painted over wallpaper
• repair and refinish those walls
• repaint the ceiling
• replace the outlets and switches
• replace the light fixture
• re-do the closet

When those were done, I finally tackled the floor! I forgot to take photos of the carpet specifically, but here it is with removed wainscot and chair rail on it. Ick.

I decided to forego all the in-progress shots, since you can see those in the other Adventures in DIY Flooring posts should you choose. But know that Eric again helped with installing the self-leveling underlayment - it would havbe been brutal without him. After that I spent a few hours over three days doing some patching and then it took me three short-ish days to get the LVP laid down.

Almost halfway! Somewhere around 40% done I cut a chunk off the end of my left index finger, so that was... eventful.

And the floors are done! Well, except that last bit that will abut the bookcases when that gets done.
This photo has the more accurate floor colors.

Then I tidied up the base moulding and reinstalled most of it. I want to build bookshelves across that entire unfinished wall this autumn, so am leaving the base moulding off there. I think we'll replace the baseboard heater then, too, so that piece is staying off, too. I had assumed baseboard heaters would cost a couple hundred bucks, so never considered replacing an of ours which are in pretty sorry shape, but that we hardly ever use. Their paint is worn and scratched, as well as speckled with paint and stain from all the years the other owners have painted and stained. But it turns out that new ones are not even one-hundred dollars! It also turns out that the electrician that the home warranty insurance had come out to replace the once in the living room our first year here, was a liar as well as a flake. He said they didn't make them as long as the one he was replacing any more, but Lowe's has them in stock right now. Maybe they didn't make them 6 years ago, but I have very serious doubts. Anyway, I can see replacing most of them over the next few years and updating the controls while we're at it. 

In addition to the wall o' books, this room will also be getting new window coverings and a picture rail. I will still use it for sewing and crafting until we can kit out the shop as a studio, but am dedicated to really trying to keep it tidy and contained. Eventually we'd like to move the TV out of the living room, have comfortable watching reading furniture in here, as well as some kind of portable/fold-away desk for Eric to write at. We need to get this room's current furnishings out of the guest room and hallway, as we're expecting some guests over the next few months, so it's going to be awhile before this room is "done."

Where the bookcases will be!

*I've been calling that series "Overbooked?" because... we have A LOT OF BOOKS in addition to the books on the shelves that came with the guest room and on the shelves I added in the guest room closet.

I have forgotten and procrastinated on ordering another transition piece for the doorway, so there is that to finish, too. It didn't take too long to get it last time; I hope to pop in there to order it soon as well as return three (3) unopened boxes of the LVP. I will keep 2+ boxes for repairs and whatnot.

Adventures in DIY Flooring - Cutting the Rug VII

I took a bit of a breather before tackling the last room - like several months, but before that there was this one last little bit to share: the "transition pieces."

I'm used two kinds; a T-mold and a stair nose. The T-mold was installed in October and is in the door ways and was not a requirement of the material... COOL FACT: this VPL can cover floors up to 300 feet long without requiring transition pieces. NOT-COOL TARA: I just couldn't empty the entire upstairs all at once and/or do all the math with the separate rooms and the not-perfectly-square rooms to manage to do it all without breaks. I'd rather that we didn't have to have the transitions in the doorways, but...

Two of the three that are completed so far. Visually, it's really subtle where it follows the same direction as the planks and it's not egregiously noticeable where it crosses the planks. Their overall profile is shallower than many of these kinds of transition pieces for other types of flooring.

The stair nose is tricky, because of the self-leveling underlayment and issues with the way the top stair riser was... let's call it "slightly janky," and the way the original underlayment was... let's say "slightly janky."

So I got this far (see below) and then it has stayed that way for... months. Not twelve months, but quite a few. In fact it is that way now, because there is always something less scary to work on. You see, I still need to build up that edge. I didn't realize I'd need to make up for the self-leveling underlayment, etc. D'oh!

I know these little threshold bits are boring. I also know that it was a bit nerve racking to install because a not-quite-eight-foot-length of each of these things were kind of spendy and I didn't want to mess them up. So, I had to share my success! And also share my super technical technique using super specialized special tools for holding the pieces in place while the adhesive dried.

Cast iron cookware: is there nothing it can't do?

Unforeseen additional steps:

I had to pull up and reinstall the planks in the hall and guestroom. Ugh and oof. While I did follow directions very closely from the very beginning when installing the LVP , I didn't quite get it right. There were some joins that I didn't notice hadn't quite clicked together until I was "done" which I thought felt was noticeable underfoot and looked so, too. I assumed this would also effect the longevity of the floor. Because I was very careful when pulling the planks up and stacked them in order course-by-course, I was able to reuse the same pieces with just just a few exceptions. It went A LOT faster since pretty much all the cutting was already done. Sure, it was a drag to have to empty the rooms of furniture, clear the closet floor, and pull up all the base mouldings, but I think it was worth it and I'm glad I (re)did it. I'm also glad I noticed before I started the master suite and bathroom so I could get it right from there and I'm really glad it's over.

Yeah, yeah. They're called "cups," but they're a lot more like a coaster as far as I'm concerned, so that's what I'm going to call them.

When I was pulling up the planks in the guest room I noticed that the bed feet had dented the surface. As per manufacturer instructions, I had added felt feet, but that only protected the surface from scratch-type wear, not dents. So, I picked up coasters for the bed feet. These are the kind made for carpet - they have a felt-like/fabric surface against the floor. The LVP manufacturer also recommends against rubber backed rugs and rubber rug pads, so I have to assume the rubber-bottomed coasters meant for hard surface flooring would not be recommended either. Hopefully, by avoiding running and throwing ourselves onto the guest bed we can keep it from sliding around too much! The master bed frame already has broad feet to distribute the weight better - and 6 of them at that.