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Good morning Workshop Community Friends.
Our house is 1994. We have been working through each area. Nothing fancy pants, just paint and flooring. It’s absolutely amazing what a difference it makes with a fresh coat of paint and pulling up the old yucky carpet.
I completed the Spare Bedroom. Yes !!! It was a dumping over the years but I had a massive cull and kept what we needed. You don’t have to pay a fortune to get it done professionally, you can do it yourself. I have certainly learnt heaps and my favourite is ripping up the old yucky carpet and putting in a beautiful Hybrid Laminate Floor, it’s addictive and heaps cheaper doing it yourself.
Steps
Step 1
Ceiling is Dulux - Ceiling White. The walls are Dulux Wash and Wear - Natural White.
Step 2
I pulled up the Carpet and Underlay, ohhh what a wonderful feeling it is to get rid of it 😆
Step 3
The floor - As per normal, I filled in the gouges with an all purpose filler. No matter how careful you are pulling up the carpet tracks, chunks of the sub floor break off.
Yet again, we have left the Skirting Boards on as the flooring sits under them with plenty of clearance.
Step 4
Now with the flooring we purchased the Floor Select Laminate Hybrid Flooring - Syrah Oak. My photos are very average quality and I can’t bang on enough how beautiful this flooring looks !!!!
Syrah Oak is Special Orders only product, so if you’re interested, go and chat to the Special Orders team at your local Bunnings store, mine is Malaga WA and I always deal with Tania, she’s awesome.
When you pick up your flooring, do not leave it outside until you are ready to install it, place it in the room where you want it and let it acclimatise for at least 48 hours, so it can adjust to the temperature in the room / house.
Carefully unpack and mix up the boards so it mixes up the pattern repeat.
Also I laid out a run to get an idea of how many rows it will be.
Step 5
Carefully work with your boards, take your time with them because if you chip or smash the tounge and groove ,you have ruined that board. Trust me, this is our 2nd time laying flooring and accidents happen. This is why you need to order an extra pack to allow for mistakes and cuts. Seriously measure three times and then cut it. I was lucky enough to catch a couple of my measurement mistakes before cutting.
Step 6
The floor has a built in underlay BUT we wanted to add an Acoustic Underlay and really happy with it. We did it in sections NOT all at once as it will bunch up and you don’t want that.
Now the first three rows are extremely important to get the measurements correct and then it sets it up for the rest of the rows.
The house is old and the walls are ‘slightly out’ we measured from the wall in different spots, put down the first and second rows, keeping an eye on the measurements off the wall.
Added the third row. We just did random cuts, no pattern at all, just staggered. Just make sure the joins are not matching each row if that makes sense.
We used bags of sand and a pack of floor to weigh down the floor and hold it in place. BUT we still kept an eye on it incase it moved around slightly which it did but easily adjusted.
Now because the skirting boards are there it was hard to use those spacers because they kept collapsing in so that’s why it’s important to measure off the wall and keep an eye on it.
Step 7
Keep adding the rows , mixing the boards. Be really careful not to chip the tongue and groove.
Working the rows right to left. We were lucky with the door jambs as they are the same clearance as the skirting boards so we didn’t have to cut them.
I did all of my cuts outside with circular drop saw and the smaller cuts with the jigsaw. Remember, section at a time and keep checking the measurements and the wall for movement of the boards.
Step 8
Once the flooring is finished and there is definitely a 10mm gap right around the walls to allow for expansion, it’s time to add the Quarter Rounds to hide the gaps.
I made spacers with off cuts of underlay to place them under the Quarter Round to lift off the floor. Hubby nailed them into the skirting board NOT the floor. This allows for expansion.
I used 19mm Pine quarter rounds and stained them Walnut, it is not a perfect match to the skirting board but close enough and we are happy with the results. I need to add, measure three times or so for the inner and outer corners and we used masking tape for the cuts.
The very last thing I have to add is the transition strip which I will share soon.
Step 9
I added the Gripper protection pads to the bed legs and the trestle tables I’m using for temporary storage. You want to protect your floors.
I hope this may inspire you to change a room in your home and just freshen up the area without spending a fortune getting a professional to do it. Simple and easy, nothing fancy pants…… but what makes me happy…… NO MORE CRAPPY CARPET 🤣🤣🤣
Hello @mich1972
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful room revamp. The flooring looks great, it's always a great feeling when you recover space inside the house. Now that you have so much space, have you considered creating a media room with a large screen projector, 7.1 surround sound and earth-shaking bass?
It was just a thought, one of the advantages of hybrid flooring aside from the fact that its waterproof is that it will not house dust mites or allergens like dust and pollen.
Again, thank you for sharing such an awesome project.
Eric
