What did you do today?

[Tom Picciani]

I did a room 18 by 29 with a $16 per square foot engineered wood plank. The starting wall had a 5/8 bow in it. By cutting the starter row to fit that bow, the planks essentially started with a full board. I ended up with a full plank plus a 3/8" gap on the opposite side of the room. Didn't have to cut that side, it just fit.................. because I 'wasted' one plank. What's $60 anyway
No way would that have happened if I hadn't chopped a good portion of a plank into 6 inch wide pieces to make a story board. I would have cut the first plank in half and ended up in a bad place on another ending point.
Just saying that if you have a half dozen ending points...... walls, doorway ending points for trims etc, it's possible to check them all very accurately and maybe adjust your original starting point by 1/8", 1/4" or 1/2" to make everything work.

After doing a better examination of the floor with the Story Board, I realized the border to the planks could be as much as 1/2 inch short. So looking at my measurements I started plugging in numbers to move the first plank. With 7 stop points I wanted to make sure I didn't have any 1 inch strips.

I came up with pulling the first board 3 1/2 inches from the wall. That leaves plenty of space going into the kitchen and stairs. It also gives me good spacing in hall as well as going into the bedrooms to connect to the transition strips. I'll take another look at it later today to verify my numbers.

 

[highup]

I brought up how I do it not knowing your layout. It might be more important on a large job with a dining room, living room, bedrooms and hallway, snapping one line down the hall into the living room makes measuring to many end points, not just accurate, but fast.

 

[highup]

........and if push comes to shove, a 1 1/2 inch strip on the wall behind the couch works for me.

 

[zannej]

I did a room 18 by 29 with a $16 per square foot engineered wood plank. The starting wall had a 5/8 bow in it. By cutting the starter row to fit that bow, the planks essentially started with a full board. I ended up with a full plank plus a 3/8" gap on the opposite side of the room. Didn't have to cut that side, it just fit.................. because I 'wasted' one plank. What's $60 anyway
No way would that have happened if I hadn't chopped a good portion of a plank into 6 inch wide pieces to make a story board. I would have cut the first plank in half and ended up in a bad place on another ending point.
Just saying that if you have a half dozen ending points...... walls, doorway ending points for trims etc, it's possible to check them all very accurately and maybe adjust your original starting point by 1/8", 1/4" or 1/2" to make everything work.

I'm trying to visualize this. I saw the post with your picture but I don't think my brain is quite processing. Are there any videos showing this technique? I think the amount of flooring I ordered only allowed for having 3 or 5 extra boards so I don't want any screw-ups. I think I've shown sketches of the space. I suppose if I really screw up, I could order an extra box (8 boards per box).

Is it best to start on the edge/side that I want to look the nicest? There's one edge that will be against 2 doorways next to one another and then another 2 that will be at the ends-- planks are wider than the space next to the door so one end piece will touch 2 doors (possibly 3 based on length). The edge with the exterior door will also have the washer & dryer & stuff along the whole wall so the ending won't be as visible so I can use thicker trim there. Maybe I should ask this in a thread I already started so it doesn't get lost. LOL.

Last night I was absolutely exhausted & my coordination went to crap. My mother wanted me to cook for her, but I was so tired I could barely stand up-- I stumbled & got her something from the fridge instead. I'm still feeling like a zombie today- and I went to bed earlier than usual.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Here are 5 shots to give an idea of what I’m dealing with.

The sliding glass door is 3/4 inches inset into wall. All walls have space under the drywall.

Laminate will extend 3.5-4 inches into doors as measured from walls.

From the wall next to sliding door to the kitchen wall it’s 16’ 6”.
From the wall beside the fireplace to the wall with the window it’s 20’ even. Planks will run in this direction and into the hallway.

Hallway is 16’ long and 37.75 inches wide.

 

[Tom Picciani]

My intention is to start 4 rows plus 3.5 inches from the door and snap a line there. I'll use the laser to line it up. I'll build 4 rows, making sure it's all tight. Then I'll secure it at each joint with scrap that I'll screw down temporarily. I'll fill out the room from there then go backwards from the starting point, cutting in the last row of planks to fit irregularities in the wall beside the sliding doors.

Contractor should be over tomorrow to finish leveling floor. Sucks to be low job on the list, but he's a friend, he's reasonable, and he does things right the first time.

 

[zannej]

Tom, I like your kitchen cabinets. My friends fit in to the first two things (friends & reasonable), but they don't always do things right the first or even fifth time.

Reminds me, I promised my friend I'd bring over a tool for him to borrow. He doesn't have a doorknob on his bedroom door & his new Great Dane puppy keeps pushing the door open. He wants to flip the door around to face out. He also wants to find some sort of soft threshold to put between the living room & his bedroom so the dog can't pull the carpet up by digging. Do they even make soft thresholds? His fiance has sensitive feet and if she hits her foot on a hard threshold she will scream bloody murder & sob like a 2-yr-old for 10 minutes straight (I saw this happen when she accidentally caught her finger on something).

 

[Tom Picciani]

Tom, I like your kitchen cabinets. My friends fit in to the first two things (friends & reasonable), but they don't always do things right the first or even fifth time.

Reminds me, I promised my friend I'd bring over a tool for him to borrow. He doesn't have a doorknob on his bedroom door & his new Great Dane puppy keeps pushing the door open. He wants to flip the door around to face out. He also wants to find some sort of soft threshold to put between the living room & his bedroom so the dog can't pull the carpet up by digging. Do they even make soft thresholds? His fiance has sensitive feet and if she hits her foot on a hard threshold she will scream bloody murder & sob like a 2-yr-old for 10 minutes straight (I saw this happen when she accidentally caught her finger on something).

Is the seam carpet to carpet? If so, skip the threshold and use carpet tape. If anything else there’s reducer molding. Some have teeth to grab the carpet.

 

[zannej]

Tom, yeah. Right now he has the living room carpet & padding overlapping the bedroom carpeting (which is not padded & sits lower than the living room carpet). He said he was wondering if he could wrap carpet on a threshold piece, glue it on like upholstery, and put that down. I suspect that wouldn't work.

I also want to have soft transition from carpet to sheet vinyl in my bathroom bc the carpet got cut too far back in the doorway.

 

[highup]

Tom...... you need a couple of closets in the hallway, it's not busy enough. Are you starting on the hallway side?

 

[Tom Picciani]

Tom...... you need a couple of closets in the hallway, it's not busy enough. Are you starting on the hallway side?

I'm starting near the sliding doors. I'll actually go 2 rows away from the door so I'll have room to adjust for squareness and location. I measured with the story board and came up with 4 1//2 inches away from the doors for the first row. Partial boards on both sides of the fireplace are almost identical at 2 inches each. Can't get hallway even unfortunately. Too many stop points to make that work.

BTW, there are 2 closets in that hallway, LOL!

 

[Tom Picciani]

Tom, yeah. Right now he has the living room carpet & padding overlapping the bedroom carpeting (which is not padded & sits lower than the living room carpet). He said he was wondering if he could wrap carpet on a threshold piece, glue it on like upholstery, and put that down. I suspect that wouldn't work.

I also want to have soft transition from carpet to sheet vinyl in my bathroom bc the carpet got cut too far back in the doorway.

 

[Tom Picciani]

In my last house, the installers layered padding in a stair step pattern to build up to the front door. Wonder if you could use scrap carpet or something like that.

 

[zannej]

I went to the pharmacy to pick up Mom's meds & swung by to check on my friend. I got a collapsible ladder that is easy to carry & dropped it off with him so he can have a friend help him with his roof. Also dropped off another tool for him to use. They were cooking mac n cheese but didn't have large enough bowls to easily mix the powdered cheese in. Friend was trying to use a large serving spoon. He started looking for a bowl while his fiance was on the phone. I found a small spoon & mixed the cheese in for them. By the time my friend got back with a larger bowl I was done.

Tom, I think it's not about building up but making sure something holds the carpet down so the dog can't dig it up but making it soft so it won't hurt anyone's feet.

 

[DarisMulkin]

In my last house, the installers layered padding in a stair step pattern to build up to the front door. Wonder if you could use scrap carpet or something like that.

They did WHAT? Never heard of such a thing. Bet that felt good. Might have worked if it was hair pad. if not HACKED

 

[highup]

What Daris said. Ya don't layer pad . Use some shingles........ but even then you can't really go up very much. If the carpet is actually stretched, you can't go up more than an additional 1/2 inch or so or the tension in the carpet will hold it off the ground. To avoid that issue once, I talked the homeowner into letting me install 5/8" particle board in a living room and two bedrooms to get it to the correct height. They had installed 1 inch thick Terracotta tile on a mud bed. Had I ramped the carpet up to the ideal height to tuck in the carpet, the carpet would have been off the pad for 6 or 7 feet out from the tile. People would have tripped, naturally assuming the carpet had something more dense than air beneath it.
Once in a while a trim or transition molding would be a better option since the molding would be obvious. A steep incline, and people naturally assuming that the floor is flat, would make them trip.

 

[highup]

BTW, there are 2 closets in that hallway, LOL!

I saw what you did and I know where you live.
......muah ha ha!

 

[Tom Picciani]

They did WHAT? Never heard of such a thing. Bet that felt good. Might have worked if it was hair pad. if not HACKED

That was minor compared to what they used at the door: PVC pipe! they layered up to the door then put in a piece of 1/2 inch pvc pipe against the door frame. I don't know if there was a tack strip there or not honestly. I only saw it after it was pulled out. It worked for 16 years. But when the new installers came in they took it all out but still layered the padding in that small area. Just not as much. It worked very nicely.

 

[Tom Picciani]

I'm starting near the sliding doors. I'll actually go 2 rows away from the door so I'll have room to adjust for squareness and location. I measured with the story board and came up with 4 1//2 inches away from the doors for the first row. Partial boards on both sides of the fireplace are almost identical at 2 inches each. Can't get hallway even unfortunately. Too many stop points to make that work.

BTW, there are 2 closets in that hallway, LOL!

I did some measuring with the laser tape measure and the walls are pretty straight in the living room over 16 feet. Out by at most 1/8 inch. Hallway is wider by 1/4 inch from front to back. I arranged my layout to take that into account.

 

[highup]

....note to self:
Do not use PVC pipe anymore for carpet shims.