Guest Room Flooring
The carpet in our guest room was in bad condition which used to be an office among other uses. Instead of installing new carpet, my preference was to install laminate flooring. We wanted a more durable and practical flooring option and something inexpensive too.
After some research, it was decided to go with flooring called Span from IKEA. SPAN is a locking, floating floor that needs the NIVÅ floor liner underneath for sound absorption and leveling. (Note: As of late 2009, SPAN no longer exists at Ikea. However, the equivalent flooring is now called SLÄTTEN and it’s $0.03/sq ft cheaper than SPAN used to be. Also, NIVÅ used to be a pressed wood fiber type of floor liner but is now polyethylene but says it achieves the same purpose.)
The clearing out the old carpet was a mess but cutting the carpet and padding into strips allowed me to carry it outside by myself. I geared up with safety glasses, face mask, mini-crowbar, hammer, Exacto knife, and RoboGrip pliers. It took me a whole day to clear out all of the carpet and padding. I cleaned up some spots that seeped through the carpet on the sub-flooring, swept, and then the floor was ready for new flooring. The entire clean up process took a couple of days.
Installation of the flooring wasn’t without its ups and downs. No more than 15 minutes into installation, I squished the palm of my hand between a hammer and the block used to push the wood plank into place. I am usually careful, but a little bit of my skin went over the edge right before the hammer hit. I was then out of commission and my dad and husband worked on the flooring instead. It really was a nice bonding experience for them. I did get to help out with keeping them organized and removing items they no longer needed like packaging.
The entire installation process took about 3 days including laying the floor liner, flooring, and cutting and installing trim. I was able to help out with trim. We even tackled the closet. Laying flooring in there may have been a little tricky, but it looks great. My dad made it look easy!
