Carpet vs. Hardwood—Adventures in Flooring (and a little painting too!)

 

When we first walked through this house almost two years ago, we were sure that it was The One. And we were also sure that THIS would be the first thing to go:

OK, so maybe you like brown. Maybe you think brown is a neutral, and hey, does anybody really notice what’s under foot that much? Maybe you prefer the warmth of a thick carpet on your feet when you get out of bed at 3a.m. to go to the bathroom.

But also, maybe you don’t have severe dust allergies. Or cat allergies. Or a large collie that sheds a bucket a day of fur. (Or maybe you do, and you vacuum constantly.) BUT, we do have allergies and a shedding dog, and an aversion to Other People’s Dirt that is most surely hiding within the depths of the thick pile. We had lived for so many years in a house with all wood floors, and carpet just seemed foreign to us. So, replacing the carpet with hard flooring was #1 on the to-do list.

But of course things change. The kitchen became a priority. The momentum then turned towards bathrooms. All the while, in the back of our minds, we wondered how on earth we would be able to re-do the floors in the bedrooms on a dwindling house project budget. The only way, we decided, was to do it ourselves. And by “ourselves,” I mean my husband. I am decidedly not handy, but I’m excellent in a supporting role. I’m the cleaner-upper. The painter. The go-fer. The bringer of more tea, more water. And sometimes, the problem-solver. We could do this! We have weekends! and no social life. After all, we’re still in a pandemic. And my husband had a long holiday break with nowhere to go and no family to see.

So off we went to Lowe’s to check out different kinds of engineered hardwood. We could have done laminate or vinyl flooring, but we liked the look and feel of real wood. Solid hardwood was too expensive and more difficult to install, so we compromised with click-and-lock planks which join to form a floating floor. This also is probably more appropriate in our Oklahoma climate, where there are ridiculous seasonal extremes in temperatures and humidity levels. A floating floor can expand and contract without buckling. We also purchased a thicker underlayment which provides a more level surface and a barrier between the flooring and the subfloor, and helps muffle the hollow sound of engineered hardwood. 

We decided to go in phases; Phase One—to be completed over the holiday break—would be the downstairs bedrooms, starting with our own bedroom. The most difficult part would be to move all of the furniture out and have a minimum of nights spent sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the guest room. After that, the guest room and hallway. We just love chaos, I guess!

Finished bedroom!

Hallway—note the spacers on the side

Phase Two consists of removing the carpet from the stairs, and staining and repainting the banister, transforming the look from golden oak to a more classic black and white. We used our favorite black gel stain on the handrail and posts, and freshened the white paint. It was during this phase that I gained a new skill:  painting edges without painter’s tape! Taping each baluster was a complete nightmare, and I decided I could do it much more easily with a small brush. We did tape the tops to apply the black stain, but then we removed the tape and did the white by hand. And, like for applying the gel stain, I found it was much easier to apply fresh paint on balusters by using a white tube sock. After putting on a rubber glove, I put my hand in the sock, dipped it in the paint, and wrapped my hand around the baluster. Much easier than trying to maneuver a paintbrush around the narrow openings! We decided that we would wait until the projects were done upstairs before doing the steps themselves—no point to make more traffic on the new steps than necessary, and with my clumsiness there would undoubtedly be paint spilled or some other mishap.

Before

After

 

Phase Three was the walkway flooring that overlooks our living room, including the office niche at the end, and the two bedrooms upstairs. We (I mean, he) completed the walkway, and then the spare bedroom so our son would have a space while his bedroom was being completed. As with the bedrooms downstairs, my job was to clean and paint the detached baseboards, and touch up the wall paint once they’d been put back into place. 

Amidst this phase, we decided to make a somewhat soundproof studio for our son to play video games and make videos, and also repainted his bedroom! (more to come about that in a separate post!)

And, finally, Phase Four will be finishing the steps with flooring and stair nose, staining the bottom two steps, and installing a new light fixture. Updates coming soon!

Whew! all this DIY stuff is exhausting!

We’re still in chaos, but in the home stretch! My husband is working evenings and weekends now to finish the flooring so my son can move back into his room! I love the final product, and can’t wait to see how it looks once all the furniture is back in place. 

And then we’ll start working on our next project….because, you know, we can never be without one!!

How to change your flooring from carpet to hardwood:

1. Move out all furniture, and take the opportunity to clean and dust and apply some felt protectors on the feet of heavy or scratchy objects.

2. Remove carpet and backing in sections with a box cutter knife. Use a mask, because depending on the age of the carpet, there will be a lot of nastiness floating in the air with this.

3. Remove baseboards carefully to avoid breaking them. (clean, paint, and repair as needed—it’s much easier when they’re not on the wall)

4. Remove staples, nails, and anything else that would create an uneven surface on your subfloor.

5. Apply underlayment. Do not skimp on quality when ordering this.

6. Put spacers on the far edges of the room. If your drywall doesn’t meet the floor, you will need to fit some small pieces of wood to fill in, so your spacers will make the planks the right distance from the wall.

7. Alternate plank lengths so rows do not have any lines matching up. Cut lengths as needed. Also, it’s a good idea to use planks from different packages so the pattern of the grain and color are varied in each room. As always, follow manufacturers’ instructions.

8. Watch YouTube videos for tutorials when cutting around door frames and doing special areas such as closets, etc.

9. Remove spacers and reinstall baseboards, pressing them down onto the flooring to lock it in place. Apply with a nail gun.

10. Retouch paint as needed. Clean and enjoy! Make sure to take care moving the furniture back in; it’s a good idea to test the hardness of your wood before making a huge scratch from a piece of heavy furniture.