And So it Begins

We started the weekend early, by putting down the underlayment.




The process is pretty straightforward. Starting with a full sheet of plywood lay it down in the farthest corner and then put screws at each corner, and halfway along each edge. Then take the
air powered staple gun and put staples every 12 inches along the edge and every 12 inches midst the field. I bought 2,000 staples, figuring I needed a little more than 1,000. At the end of the night, with only three sheets of plywood to go, I only have 500 left. Guess I am putting in more than enough staples.

The part that really slowed us down was getting the plywood to fit in to all of the areas that the appliances are in. We wanted to have the plywood under the dishwasher, stove and refrigerator, so we had to do some fancy cutting and pushing to get around. One piece covered both the underneath of the stove and the refrigerator, which has a small cabinet between.

After the kitchen was done, we proceeded to the living room. It's a piece of cake compared to the Kitchen, but we realized that we didn't have enough sheets of plywood left. We had used 9 sheets in the kitchen, and had only bought 16, so we certainly didn't have enough to finish. We'll need to pick some of that up in the morning.

Tomorrow, as early as I can get up, we are going go to the local Home Depot and rent the hardwood floor nailer. It is a pneumatic nailer, set at an angle, and fired by hitting it with a certain mallet. The mallet causes the board to snug up to the one next to it before the nail drives home. The unit at Home Depot actually uses something called a cleat. It is a flat nail with barbs along the bottom edge, and an L shaped top. Apparently this is now the "best" way to install floors. Fortunately they have a lot in stock (well at least at 7PM tonight) hopefully they will still have some at 7AM tomorrow.

Gotta get some sleep and get back at it in the morning. My sister flew in tonight, and another friend is coming to help and is bringing his chop saw over to cut the ends square.

The most important part of the day is getting the flooring started square, so it may take us a little while to get it all right before we nail anything down. Hopefully by 10AM we will be laying flooring at a good rate. Check back tomorrow night!