New Living Room Floors!!

It felt like it took forever to get our renovations going, but after interviewing 4 General Contractors, 3 different painters and 2 different flooring contractors, we settled on 1 GC to manage the bulk of the project, 1 painter and a local carpeting shop to round out our renovations.  

First up, our living room and dining room floors.  They both started out as a white berber carpet that was blessed several times by the family dog.  As the entryway to the house, it definitely needed some love.  We went back on forth on whether or not we'd do carpet vs. laminate vs. wood.  Matt and I are pretty cheap, so laminate was our first choice.... until we spoke to, well, everyone!!  The downfalls of laminate in such an essential room are just so many, sagging, bowing, fixing any damage, etc.  Wood, although expensive at first, is definitely the best choice for us in the long run. 

After Carpet Removal and
red oak planks acclimating.

Step #1 - Carpet Removal

We decided to save on costs and pull out all the carpet in the house ourselves (check out another blog post on that process).  Honestly, it's not that difficult and a little bit fun (for a room or two).  Matt pulled the carpet out on Saturday morning and that afternoon, the wood guys dropped planks off to acclimate to the house.  

Red Oak Laid by GC's guys

Step #2 - Laying the Wood

We went back and forth with the installers about the direction of the wood.  I preferred for the wood to run parallel to the stairs and away from the door.  Unfortunately, structurally, the best placement is for the wood to be perpendicular to the joists.  Looks just fine afterwards!  Of course when we came to check it out, Xavier found the 1 red crayon that exists in the house and drew all over the floor.  Thankfully they were going to sand the next day.  

Choices for Stain
(American Classic, Jacobean,
Classic Grey, Dark Walnut)

Step #3 - Picking out Stain

Originally I was 100% set on a grayish stain.  I didn't realize that if you use red oak wood (what most floorers choose/use) it comes out with a pinkish tint.  My GC even had a customer that had an entire floor done in this and changed his mind to have it completely redone.  So off to Home Depot we went.  The guys laid out our choices and after standing there for an hour or so we went with the Dark Walnut, not too dark, but not too light.  

Final Product

After sanding and staining, we absolutely love how this turned out!!  Even though its not the original stain I wanted or the direction I preferred, it is a first step to making our house our home.  

Living Room Floors Before

Living Room Floors After