Installing Laminate Flooring - A Quick Update

Hello all,

I thought I'd just do a quick post to let you know the floor is coming along. As I said in the last post, it is a bear! Now that Sylvia is home the work is going a little faster. We finished the master bedroom today and will tackle the guest bath and bedroom next weekend. I probably wont get to my office until the following weekend.

As far as the shop is concerned, while I was on vacation, I ordered my dust collection system from Oneida and a 12 inch jointer from Grizzly. I can't wait to get the floor down and address the winter accommodations for the dogs. Time has just flown by and there is no way I'm going to get everything I wanted to accomplish this fall done. Oh well, isn't that always the case? My plan at this point is to finish the flooring, build a set of condos for the dogs inside the garage and then go back and install all the trim in the house. After that, I finally will get to tackle the installation of the dust collection system and start tuning up machines. Once the machines are all tuned, then I get to build cabinets and work stations for the shop. I'm sure glad I like to work!!!

Installing Laminate Flooring - Slow Start

First of all, Dies ist für meinen besten Freund, meine Ehefrau Sylvia. Ich verpasse Dich! Ich liebe Dich! (Sorry for the, probably, horrible translation baby. I used an on-line translator.)


I have talked to Sylvia daily since she's been in Germany. She says Noah loves his little crane! This flooring is.....a pain in the behind. I've installed Armstrong and Pergo flooring and it was much easier. Of course, it was only 7mm compared with this Rhino floor that is 12mm. I am, although, very happy with the results. I still can't believe we picked this floor. It's labeled as Rustic Oak. If we had just been looking at names, we never would have picked this floor. Neither of us are fans of oak. Personally, I think it's been overdone in American homes. There are some applications that are artistic enough that the wood being oak doesn't bother me. Maybe someday, I'll ask my buddy Ken if he'd mind me giving you all a tour of his home. He has done beautiful work.

Today, I broke into the kitchen and now I have to pull the stove and dishwasher. As you can see I'll also have to backtrack to my office, the guest bath and guest bedroom, which are located off the short hallway you see. Here is the floor thus far.

Installing Laminate Flooring - Opportunities

I forgot to mention, when you're doing any renovation or upgrade, think about what opportunities the project will afford. For me, this is a great time to seal the registers to the subfloor. My registers are not bad, considering some of the installations I've seen. Some people have good size gaps around their register boots. What happens when there is a gap, whether the register is in the ceiling or the floor, is as the air flows out of the register, it sucks air from the crawl space or the attic into your living space. When the system isn't blowing, it simply allows free movement of convective currents.
To seal, I'm using "duct butter" or mastic. This product is also available in a caulk type tube form. Be very careful to mask off the area around the boots if you don't want it ruined by the mastic. This stuff will not come off!!!




















I'll also be on the look out for gaps around piping as I continue this job.

Installing a Laminate Floor - Prep Work

Due to the unexpected, instead of being in Germany now, I'm at home. Sylvia flew to her home town of Untebalbach on Thursday and should be calling me to help her put Noah's toy back together Sunday.

Hopefully, she'll get some photos and hopefully, he'll like the crane. Instead of fretting about not getting to go and see everyone, drink great beer and eat the best meats, cheeses and breads I've ever had, I thought "why not take advantage of the time I already took from work and get some bigger projects done for the house". While I miss Sylvia a bunch, because she really is my best friend, it's amazing how much more I get done when she's gone!

When we bought our house and moved it onto our land (it's a manufactured house), we knew we were going to be living on a huge sand dune for awhile, so we got the cheapest carpet they offered. Between me and the dogs, we managed to track in copious amounts of sand and killed the carpet fibers in no time flat. So, about two months ago we started shopping for new flooring material. Carpet was out due to Sylvia's severe allergies (she can't wait for this carpet to be gone). Also, we have dogs, so hardwood was out. Bamboo almost looked like a decent choice but when you take a nail to it, it scratches too. In addition to standing up to our dogs (two of which will still spin-out like the cartoons), we wanted something that wouldn't show hair. After searching and searching, we finally found a laminate we both liked and would fulfill our requirements. About two weeks ago, my buddy Ken and I went and picked up the shipment and staged it in the garage.


Today, I started moving furniture, removing trim, and pulling the carpet. You can see in this photo all the sand/dirt that made it's way through the carpet and carpet pad to the subfloor. It happens to be at the entrance to the kitchen and the dogs favorite place when we (o.k., mostly Sylvia) are cooking. It's a good idea to photograph bookcases so you can remember how they were meticulously arranged.

A scraper is handy to remove all the caulking left after you pull the trim.

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll start laying down some flooring. I've done several floating floors, but never a whole house at once. Plus, the sales guys said that because this flooring is so thick (12 mm), it's a bear. Wish me luck!

A Toy for Noah - The Unveiling

Today, I finally finished up the little buggers toy crane. Over the weekend I set up a makeshift spray booth and shot it with lacquer.
And here is Noah's crane all ready to go.


I made a lot of mistakes on this project. Luckily none will show. Now I have to take the whole thing apart, so it'll fit into a suitcase. Even though this was only a toy, it presented this newbie quite a few new procedures. Hopefully, I'll get to Bisket's serving stand as soon as I get back.

Fall is just around the corner and with it comes a great deal of work. I need to insulate the garage for the dogs to hang out in during the day. Sylvia wanted to pull all the carpet, so I have a complete house worth of laminate to install, and then there is all the regular fall clean up before winter sets in. Hopefully, after that I can start making cabinets for the shop and get that puppy up and ready for whatever I end up planning.

A Toy for Noah - Part Deux

I have to say that I'm totally embarrassed that this has taken so much time. Who'da thunk a toy would have so many steps for a building process! Actually, it has been fun to finally play with some of my big boy toys. I've had the opportunity to resaw on my new bandsaw. I wish it were the new one unveiled by Powermatic at this years IWF, but alas, I have what I have and it does a nice job.

I've played with my Rigid sander, my radial arm drill press, set my makeshift router table up, and got to do a stain job. The plan called for two different contrasting woods. Wood magazine used maple and walnut. I priced the walnut and decided that staining my birch would do. I figure when I go to replace the birch slabs I used, this is still using at least $70 dollars worth of lumber, and that's not counting the kit. I got all the parts milled. Cut everything to size, did the glue-ups, beveled all the appropriate edges and finished sanded all the parts. I'm almost ready to start the finish. My plan is to dilute a polyurethane to make a wipe on finish.
I figure 4 coats would be Noah proof. I sure hope he's still young enough to enjoy this gift. If not, his brand new baby brother, Luca Fin (Sylvia likes to always put his first and middle names together) will enjoy it when he gets a bit older.
Due to all we have to do to get ready for Germany, I don't think I'm gonna be able to get back to Bisket's Serving Stand until we get back.

On a positive note, I did get a new "toy" today. I picked up a DYS4500 Craftsman (that's right Mr. LQQK, Craftsman) lawn tractor today. I know what you're thinking. That's got nothing to do with the shop! Well, yes it does. Before this, mowing our yard took over three hours. It's crazy! We live in a desert and have over an acre of yard! I'm pretty sure I'm goin' to hell for that! But honest, it wasn't all my idea. A friend, who is a firefighter said that, because of how our property is situated, we needed at least 30 feet of green space around all structures. I've got a 1000 gallon propane tank that wouldn't like to get too hot! Luckily the fire department is right down the road and know we have a potential bomb. It makes our property a high priority, in the event of a fire. The mower will enable me to have more shop time. So, I'm trying not to feel too bad that it took money away from the shop.

The Green Shop - Trusses and Heating Systems

So you've figured out how you're going to build the shop. If you're like me, you decided to do it yourself and probably went with traditional (in the U.S.) stick framing. Hopefully, you will choose a better alternative than fiberglass batt insulation. If not, remember to go crazy with the caulk and foam, and be extremely anal in doing a "perfect" installation of the batts.

Now for the truss system. This one is easy. It's gonna cost a little extra, but go with what is called a raised heel or energy truss. If you use a traditional truss, you do have a way to do a "better" job of getting the insulation all the way to the edge of the eave, but it will cost more than if you had originally purchased the energy truss. Three years ago, when I started my shop, I didn't know about energy trusses and therefore took the more expensive route. When it came time to spray the foam in my wall cavities, I hung the sheet rock on the ceiling at the eaves and had them also spray eighteen inch in. That is the approximate distance in from the eave I had to go before I could get an R49 (15 inches) of blown in cellulose.

If you opted to build on a slab and plan on a traditional (again, only in the U.S.) heating and cooling system. Think seriously about a conditioned attic. The idea is very similar to what I discussed in "Slab or Crawl Space". You would place the insulation against the roof, not the ceiling and you will not be installing vents. See "Slab or Crawl Space" also for how heat moves.

I installed a traditional HVAC system. I've since learned about ductless heat pumps and plan on installing a multi-split system in my house. I currently heat with propane and, like all fossil fuels, the cost has been rising dramatically and I believe will continue to only go up in price. The system I'm planning on installing will pay for itself in less than five years. That is my house. My shop is another story. Because it is so energy efficient, I'll be holding off until the price of propane goes up another $2.00 or more. In both cases I will be keeping my existing units in place as back up. While these ductless heat pumps are very efficient, they do have a threshold for how cold the air can be and still be able to have heat extracted.

If I was building my shop today, I would install a single or double unit ductless heat pump and have, as back up, a couple electric resistance wall units or a few portable units. We rarely get very much below zero and don't stay there for long.

I hope The Green Shop posts have been helpful to those of you who are building, or have built, a shop. If you are planning on building a house, most of what I've written about also applies. Get your contractors and sub-contractors involved, and on board early on, if you plan on building a highly efficient green house. Again, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. If I don't know, I know people who do. Also, make sure to check with your local utility to see if they offer free, or low cost, household inspections. There are a few very lost cost measures anyone can do to their house and get a good return on the investment.

P.S. For photos of my shop, check out the Flickr widget in the right hand column.