I waited at least another year before I tackled the flooring for the living and dining room. This project would disrupt the household as it would push us out of our space. Also, the project would take longer because I would need to complete 2 rooms at the same time.
Initially Efiwym and I were going to use the same flooring that I installed in the family room. But after I finished the family room, we were not enamored with the dull finish and graininess of the flooring. We want a more luxurious look this time around. We were not sure what a “more luxurious look” was, so we went shopping.
We decided to spend more money on this flooring as these rooms would have more activity than the family room. We moved to the next price point and found some flooring that had a satin finish and a muted grain. I guess that was a “more luxurious look” we were looking for. We took samples home and we eventually decided on one.
Another issue with the family room floor was the plastic underlayment. When you walked on the floor you heard a crunching sound. I thought it would eventually go away as the underlayment was compressed. It did somewhat, but it still was evident. I decided to glue down the flooring this time. I had good success with the flooring in the kitchen and dinette, why not utilize the same installation method again.
So, with my flooring order, I ordered glue. Two large buckets of, very expensive, glue. Because I wanted to glue down the floor, I could not glue it down on OSB. I would need to apply a 1/4” plywood underlayment. This was going to be a problem. It would raise the floor 1/8” above the floors in the kitchen and foyer. I really wanted a flush finish. (I would find out that I needed a transition piece that would create a raised threshold between the rooms anyways.) I decided to use 1/8” plywood even though it was not recommended for underlayment.
I picked up the flooring and glue. When I got home, I carried the flooring upstairs box by box to the spare bedroom. I opened all the boxes to separate the planks by size and then counted the quantities of each. I could now lay out my random pattern. Like the flooring for the family room, the boxes contained varying amounts of the different sizes. I also found out there were plenty of 24-inch pieces. It made for a very tricky layout to create rows with planks with offsetting joints. After many tries at it, I had my pattern.
