It is finished
I have finished the floor! It only took two days and an evening.
It started on Friday night with moving all the furniture out of the front room into other rooms in the house. There was stuff everywhere - it was like one of those puzzles where you have to move squares around to reveal a picture but there is only one empty space for the squares to move into. Once the floor was clear (and the computer was moved - no internet!!!!!) I was ready for day one.
On Saturday I got up bright and early -actually later that normal as my Wife and children were staying at her mother's flat as the relocation of furniture had rendered our house uninhabitable and the heady mix of children, diy and saw dust did not seem a good idea. This meant it was the first time I had woken in daylight this year. I put down the fibre board underlay, which is very itchy stuff and proceeded to lay the floor. The first 3 rows are the critical ones - I attempted to get them a straight as possible and then continued accross the room. In order to get the best finish I started at the longest wall as I decided that it would be easier to get the boards to stick together if it pass pushing against a flat surface; but this meant that I had to walk over the fixed boards to get to the door, something that you are not supposed to do as it moves the boards when they are sticking. I tried to mitigate against this by laying the spare boards across the floor to spread my weight. Hopefully this has worked!
Here is a picture of the half finished floor:
It started on Friday night with moving all the furniture out of the front room into other rooms in the house. There was stuff everywhere - it was like one of those puzzles where you have to move squares around to reveal a picture but there is only one empty space for the squares to move into. Once the floor was clear (and the computer was moved - no internet!!!!!) I was ready for day one.
On Saturday I got up bright and early -actually later that normal as my Wife and children were staying at her mother's flat as the relocation of furniture had rendered our house uninhabitable and the heady mix of children, diy and saw dust did not seem a good idea. This meant it was the first time I had woken in daylight this year. I put down the fibre board underlay, which is very itchy stuff and proceeded to lay the floor. The first 3 rows are the critical ones - I attempted to get them a straight as possible and then continued accross the room. In order to get the best finish I started at the longest wall as I decided that it would be easier to get the boards to stick together if it pass pushing against a flat surface; but this meant that I had to walk over the fixed boards to get to the door, something that you are not supposed to do as it moves the boards when they are sticking. I tried to mitigate against this by laying the spare boards across the floor to spread my weight. Hopefully this has worked!
Here is a picture of the half finished floor:
On Saturday afternoon I remembered that I still needed to buy edging strips to cover the gap aroung the room so I went off to B&Q. I knew that you could get the proper ones for about £4 for a 2m length from homebase but I was certain that there would be some sort of alternative available for less. I found just the thing in the upvc window section - some sort of plastic moulding that was only £2 for 2.5m - what a bargain!. After B&Q I put some more boards down but found that they were slightly wonky and so a gap was appearing between some of the boards and so I stopped for the night to think about a solution.
Sunday morning I woke ready for the challenge and I hunted in my shed for a plane that I have had for ages. It is very old but after a bit of sharpening and adjusting I was able to adjust the floor to be straight again. I finished laying the floor by lunch time. But then there was the edging. But this wasn't as bad as I had feared and I was ready to join my family for a lovely evening Sunday meal at my Wife's mother's.
The finished floor:
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