Another weekend in the books for the hardwood floors at the Myrtle House. Brian and I both made the trip this weekend and I have a whole new respect for the work he did by himself! While not difficult, laying these floors are time-consuming and quite labor intensive. I think I am more sore today than I was after my first half marathon.
On Saturday, we divvied up the tasks; I was the racker, Brian was the nailer. Basically, I would unpack the bundles, sort through the good and bad, and then lay them out in a way where there were no overlapping seams and the coloration was balanced. Brian would then come behind me and set and nail in each piece. He also laid the rosin paper while I opened and sorted bundles. This process worked great for a two man/woman team.
When researching utility grade flooring, the main concern that came up was the amount of waste. When we picked up our order, I noticed that some bundles had white ties, while others had yellow ties. I didn't think anything of it, but as we have gotten into the process, I noticed that the yellow tied bundles are MUCH better quality. Less bad ends, less splits. If we had all yellow tied bundles, our waste would be slim to none. However, the white bundles have about 30% waste. There are many knots that go all the way through the wood. There are splits that make the wood unstable. There are also ends that are unusable (either no tongue or no groove). I am not sure if we accidentally got an upgraded wood, but if we only had the white bundles to work with, the amount of waste would have been frustrating. You can see the difference between the two below.
We were able to use a lot of the bad pieces of wood where the cabinets will be.
We laid the floor in the small remaining area in the dining room, around the fireplace, and then into the kitchen. Here is the before and after of where we started and then where we ended for the weekend. Getting there!
