Floating Floor: Tongue and Groove
So, I ended up having to move into an apartment. After weeks of searching, I choose one. It isn't perfect but it'll do. The one major drawback was the carpeting in the bedrooms. I have no bloody idea why anyone would want carpeting. It's manky, smells funky, hard to keep clean, and if you are like me, full of allergens. Can you tell I flat out HATE carpeting.
Again, this was my first time doing anything like this and I learned by watching videos. For that reason I didn't buy vinyl planking. I went with the cheapest option, laminate, as I didn't even know if it would work. Just make sure whatever you get is the tongue and groove style. It's so much easier to put down.
So what to do? I had an idea about vinyl flooring, the tongue and groove style. I watch WAY too many HGTV shows. But I had wondered if it was something that could be put over carpet. So I google it. Sure enough, how to go about it depends on the pile, the thickness and depth of the carpet. I thought I had a high pile carpet, so I was looking at getting wood planks as the subfloor and then laying the vinyl tongue and groove planks over it. My mum looked at the carpet and told me it was low pile. That was great as I didn't have to buy huge 8 feet by 4 feet wood planks (and figure out how to get them to the flat).
After watching the videos and reading the how to listings I headed to Home Depot to make my purchases and set about laying a floating floor above carpet. I got a roll up vinyl moisture barrier and opted for the cheapie laminate (if it didn't work, I didn't want to be out a lot of money).
This is what a sub floor would look like. This is the cheapest option in the Home Depot. Luckily, I didn't need it as the pile on the carpeting was low. But, just in case you do need it, something like this is the go to. You can buy thicker but the price for an 8x4 goes up to like $60 or more per. Don't forget to measure the dimensions of the room and then add another 15% on each side. Why? Better to have more than you need than not enough. Also, if your room is an odd shape, you'll have to cut the boards. I was able to just use a moisture barrier on top of the carpet and then lay down my planks.
Putting down the floor ended up being quite easy.
1. Lay out the subflooring, whether it's the 8x4 boards or the vinyl moisture barrier.
2. My grandpa told me to start at the front of the room (where the door is) and work your way to the back of the room. He says it just looks better when you have to cut the planks to make them fit. I had done it the opposite way! jajajajjaa But I put my bed on the side of the room with the uneven cut planking.
3. Tongue and Groove it baby until the floor is covered.
4. I used similar coloured duct tape to go over the seems. I also got a bit fancy and bought some vinyl peel and stick tile. I also put this over some of the gaps and seems.
This is the finished product. I also put it in the closet and over the thresh hold. Because it's a weird shape coming out of the closet and in the door, this corner ended up quite ratchet. I "fixed" it by using similar coloured duct tape and the vinyl peel and stick.
We bought 3 rolls of the vinyl moisture barrier and 14 boxes of the laminate. We had a box and a quarter of laminate left over after doing two rooms. One room was 144 square feet and the other 140 square feet. We also did both closets. We bought 5 rolls of duct tape and one box of the peel and stick.
All total, we spent less than $400 on the flooring and materials. This does include the circular saw my mom bought because ... it's a circular saw and she wanted it (instead of borrowing my grandpa's).
Here is the final product for my floor (done first).
Here is the final product for my mum's floor (done 2nd).
Please remember, this is NOT a professional job. I did my room and my mum did hers. Grandpa helped us with the cutting on the last day of installations. This is NOT a permanent floor. When we move out of this apartment, the floor comes up and goes in the bin.
Having this down is just easier and quicker to clean. It also helps lessen my allergies. And, quite frankly, it looks better than carpet.
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