When we initially designed the house, we decided what type of flooring we wanted in each room
and generally had an idea of what color we wanted. About a month before we obtained our occupancy
permit, we started going to carpet stores and pick out samples and discovered that what we had
originally thought would be a good match, didn't quite fit into the character of the house that
had developed as we were building it. So we picked out new colors and changed our thinking a
little in what types of flooring we were going to get. We had originally thought that we would
put down vinyl (or linoleum) in the kitchen and foyer areas. However, the design that we liked
only came in a grade of vinyl that was not good for high traffic areas. So we started looking
into hardwood floors and discovered that hard wood floors are expensive, require a lot of
maintenance if you want them to stay nice looking and can be damaged quite easily.
Here is the half bathroom after the floor joints have been sanded before the Alloc was installed.
We then started looking into alternatives called laminate floors. Laminate floors come from the
factory in 4 feet by 8 inch pieces that are put together to simulate another type of flooring.
You can buy laminate floors that look like hardwood floors or stone tile floors. The advantage that
laminate floors have over either the stone or the hardwood floors is the durability of the laminate
floors. Most laminate floors are made of a dense core material and covered with a picture of the
floor you want to simulate. It is then laminated to protect it from dings and spills. Each piece
of the laminate floor is about 4 feet long and 8 inches wide and have a groove on one side and
tongue on the other side. You apply glue to the groove side and slide the tongue side into the
groove side creating an interlocking floor that appears to be one solid floor when it is all
together. You use straps to fasten three rows together while the glue dries so that you create a water
proof barrier when the floor is all put together.
Here is the half bathroom after the toilet has been removed and the floor has been prepared for Alloc.
Pergo is the most common brand name of laminate floors although there are quite a few different
companies that make laminate floors. We had pretty much decided on the color that we wanted
and which brand name to buy when we discovered yet another type of laminate flooring. Until
recently, all of the laminate flooring has required that you glue the joints together. Most of
the companies now offer an interlocking system that does not require gluing. They accomplish this
by adding another groove to the underside of the board on the same side of the board as the
original groove. On the side that the tongue originally was on, they have added another extension
that snaps into the new groove on the bottom of the laminate floor piece. One company has taken
this a step further and made the extension on the tongue side out of aluminum to try to hold the
pieces together even better. This is the flooring system that we went with to put down in the kitchen,
foyer, mudroom and half bathroom.
Here is the half bathroom after the alloc has been installed.
The half bath was relatively simple, we had to remove the toilet and then put down the floor piece by
piece. Before we put down the floor pieces. We sanded the joints of the plywood and made sure that
all of the staples were nailed in flush with the top of the plywood. Make sure you leave 1/4 of
an inch all around the edge of the floor between the edge of the floor and the wall. This is due to
the fact that the floor "floats". The change of seasons can affect the flooring and it can expand
or contract, causing the floor to move slightly. We had to accommodate the toilet drain by cutting
the circle 1/4 of an inch bigger all the way around to allow room for the floor to move. We also
put liquid silicon all around the edge of the floor to provide a water barrier if the toilet would
ever leak while still providing a soft enough substance that would allow the floor to move.
Here is the half bathroom after the alloc, baseboard, and toilet have been installed.
All of the carpet installers that we received estimates from recommended that we have the laminate
flooring in place where the carpet would be butting up against. Since the foyer butts up against
the dining room and the living room, we decided that we should concentrate on that room next.
However that also meant that we needed to finish the stairs first before we started putting down
the laminate flooring.
We had decided that we wanted the bottom of the stairs to flow outward like a cascading waterfall
instead of just coming straight down. In order to do this we had to build a frame and curved stair
treads and risers. The frame part was relatively easy and went together pretty quickly. The
treads and the riser proved to be a little more difficult.
Here is the frame for the bottom step in the foyer.
The risers had to be thick and strong enough for the carpet installers to nail carpet to but yet still
be flimsy enough that it would curve around the frame. We went with 1/4 inch paneling that we cut
into strips long enough to go the length of the stair tread. When then put two more strips on top
of the first one to end up with a riser that was 3/4 inch thick which is the same thickness of the
risers on the other part of the stairs.
Here is the tread for the bottom step in the foyer.
The treads proved to be the next challenge. Since we were creating each level individually, we had to
build a stair tread that would cover the entire frame that we had just built. To do that we had to
build a stair tread that would be almost three times the normal size of a stair tread. We did this
by biscuting together three normal stair treads into one square piece. We started by planing down
the edges so that all three pieces had nice straight edges. When then cut three slots that were
parallel to the tread surface into each edge of the pieces using a biscuit saw.
Next we put biscuits (tiny pieces of wood that come in various sizes, are flat and look like the
silhouette of a football) into the slots with some glue, applied glue to the edges and clamped all
three pieces together. After letting the glue dry overnight, we cut out the rounded end of the stair
tread and smoothed it off with a belt sander.
Here are the stairs when they are almost done.
We repeated the above steps for treads two and three so that eventually we had a completed set of
rounded stair treads. We added the 1/4 inch paneling over the frame part underneath the treads,
added some drywall to the visible part of the side of the stairs and nailed on a trim piece to
finish off the stairs.
Here are the completed stairs.
Now that the stairs were done, we could work on the rest of the foyer. We wanted to have tile in
front of the front door, so we started by laying the tile out in a square in front of the door. We
felt that it needed something more, so we started playing around with different designs until we
finally settled on a square with a half circle of tile nearest the stairs. Before you can put down
tile, you need to make sure the floor is level and then you need to put down some sort of concrete
board that will support the tile. We first sanded all of the joints of plywood, then we used a
concrete board called Hardiback board for our underlayment. Make sure you nail the board every
four inches to eliminate any unevenness in the floor.
Here is the tile laid out before the concrete board and underlayment are in place.
Because we put concrete board under the tile, we also put down underlayment board in the rest of
the foyer. This would allow the Alloc and tile to be the same height and eliminate a small step
down when a person walked from the tile to the Alloc. Cut the underlayment board so that there
is a 1/4 gap around the edges that butt up against the wall the same way that the Alloc was cut.
Nail the underlayment board every four inches like the concrete board was nailed down. When you
lay the underlayment board down, try to lay the pieces so that the length of the underlayment
board is opposite of the plywood boards that form the floor. Also try not to have a seam in the
underlayment board right on top of a seam in the plywood.
Here is the underlayment board as it is being cut and placed on the floor.
Once the underlayment board and concrete board were in place. Margaret and John started
laying the tile. They used a concrete mixture called Flexbond which they applied to the concrete
board using a square tooth trowel. Make sure that the mortar is not smooth as it will not stick
to the tile. Rough up the mortar with the square tooth trowel before setting the tile in place.
Depending on how big of a joint you want between the tile, pre-made plastic spacers are available
that you put between the tile as you are setting them in place to insure that all of the tiles are
evenly spaced. To level the tiled area, Margaret and John used a level and a straight edge that was
long enough to span the entire area. Use a damp rag to wipe off any excess mortar you may get on
the tile.
Once we were done with the tile, we began to put down the Alloc in the foyer and the kitchen. We
performed the same steps that we did when we put the Alloc down in the half bath. We made sure
all of the joints were level by sanding them down. In the foyer this was very simple as we had put
down the underlayment before we started on the Alloc. The Kitchen area just required us to sand
the joints and fill in any gaps with floor filler. We left a 1/4 inch between the walls and the edge
of the alloc where the Alloc came up against the walls.
Here is Dad N. fitting the Alloc near the stove.
The kitchen also required us to pull the dishwasher and stove out so that we could place Alloc
underneath them. This allowed the look of the Alloc to flow underneath both appliances instead
of stopping at the edge of them.
The one step that we added when we put the Alloc down in the foyer and the kitchen was that we
spread paste wax in the joints of every piece. We did this to ensure that each joint had a water
proof seal. The extra wax that was not used in the joint was pushed up on top and we wiped it
away. We also found that the installation went much quicker if two people worked on one piece.
One person would guide the one one end into the grooves of the existing pieces while the other
person would tap the other end to lock the new piece into place.
Here is Dad N. and Mom K. placing a piece of Alloc in place.