When it came time to choose a flooring for our main living space, Home Depot had a “special” flooring in stock: a gorgeous laminate from TrafficMASATER in Saratoga Hickory for only $.99/sq.ft. {They’ve since started stocking it regularly so they must have had a lot of success selling it!} This particular flooring is considered a “floating floor” so we didn’t have to worry about nails or glue: just snap & go! We chose a “premium” underlayment by AirGuard to help with noise and lock out moisture… it was one of our few “splurges” {or perhaps just a good investment?? :P} On installation day the men-folk came over to help lay it down. My grandfather brought his table saw so we didn’t have to rent one.
I worked on installing the underlayment, and the boys followed me with the laminate. The underlayment instructions said to run it 2″ up the wall, then cut off excess flush with flooring: I believe this has to do with protecting the moisture barrier. The flooring needed to be 1/4″ away from the walls {but flush with floor vents so there’s no gap!} As we finished sections of flooring, we covered it with rolls of protective paper and set the sawhorses back up to continue painting trim.
Hayden loved watching what everyone was doing! This flooring had matching “transition” kits {sold separately} with two different types of transitions: you can see on completed transition into the master bedroom as Josh and I discuss the other bedrooms.
The completed kitchen: we also left 1/4″ around the cabinets, which we later covered with baseboard or quarter-round.