Flooring Archives

July 16, 2021July 16, 2021

SYP Flooring Installation

Day #174

October 17, 2020 – After finally getting the flooring material, today I started the installation of the SYP flooring. Soon there will be no more felt paper floor in the new kitchen. Yeah!

First I vacuumed off the felt paper and cleaned up the exposed edge of the existing floor. I placed my starter strips right along the old kitchen flooring. Luckily, for the most part there was enough of a tongue left to engage the groove on the new SYP flooring.

After the starter pieces were nailed, the installation proceeded right to left across the floor. The SYP flooring is pretty soft but it makes a great looking floor.

I am using a Bostitch pneumatic flooring nailer to fasten the SYP flooring. My cutting station is set up out on the porch. I’m trying to keep the inside sawdust to a minimum.

At the end of the day all I had left was a row and a half along the river side of the kitchen. This last bit of flooring gets drilled and face nailed because it it too close to the wall to use the pneumatic nailer.

The key now will be to find a stain or combination of stains to match the existing. We’ll save that for another day.

July 15, 2021July 15, 2021

Southern Yellow Pine Flooring?

Day #173

October 14, 2020 – Over the weekend, on Saturday, October 10, 2020, to be exact, I got a call from Lumber Liquidators about the southern yellow pine flooring that I ordered. The sales person told me that my order was in and ready for pick up. This was a surprise and I was somewhat skeptical about it.

Delivery Saga

I originally ordered 10 bundles of southern yellow pine flooring for the new kitchen floor, back on June 29, 2020. At the time, the sales person indicated that it would arrive by July 8, 2020.

On July9, 2020, I called Lumber Liquidators for a status update. The flooring had not yet arrived and the new delivery date was in the first week of August. That’s five weeks from the order date.

On August 5, 2020 I called Lumber Liquidators for another status update. The flooring still had not arrived. The sales person told me that a truck arrives on Saturday. “Maybe it will be on that one or maybe the Saturday after that. ” Okay, that’s seven weeks from the order date.

On August 17, 2020 I called Lumber Liquidators for yet another status update. The flooring still had not arrived. I won’t name any names, but the sale person said that it would arrive no earlier then 8/29/2020. That’s nine weeks from the order date.

On September 29, 2020 I called Lumber Liquidators and canceled the order. That’s thirteen weeks from the order date.

So here we are at October 10, 2020, fifteen weeks from the order date and two weeks from the day I canceled the order. Apparently, the flooring is in. FML!

At 10:30 AM this morning I drove to Lumber Liquidators and sure enough they had the flooring. I was so happy that I left Mechanicsburg and drove it straight away to the cottage.

LL SYP 01

Patiently waiting at Lumber Liquidators in Mechanicsburg for my southern yellow pine flooring.

LL SYP 02

It’s supposed to come out of this door above.

Southern Yellow Pine

Southern Yellow Pine 01

… and there it is, southern yellow pine in the truck, yeah, that’s right!

Southern Yellow Pine 02

Southern Yellow Pine 03

This will let me finally finish the new kitchen floor. The area in the above photo with the black felt paper is where the new flooring will go. We did our best to match the existing flooring and its very close. I am sure it will look awesome.

March 9, 2021July 7, 2021

Floor Patching and Chokey Framing

Day #155

Back in October of 2018 I did some demolition in the old kitchen. During the demo I discovered some carpenter ant / termite damage. Today I will be patching the floor in this area and framing the rest of the water heater enclosure i.e. the “Chokey”.

Removing the damaged wood the resulted in a hole with multiple levels. I patched the various levels, one at a time up to the bottom of the 3/4″ tongue & groove pine flooring. The images below walk you through the process.

The hole before any floor patching. The small piece of wood is the first patch.

The first level is patched, ready for the next level,

Ready to glue in the second level of floor patch.

The second level is patched.

Restoring the stud bearing with a triangular block of oak.

The hole is patched up to the bottom of the pine flooring.

Moisture barrier is installed.

The final pieces of pine are patched in.

Next up was the rest of the framing for the water heater enclosure. I am moving the water heater out of the back closet so I can turn it into a hallway with an outside door to the porch. The new location for the water heater is hear in the kitchen. I immediately dubbed it the “Chokey” as a tribute to Matilda. Mark my words, if you don’t behave you will be sent to the Chokey.

As you can see, nothing fancy about the framing. The section of floor that I patched above is right inside the enclosure.

Chokey Framing — Chokey framing a.k.a. the water heater enclosure.

Next weekend I will start the framing for the last new window in the living room. I think Henry, Studger and Phil will be visiting too, so I can’t guarantee that we will be working the whole weekend.