Carpet to Hardwood Flooring

Carpet to Hard Flooring

When we first bought the house, it had spotless, almost new carpet.  Having 2 dogs and friends constantly in and out of the elements, changed the condition of this once bright fluffy carpet, to matted up stain patches in a matter of months.

The door to the rear deck steps into carpet, and paw prints and the remnants of lost battles to stains were starting to become a norm on the carpet.

To combat the dirt stains, as well as ease some of the cleaning that was needed, almost daily, I decided to install hardwood flooring.


Looking at several options and having installation can make a flooring job quickly climb into the thousands of dollars... I decided to give this a try and save a few bucks.






At the hardware store, the clerk pointed out that the same reason I was going to hardwood, would soon ruin my hardwood floors... dog nails and wood floors don't mix.

After a quick internal bout, I decided to go with "Laminate." It doesn't even sound the same.... takes a bit of the allure from it, but decided on dogproof "PergoMax" in Newland Oak.

First step to the transformation is getting the carpet up. Mine only had one hold-down transition and went pretty easy. I rolled up the carpet, and exposed the padding and tack strips.

Ripped and rolled up the padding in similar fashion to the carpet, and removed the tack strips to prep the surface for the laminate.

Had to make sure to remove ALL staples left behind by the padding. Not doing so can cause bumps or uneven surfaces on the finished floor when the new plank is laid over top.

Clean and vacuum entire surface to pick up dust, as well as anything that may potentially unlevel the finished floor.

Pick a direction for the planks to run (usually the length of a room) and start laying the planks down.

The leader planks in this case needed to have the locking "nose" piece trimmed off to sit flat against the wall.

Quick Note: Make sure to get an installation kit ($20) if you're going to do laminate. The kit comes with squares, spacers and brackets necessary to tighten the planks against each other. Laminate is brittle and you could break the ends without using one of these kits.

                                                                                

Work your way down the wall, clicking the pieces into each other. Once you get to the end of a row, cut your plan to size, and begin the next row with the remaining piece of that plank to avoid excess waste and give the floor and more realistic "wooden" look.

This type of floor does not need to be nailed or glued (unless being used in a kitchen or bathroom, and then for water proofing purposes), and floats on the floor, with gaps on all sides to account for any expansion/warping.

At the end of the day, I spent approximately $700 in materials and about 9 hours of labor over the span of two nights to complete, but the results speak for themselves:

Work all the way down to the end of the room to complete

Finishing strips and thresholds complete the look and maintain the "floating" design of this type of floor

Thresholds and Shoe Molding

To complete the look of the floor, I needed to add thresholds to the areas where the tile ends. I also decided to do away with the white shoe molding that I removed prior to removing the previous floor.

The previous threshold at the carpet was the gold metal strip kind, and it gave the tile/carpet transition a "cheap" look. I decided to update this look with a wooden strip and also added the same type of threshold at the other transition points.

These transitions are good for when one floor surface is higher than the adjacent surface. In my case, the pile carpet rose much higher than the tile surface, so this was perfect.  For the other (hardwood-tile) transitions I used a threshold with a level bottom.

These strips come in varying lengths and can also be purchased in various wood types and finishes. I opted for the cheaper alternative and decided to go with the unfinished oak, and got a small can of Minwax polyurethane in a walnut finish to complement the color of the tile.

After a quick coating (per the instructions on the can), cut the slats to size. If you need to join two different lengths to join, use a miter block and join using 45 degree seams. This is good to minimize the appearance of the joint, and also allows for expansion/contraction of the wood.

Same procedure (using the miter block) can be used to cut the shoe molding to size and fit along corners to make sure that the molding fit flush on each other.

This small change-out of the shoe molding color dramatically changed the feel of the room, and can be done for around $50-60, counting the miter block, stain, brushes and all materials.

Pictures of the finished product to follow.

Grouting

After finishing laying all of the tile and cutting the edge pieces, the next step was to grout in between the tile. Although spacing and grouting isn't necessary for this type of tile, I wanted to keep the look of traditional tile.

Preparing to Grout

Start off by picking up everything off the floor, and doing a good sweep.

Make sure that you remove ALL of the tiles spacers, this is important if you don't want to end up with something that looks like this:

Remove all tile spacers!!

Once all spacers have been removed, vacuum floor thoroughly to get any dust that may have fallen in the space between the tiles, and make sure you give the floor a quick pass to make sure that no spacers have been missed.

Equipment

One approach to this job is the "icing bag" approach, which can be a bit less messy, and probably should have been the way to go.... but hindsight is 20/20, I went with the more conventional float method

The basics for the grouting job include: Premixed vinyl tile grout, soft grout float, grout sponge (sponge on one side, scouring pad on the other), and a bucket of warm water.

Apply the grout mixture with the float at a 45 degree angle to pack it into the crack, then use the float edge at 90 degrees to level the grout. This process allows you to put a considerable amount of grout on the float and "move" it along as you apply it. After leveling the grout, use a damp sponge to remove grout residue from the tile.

If any grout hardens or hazes on the tile, use the scouring pad section on the sponge to clean up before the grout has a chance to harden.

Once the entire floor has been grouted, avoid stepping on it until the grout has had a few hours to set.





Sealing the Grout

Seal grout to avoid stains and prolong life

After the grout has had 48 hours to set, you can now seal the grout. Grout sealer prevents moisture from penetrating the grout and keeps it looking new and clean.

There are two kinds of grout sealers, the spray kind and the roll/brush on kind. The spray on kind is great for smaller tiles and small areas. This kind can also be bought in a version in which the over-spray evaporates, yielding the least amount of clean up possible.

If you have larger tiles, the roll/brush on kind can also be convenient and a quick way to apply grout; while minimizing waste or over-application.