Intro | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 5 | Day 6

Day 4 of our 6 day basement facelift was Saturday the 29th and if you recall from this post, we were attempting to have it done in time for our NYE party. And it was right about now that we began realizing how far over our heads we actually were. Today was the day that we needed to begin laying floor. Problem? I had never done this before but it seemed easy enough in theory.

About a year ago we found this Home Legend – Honey Oak laminate flooring on sale at Home Depot for ~$0.80 per square foot. We knew that one day we would want to redo our basement and decided on this rather than carpeting after seeing it in one of the houses we were considering when in the market.

You do need to be careful with laminate floors in basements, so I doubled up on protection and bought a 6mil moisture barrier that went down first (right on top of the old vinyl tiles) and then topped it off with a foam 2mil moisture barrier, sound dampener, insulator, and cushion.

We came to find that there are a ton of options when it comes to underlayment and moisture barriers. I did a bit of research and am very happy with where we ended up. You see, some companies claim to have a “superior” version touting “patented technology” and therefore charging a premium. But that same brand has a basic product too that actually had great reviews, costs 1/3rd what their other product costs, and as I mentioned, we were very happy with it. This is the combo of products we went with.

With the underlayment down, I began installing the floor. Due to the shape of the room the first half went in easy peasy. All it took were a few straight cuts to stagger the planks and we were golden. I thought to myself, “maybe we really could do this in time for NYE” and then I got to the bar…

I realized that I had no idea how to cut the planks to angle around the bar. I only own 2 saws, a miter saw and a battery powered circle saw. Neither of these tools were getting the job done. The circle saw couldn’t handle the planks and the miter saw couldn’t make the angle. I was happy with the progress I had made but had no idea what to do next so I called it quits and decided to do some research.

Laying flooring sucks. Who’s with me?

Intro | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 5 | Day 6