Next, the floor. The floor provided by the builders was most unsatisfactory. First of all, some of the pieces of plywood were thicker than others. There were large headed nails driven in at an angle. The ones that were straight kept popping up. No matter how many times we pounded them down they kept rearing their ugly heads again.
On the advice of the people in the flooring department at Lowe's, we put sheets of 3/4 inch MDF over the old flooring making sure not to use the same layout so seems would not coincide. It was fastened down with liquid nails and woodscrews in the corners. It came out nice and flat. Next, we put down laminated floor tiles with padding on the back. The tiles are approximately 4 feet by 1 foot and have edges something like a tung and groove with a catch on the tung that catches in the groove and holds them together once locked in place. These are on all four sides. The instructions say to alternate the short seams which gives a stair-step appearance. The first row was just laid down and locked together end to end working right to left. To start the second row the first tile had to be cut in half. These went down and the third row started with another whole tile. It wasn't quite as easy as the salesman said it would be. The long edges were fairly easy, just lift up the edge of the tile, lock it to the previously laid one and lay it down. It would lock in place. That was OK for the long edge but the second in a row, and all subsequent ones to the left, required that the newly added tile had to be slid to the right without being lifted up to engage the short seam. One of the half pieces was pressed into service for this. It was placed against the short seam which matched so considerable force could be put on it without damaging the wanted tile. The cut end could be pounded on with a hammer to force the good tile to move and engage the next one down. Then the "tool" could be removed leaving an undamaged edge for the next one in line. This piece of tile was a scrap that was of no further use. When the wall on the left was reached a tile had to be cut to fill the remaining space. The "tool" could not be used here because all the space had been filled. The tiles had to be cut short enough to allow something to be wedged in between the end of the tile and the wall to force it to the right. We started by prying with a large file but that wouldn't go far enough. Next we inserted the claws of a claw-hammer into the crack and pried against the wall. This resulted in some damaged paneling and also broken edges of the tiles. Most of the damage was covered by the base board and quarter round but there are still a couple of broken places showing both in the paneling and the floor tiles. Some well placed furniture will cover these mistakes. It seems impossible to make the last one in line lock in place without doing some damage to the wall and tiles. I wonder how the hell the pros do it. Regards. Max. K 4 O D S. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Transistor site http://www.funwithtransistors.net Vacuum tube site: http://www.funwithtubes.net Music site: http://www.maxsmusicplace.com To subscribe to the fun with tubes group send an email to, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
