Uncategorized My DIY Resources and a Hardwood Flooring and Expansion Gap Video June 18, 2013

Flooring: Day 1
Last night Jason and I started our nail down hardwood flooring project.  We did not get very far.  Our friends loaned us a flooring nailer and we bought an air compressor.  Jason spent the first hour shaking his head at me, because I had to ask what the compressor was for and I expected the flooring nailer to be electric.  

The first and only step we got to: trimming down the door casings to fit the new flooring.  This is a Rigid Oscillating Multi-Tool, it’s loud, but fast and easy to work with.

As many house projects as I have done, I didn’t grow up in a DIY household, in fact, it was quite the opposite.  All of this stuff is brand new to me and I rely heavily on other blogs, Youtube, and, for the most part, contractor’s forums.  Contractor Talk is a great one.  I don’t ask questions in the forums, because that generally leads to someone saying “you’re an idiot for trying to do this yourself, hire someone so you don’t get electrocuted,”  (and that is the nice version of what they say).  However, there are lots of archives of professionals asking questions of one another.  Our former neighbor posts a lot of articles from The Family Handyman on Facebook, too.  They have some really helpful tips, it’s an awesome site explaining how to do things I never would have thought to do myself.

This was my favorite video that we came across on YouTube, and it isn’t just because of the facial hair (although that helped).  I had to filter through more terrible “tutorials” than I would have expected to come across someone giving legitimate advice.  You have no idea how many guys in their 20’s have edited videos of themselves speed-nailing hardwood flooring to the greatest hits of Nickelback and 3 Doors Down.

Last night we got as far as setting up the air compressor, and nailing in one piece of flooring before I said, “Wait, how do we know the wall is straight?”  And Jason replied, “I don’t know, you just put it in and hope that it is.”  That led to us removing the piece we installed and heading back downstairs to do a little more research.  Tonight is haircut night for Jason and Grant, so as long as Grant stays still and we don’t end up in the ER, Jason and I should have made a little progress by tomorrow.

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