Alright, so I’ve been meaning to redo my flooring for, like, forever. It was this old, scuffed-up laminate that just looked…blah. I finally decided to take the plunge and go with wooden flooring. And, because I’m apparently a glutton for punishment, I decided to install batten dancing engineer assembled wooden flooring – by myself.

First things first, I gathered all the materials. This meant a lot of trips to the home improvement store. I picked out the wood, which was a whole ordeal in itself. So many choices! Ended up going with a nice, light-colored oak.

• Wood flooring planks (obviously)
• Underlayment (the squishy stuff that goes underneath)
• Battens (thin strips of wood)
• Adhesive (lots and lots of glue)
• Saws (circular saw and a jigsaw)
• Measuring tape (measure twice, cut once, right?)
• Hammer and nails (for the battens)
• Safety glasses and gloves (gotta protect the eyeballs and fingers!)

The Actual Work

First, I ripped up the old flooring. Man, that was a workout! And dusty. So, so dusty. Then I cleaned the subfloor like crazy, made sure it was super level. Any bumps or dips would mess everything up.

Next up, I laid down the underlayment. This was pretty straightforward, just rolled it out and taped the seams together. Easy peasy.

Then came the battens. I measured and cut these to fit the perimeter of the room, and also spaced them out evenly across the floor. These are what the floorboards would actually attach to. I nailed these suckers down good and tight. No wobbly battens allowed!

Now for the fun part (and the most nerve-wracking). I started laying the floorboards. I applied adhesive to the battens and the back of each plank, then carefully placed them down. It was like a giant, messy puzzle. I had to make sure everything was lined up perfectly, and that I was staggering the seams so it looked natural.

There was a lot of cutting involved, especially around doorways and corners. My jigsaw got a serious workout. I definitely messed up a few cuts, but thankfully I had bought extra planks. Whew!

Slowly but surely, the floor started to take shape. It was a lot of bending, lifting, and gluing, but seeing it come together was super satisfying.

Finally, after a few (very long) days, I was done! I stood back and admired my handiwork. It wasn’t perfect, but it was mine. And it looked a heck of a lot better than the old flooring. Plus, I saved a ton of money doing it myself. Win-win!

Would I do it again? Maybe. It was definitely a learning experience. But for now, I’m just going to enjoy my new floor…and maybe take a long nap.