Okay, so I finally tackled that flooring project this past weekend. Decided to go with something called “rubber dancing lvl larch” for the main room. Honestly, the name sounded a bit weird, but the larch wood itself looked pretty solid, and the price wasn’t too crazy.

First things first, had to deal with the old floor. Ripping out that ancient carpet was quite the job. Those darn tack strips! Pulled them all out, then gave the subfloor a really good cleaning. Swept it, vacuumed it, made sure no nails were sticking up. You really want that surface clean and as flat as possible. Getting it level is key, otherwise, the new floor will squeak or feel weird. Mine wasn’t perfectly flat, had a few low spots, maybe that’s where the “lvl” part of the name comes in? Spent a bit of time trying to even things out.

After the subfloor prep, I rolled out the underlayment. Just used a standard foam roll type. Some folks swear by the fancy rubber ones, but this seemed good enough for me. Unrolled it across the whole floor, cut it to fit, and used tape to keep the seams together. That part was pretty quick and easy.

Now for the main part: laying the larch planks.

I’d bought several boxes of this “rubber dancing” larch. Let them sit in the room for about two days before starting. They say wood needs to get used to the room’s temperature and humidity. Acclimatizing, I think they call it. Better safe than sorry, right?

Started laying the planks along the longest wall, like most guides suggest. Put little plastic spacers between the first row and the wall. You need that gap, maybe a quarter-inch or so, because wood expands and contracts with humidity changes. Without the gap, it could buckle later. Getting that first row perfectly straight took some focus.

These planks had the usual tongue-and-groove system. You basically angle the new plank, fit its tongue into the groove of the plank already laid down, and then gently push or tap it down flat.

• I used a rubber mallet and a tapping block for some of the tighter fits. Just gentle taps, though. Didn’t want to smash the edges.
• Measuring and cutting took the most time. Especially the cuts needed to fit around the door frame. Used my jigsaw for those tricky shapes. Made quite a bit of sawdust!
• Keeping each row tight against the previous one was important too. You don’t want gaps opening up later.

It was slow going at first, but once I got into a rhythm, it moved along okay. Seeing the floor come together, row by row, felt pretty good. That larch wood grain looks quite nice, actually. Much better than the tired old carpet.

The last row is always a bit of a pain. Had to measure carefully and rip the planks down to the right width to fit against the far wall, again remembering to leave that small expansion gap.

Once all the planks were down, I went around and pulled out all the plastic spacers. The final step was installing the quarter-round trim along the baseboards. This trim covers up the expansion gap neatly and gives the whole thing a finished look. A little bit of caulk along the top edge of the trim, and it was done.

So, that’s the story of assembling the “rubber dancing lvl larch” floor. It took the better part of my weekend, involved some sweat, and my knees were definitely feeling it by the end. But doing it myself saved a decent chunk of money. And honestly, it looks really good. It’s not super complicated work, mostly just requires patience and careful measuring. And a decent saw definitely helps. Yeah, glad I did it.