Okay, so I’ve been wanting to redo my floors for, like, forever. And I finally decided to tackle it! I went with this “rubber dancing oak assembly wooden flooring” thing – sounds fancy, right? It’s basically engineered wood, but I liked the name.

First things first, I had to rip out the old carpet. Oh boy, that was a workout! Dust, staples, the whole nine yards. Underneath, it was just plain old plywood subfloor, thankfully in pretty good shape. I made sure to clean it all up super well – vacuumed like crazy, and even used a damp cloth to get any remaining dust bunnies.

Next up, the underlayment. I chose a simple foam one, nothing too fancy. Just rolled it out, taped the seams together, and trimmed the edges to fit the room. Pretty straightforward.

Getting Down to Business

Then came the actual flooring. I started in one corner, following the instructions on the box (which, let’s be honest, I only half-read). The planks were “click-lock,” so they were supposed to just snap together. Sounds easy, right?

Well, it kinda was, and kinda wasn’t. The first few rows were a bit tricky, getting everything lined up perfectly. I used a tapping block and a rubber mallet to gently persuade the planks to join together. Don’t be a hero, use a rubber mallet! Sometimes they needed a little extra persuasion. I even used a pull bar to get the last pieces of a row to lock.

• Measure twice, cut once! So very very important!
• Leave a small gap around the edges of the room for expansion and contraction.
• Those spacers will help maintain gaps.

The rest of the room went pretty smoothly, once I got the hang of it. It was like a giant puzzle, and slowly but surely, the floor started to take shape. I made a few mistakes along the way, of course – mis-cut a plank here and there, but nothing major. Thank goodness for extra planks!

Finally, I installed the baseboards and quarter-round molding to cover the expansion gaps. A little bit of caulk to fill in any small cracks, and… boom! Done!

It took me a couple of weekends, but honestly, it was totally worth it. The new floor looks amazing! And I did it all myself! Feeling pretty proud of my handiwork, I gotta say. If i can do it, you can do it.