Hardwood Floor Installed

Over the previous two weekends we installed the engineered hardwood floor. It's real hardwood - a layer that sits on top of about another 4 or 5 plys that make the wood very stable, even in moisture-areas like below grade. Pre the previous blog we put down leveling compound to make the floor as FLAT as possible. Then we put down the sublayer - which is a combination vapor barrier and foam underlayer, and then the engineered floor floats on top. There is about 1/2 inch all around in order for the floor to expand and shift if needed.

(click pics to expand)

We put the hardwood in about 1/3 of the basement, where the high traffic pattern from the backdoor to the bathroom and bar will be.



We purposely placed the fireplace stone about 3/4 inch above the concrete to that the flooring material would slide underneath. Else there is no way for a clean transition from any type of floor to the stone.



A closeup of the new floor and the newly installed bottom section of window frame. I left these off until I had the floor installed in case I needed to further rip the frame in order for it to fit (I did not need to)



There was a slight math error with the bar and fridge. Had I put the hardwood floor under the counter for the fridge to sit on, it would not have fit. Instead, I left the floor out, and the fridge sits on the concrete. Plenty of room that way.

You try to plan all of these very small but important details out, but you still miss a few.



The door frame plinths are in. The floor is not really this dark.



This is more the true color and shade of the floor





The bar in all its lit up glory





Carpet is on order, not sure when it will arrive as we first need some floor transition molding to arrive.