Installing Laminate Floors Day 1: Tearing Up Carpeting & No Noticeable Progress

This weekend we got a start on tearing up our hideous carpets so we can put down our new gorgeous laminate plank flooring. The plan is to replace almost all of the carpeting in our house with 12mm laminate (except for the bedrooms which will get new carpet eventually). We're starting in the dining room, which looks like this:



Our Day 1 Accomplishments Include:

- Emptying out the room! Even though the above picture is of an empty space, over time we've managed to turn this room into a dumping ground for some random stuff. (Nothing that was in the room was staying though which is why I still consider the empty room the "before.") Some things were thrown away, some were moved to new "homes" in the house, and the rest of it we tossed in a couple of plastic bins to deal with later.

- Ripped out the carpet tacks around the room. THIS SUCKED. Turns out there is concrete under our carpets so ripping those nails out is HARD. I can't lie, I was only able to tear out about 8" of the carpet tacks because I am a weak weak person. My role was re-delegated to "runner" where I went to Home Depot three times and picked up some lunch from Baja Fresh. Mr. T was a trooper and did the rest of it with a little "help" from Heidi and Nemo.

Check out those sexy athletic socks. Rawr.

- Bought a shop vac! Seeing all the small bits that were getting torn up I bought this small shop vac on my third trip to Home Depot. Heidi seemed to think that the little splinters of wood that were getting torn up were delicious, so making sure we got up all the harmful-for-doggie-pieces was a must.



However, our day 1 accomplishments did not include actually laying down any of the new floor. Boo! Hiss!

Since we have dogs (and especially since Molly is one really old dog) we're trying to be super careful about how we leave things after each work session. When we Mr. T finished ripping up the carpet tacks around the room we decided that was a good stopping point for the day. That meant that we were able to lay the carpeting back down over the dining room so it would be easier for the dogs to get around until we tackle more work. The carpet is unsecured since there aren't any tack strips anymore, but it's so big that it doesn't move around.

That means that the room looks exactly the same as when we started... which is pretty anticlimatic after a full day's work... harrumph.

Anyone else have a slow start at the beginning of big projects? I feel like this is the story of my life with this house - extremely slow, but (sort of) steady progress...

Just getting started though gave me a real sense of accomplishment. I can't believe we're actually getting it done! Woohoo!! Maybe we'll get to lay the new floor on Day 2 (whenever that is). Hopefully.

But I'm not going to hold my breath.