How to Survive a Flooring Renovation

Preparing your home is essential for any successful renovation project. Whether you’re installing hardwood floors, carpet, tile, or even demolishing a wall to combine two smaller rooms with one nice floor, you’ll have to make preparations in advance. Here are a few ideas to help you work a plan that will adapt to your needs and lifestyle.

Your Floors Should be Last

Floor renovation should be the last project you work on when doing home remodeling. You want the wear and tear on your floors to be minimal if you can help it, so if you have any other projects going on at the same time, finish them first. Dragging heavy equipment over your new floor is less than ideal, and painting the room just after installing new floors is a good way to get blemishes and flecks of paint all over your new carpet or hardwood.

Remove the Old Flooring

Occasionally you can lay new flooring over the old, but typically it is best to take out the old flooring before installing the new. This can be a tedious step in the floor renovation process, but it will be worth it to start with a clean slate. It is important to remove old flooring if it was defective somehow (i.e. the floorboards were rotting, or the carpet was moldy). In the long run, skipping this process will end up costing you more time and money to solve the problem

Protect the Rest of Your House

Working on a flooring project will negatively affect the rest of the house unless you take measures to prevent this. Significant amounts of dust can be disturbed while you’re working, floating around to settle on other rooms’ floors or furniture. You can prevent this by throwing tarps, plastic sheets, or bed sheets over furniture and floors in other rooms. You can even seal off the room you’re working in by taping a plastic sheet to the doorway.

Measure in Detail 

It goes without saying that measuring is important, but many people forget one crucial area: the gap between the bottom of the door and the new floor. Take a sample piece of flooring to place underneath where the door will swing. If the door no longer has clearance to move freely, you may have to trim the door or pick a different flooring option.