Out with the Carpet, In with the Wood

 

 

 

 

My husband's 'Mancave' is the room above the garage.  I've heard them called a FROG (Family Room Over Garage) or Bonus room.  Whatever they're called, his is a big room with all of the requisite Mancave stuff.  :)

Recently, he decided he'd had enough of the carpet in there.  We were a little concerned about what was going on under the carpet, as there were a couple of "lumps" (for lack of a better word). 

He pulled out the carpet and found that some of the subfloor had buckled and/or wasn't completely seated on the joists.  Lovely....

So, all of the subfloor needed to be removed.  If you've ever removed subfloor, you know what a beast it is to pull up.  It is nailed and glued to every joist!!   Yes, we know how to have fun!  Add to that that the elliptical was too heavy to get down the stairs and out of the way, so we had to keep moving it as we worked.



I am not a goat or a gymnast.  I do not like walking on thin strips of wood.  I played volleyball and basketball. I never once had a desire to do the balance beam.  So to say I was not happy walking across this 400 square foot room on 1 3/4" slices of wood, would be a bit of an understatement...  But, I was successful and never once went through the sheetrock below!  (and I was able to move my end of the elliptical each time while balanced on that 1 3/4" board!)

We had to carry each sheet of subfloor upstairs, put in a lot more cross-joists and then lots of gluing, nailing and celebrating once another 4x8 slab of easy walking was complete!  :)

This weekend was the install weekend.  For much of the time, I was the pneumatic nailing woman.  Other times I was the tap the next board in place woman.  I think this job would've been a lot easier on my body 10 years ago!! 

We chose pre-finished Acacia hardwood.  We have walnut in the rest of our house, but because my husband lifts weights up there, he was afraid that the walnut might dent.  Acacia looks very much like it, but is three times harder. 

After 2 1/2 days of laying the floor, repainting the nicks in the walls, repainting the moulding, then reinstalling it, then carrying all of the contents back upstairs (including 300 pounds of free weights!), we now have a beautiful (wait, did I say WE?) HE has a beautiful new Mancave!

 

 

We have company coming this weekend, so get to rest and have fun.  After that, it's redoing the stairs up to the Mancave.  I'll be posting those pictures in a few weeks.  In the meantime, I'll be resting my sore body and shopping my heart out with my dear friend. 

 

Thanks for your visit!

Pam

 

 

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