How to Cover Existing Flooring for a Kitchen
- 1). Take up the floor trim around the room, using your hammer and pry bar. Remove it without breaking it. Use the hammer to tap out the nails. Set it aside.
- 2). Lay out a course of foam flooring underlayment on the floor along the longest unobstructed wall, from end to end, cutting it at the end with your utility knife. Lay out a second course next to the first. Stretch a length of duct tape over the whole seam between the two pieces. Repeat for subsequent courses, until you've covered the whole floor.
- 3). Set the starting course of flooring planks along the same wall, with the groove side facing the wall. Clip the boards together at the ends. Put shims between the planks and the wall as you lay the planks, to create a small gap that will allow the wood to expand (trim will cover the gap later). Cut the end pieces on a miter saw.
- 4). Lay the next courses of planks in the same way, locking them together by the tongue-and-groove milling at the sides. Work your way across the entire floor, using a jigsaw to cut the boards around the kitchen cabinets and other obstructions as needed. For the final course, length-cut the boards on a table saw if necessary to get them to fit.
- 5). Remove the shims from around the edges of the floor. Reinstall the floor trim you took out earlier, using trim nails and a hammer. The trim should sit over the gap between the edge of the floor and the wall. Nail it into the wall rather than the floor.
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