S/O Floors: replacing floors while living in the house

[Innisfree]

Okay, so we're thinking of pulling up carpet which is over much of our house because of dh's allergies and chronic respiratory issues. It will need to be replaced with some sort of smooth, easily-cleaned flooring, so I'm watching the other thread with interest.

 

The problem is we're living in the house, most of the flooring is affected, and I'm not sure how the logistics of this operation work. Do we have to essentially move out to accomplish this?

 

How do people do this? Do you empty the house, put everything in storage, and stay in a hotel while the work is done over a few days? Do you somehow shift furniture from room to room and still stay in a hotel, because bedrooms aren't usable? Hire movers (please, no) or do flooring contractors expect to shift furniture?

 

Any experience or advice?

[maize]

We shifted furniture and camped out in the basement.

[Guest]

For us, the issue is doors. We are putting the same floor in front of the 3 entry doors. Obviously, we still need to be able to get in and out. Our plan is to do it in stages and just accept that it will be total chaos for a few weeks.

[regentrude]

We had the entire first floor redone three years ago. Ripped out carped and vinyl, did ceramic tile in kitchen+bathrooms+laundry room and hardwood in bedroom+living room+dining area. The installer worked in sections. He first did the kitchen, which was rough, but lasted only for a few days. Then the other rooms. We simply moved furniture and things into the rooms that were not being worked on.

He worked alone and took over three weeks to do it, but only one room was unuseable at any given time.

Edited March 3, 2016 by regentrude

[Night Elf]

We did the floors ourselves and just worked on one room at a time. We moved the furniture from one room to another, ripped up the carpet, laid down the laminate and moved everything back within one day. If you're going to hire someone, I would imagine they help move the furniture out of the room. Just ask when you get them to come give you an estimate.

[Lecka]

You can work it out with the people you hire.

 

We had some choices.

 

For us, we did half our house two years ago over 3-4 days, and then we just did the other half of our house this year over 2 days.

 

Two years ago, we did not do bedrooms. This year we did do bedrooms. My husband's friends moved the bedroom furniture one afternoon, we slept in a guest room and the kids slept on the floor that night.

 

The next night their rooms were put back together. The carpet people moved the guest bed out of that room in the morning.

 

We had quite a few options, with what could work with our schedules.

 

This time we were getting carpet so it was easier.

 

Last time we got the fake hardwood made of plastic (which I am very satisfied with 2 years later) and it took more time for them to install it in each room.

[Spryte]

With the allergies and chronic respiratory issues, you'll need to be cautious. It took us a few tries to learn to do this, with DS's issues. Camping out in a hotel would get your DH into cleaner air, so I wouldn't rule that out. You'll also want an air purifier that filters out VOCs. Tons of VOCs will be released during the remodeling process. A charcoal filter will do it. There are more than one option, but the one we have is a Blue Air filter with the Smoke Stop inserts (we don't smoke, but that filter gets the right size particles).

[BarbecueMom]

We're going room by room, because we are also painting and remodeling closets as we go. The kids' rooms only have mattresses. We have an actual bed, but no one has a dresser or closet doors. Pre-flooring decluttering is your friend! DS7 (the one with bad allergies) stays out of the room until it's done and settled, and we did all of this during unseasonably warm winter days with open windows. We piled the mattresses in the living room and they slept out there.

 

Bedrooms are done, now I'll start on the living room/hallway. Yes, it looks ridiculous half-finished right now. We did the vinyl plank (self-installed) and have the connector strips to go between rooms and the hallway.

 

Organizationally, the absolute worst part was the office and trying to homeschool out of boxes when I had no bookshelves.

 

FYI, worse than what was in the old carpet, I found a bit of what I think is mold behind two of the baseboards. Might want to be careful when pulling baseboards out and be prepared to handle that. Bleach, Kilz, and a mask.

[Innisfree]

Ugh, I hadn't even thought about VOCs and filters. Very good point, thanks.

 

Sounds like I need to start talking to contractors.

[Upptacka]

We replaced our entire main level flooring 3 years ago. We moved everything downstairs and I stayed with the kids at my inlaws for the weekend. My husband ripped up the carpet to save money, and that was the dustiest part of our project. When pulling old carpet out, I would suggest opening windows, sealing return vents, and shutting off your HVAC system (so dust doesn't get sucked in and then distributed everywhere). I also read it can be helpful to lightly mist the carpet with water before pulling it up.....less dust is airborne that way. My husband did both of the above and said the dust wasn't bad at all. And we had some really yucky carpet! But with your husband's allergies and respiratory concerns, I would probably leave the tearing out step for the contractor and just leave for the day. After installation, ventilate as much as you can.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Upptacka

[KatieJ]

We have redone all but one room of our house in the past few years. Kitchen, bath and hallways were part of extensive remodel. Bedrooms and living rooms we emptied one at a time. Bonus was going thru bookcases that had to emptied anyway. Lots of trips to my favorite donation place.

 

We redid two rooms with carpet in December. We asked the guy what he would charge to rip out carpeting. 35.00. Totally worth it to us as that included pulling all those tacks ( mostly he cut them off ) and disposal. It took two of them 20 mins per room. Well worth it.

[AK_Mom4]

We moved all the furniture into the garage when we did the downstairs.  The carpet guys were finished in half a day.  The laminate guys needed 4 days for their part (it was complicated), so we stayed in the areas with the new carpet.  And we spent lots of time outside in the backyard with a cooler full of drinks and snacks.  We had one path to the bathroom that was covered with brown paper for us to walk on.

[G5052]

We have two floors and a unfinished basement.

 

The DC and I took most of a June and July going through our belongings and putting them in the basement. We moved everything but the heavy furniture by the time we were done. They did the furniture, but wanted nothing in the closets, no books on shelves, etc. Then in August, we had them do 2-3 rooms at a time, just one floor at a time. There were a few shorter days when they were switching crews, but they got it done in two weeks.

 

There was a LOT of dust. If we could have moved out, I would have, but we didn't have the funds at the time.

 

I hope that I only do that once in life. It was a tough summer. My office never did get completely unpacked because I had to start teaching days after finished! That will be this summer's project (hopefully).

Edited March 3, 2016 by G5052

[MistyMountain]

When we have done floors we do room to room and move stuff out of that room then back in. If a large part of the room is done stuff can be moved back into that part.

[nd293]

I placed floating floor boards (laminate flooring) throughout our small 3 bedrooms house. Sometimes I moved furniture out the room, sometimes I moved it from one side to the other as I worked. Either way it was chaos, but doing it myself I could take breaks between rooms so we could regain equilibrium! The study was the only room which was horrendous - there's just no way to move bookshelves without entirely emptying them, which means finding room for the piles of books as well as the bookshelves themselves.

[mamakelly]

We will be doing new floors in the next month or two. I'm reading this thread with much interest lol.

[Innisfree]

I'm thinking we would do well to wait for summer for this project. Any way we work it, it sounds like several days to several weeks of work in the house, after the major effort of getting all the little stuff at least boxed up and out of the way. And it also sounds very dusty, dirty, and generally bad for dh in ways I hadn't entirely realized. Thanks to everyone for your stories and suggestions.

[Spryte]

I'm thinking we would do well to wait for summer for this project. Any way we work it, it sounds like several days to several weeks of work in the house, after the major effort of getting all the little stuff at least boxed up and out of the way. And it also sounds very dusty, dirty, and generally bad for dh in ways I hadn't entirely realized. Thanks to everyone for your stories and suggestions.

Feel free to pm or otherwise reach out, if you move forward with it. We really had to work hard to make it safe for DS. The first go-round we didn't realize how bad it would be for him, but after that, it became easier. And the payoff was worth it!

Edited March 4, 2016 by Spryte