I am not a huge fan of carpet, so I knew we would be installing flooring at the new house. We chose Lifeproof flooring from Home Depot.
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I have bad allergies and I feel like carpet is really hard to clean. I’ve always much preferred hardwood or vinyl flooring.
The flooring in our new house is a beautiful gray wood-look. It’s the Lifeproof flooring from Home Depot in Sterling Oak.
But they only did the flooring in the kitchen, living room, hallway, and bathrooms. Leaving the 3 bedrooms and flex space with carpet. I knew one of the first projects I wanted to tackle, after painting, was to get the flooring done.
The Lifeproof flooring is not inexpensive, but we figured we should match the existing flooring. One we like it, it’s really pretty. Two, it’s always good to have consist flooring when possible, especially in a smaller house.
The house is approximately 1600 square feet, so it’s not the smallest. But we still felt a consistent flooring would be best for us.
Originally, I was just going to have Home Depot install the flooring. They come out, rip all the carpet and padding up, dispose of it, and then lay the flooring all in one day.
But John watched numerous videos and decided that he thought he could do the flooring himself. So we decided to go for it.
Thankfully our trash company will take carpet for free during a bulk pickup. Home Depot charges $2.50 a sq ft to remove, dispose, and install new flooring. So we estimate we saved somewhere between $1500 and $2000 by doing it ourselves!
Installing New Flooring
We really wanted all the flooring installed before we moved in. But we didn’t have a lot of time. So we decided to start with the bigger rooms that would have the hardest to move furniture.
The middle flex space will have the Murphy bed and probably a couch. Both will be difficult to move and store somewhere else. John started with this room.
Removing the carpet and tack strips took about 2 hours. Cleaning and prepping the floors another hour. And finally cutting and installing all the Lifeproof floors 5-6 hours.
He was able to save the baseboards from this room so that we could reuse them once the flooring was laid. This is the main video from Home Depot that he used when installing the floors.
The next room to tackle was our bedroom. These were also the 2 biggest rooms. Our bedroom had some angled walls and so it took a little bit longer to cut and lay the flooring.
The closet also gave some trouble. Because the closet has the door in the middle, it was difficult to continue the flooring into the closet without putting in a transition strip.
John tried it without the transition strip first, but couldn’t get the flooring tight enough together in the closet. So he ripped it all up, put a transition strip in, and then laid the flooring in the closet.
It works out fine because there are transition strips between every room in the house already and going into the bathrooms. So it’s not weird.
Must Have Tools
Here are some of the must have tools for installing Lifeproof flooring:
Lifeproof Pro Flooring Installation Kit
Jigsaw or Circular Saw
Exacto Knife
Do you think anyone could do lay Lifeproof Flooring?
Absolutely! John had no prior experience and after watching a few YouTube videos he was confident in what he was doing. It’s not hard, but it does take time and can be a strain on your knees.
What’s the most difficult part of laying flooring?
The strain on the knees and just remembering to move the tools with you as you move through the room.
Is the Lifeproof Installation Kit necessary?
Yes, and no. It comes with really everything you need. You can piece the things you need together on your own, but if you don’t have them already, it’s easiest to just buy the kit.
The flooring looks incredible! We’ll do the kids rooms after we move in. Their furniture is easier to move and they can just bunk together. I’ll probably paint the room before removing the carpet too.
Logically, that’s the best way to redo a space. Paint, then remove floors. We did it backwards in the flex space and our bedroom since I had to paint the living room and kitchen. So I’ll come back and paint the bedrooms after we’ve moved in.