To everyone that has installed, replaced sections of or have worked with laminated flooring, I doff my hat to you! Unless you have a better grasp of carpentry than I, this can be a nightmare.

With a gap in the floor where the old room divider had been located, it was time to repair the floor. I watched videos on “You Tube” and read the “How To” in one of our Do-It-Yourself books. The concept is really quite simple…kinda like that of a child building something with Legos! Well, when I was a kid we had building blocks that did not have tongue-in-groove.

The intent was to take up the boards that had been cut and replace them, however after reading we found that you should not try this (I’m sure that there are experts that can…I couldn’t.) What was required was removing the quarter round and removing boards to where the last row would be that would give you a straight edge for the entire length of the repair. OK! Boards out, now my 4-6 inch wide gap was 31 feet long by 9 feet wide. OK, I must admit that I have always been better tearing things up than fixing them, but this was a bit much. In addition, I had damaged the finish on a couple of boards that caused the last row to come out.

After checking the book and re-watching some video, I thought I had it cold. Simply attach the tongue, snap it in place, use a flat piece of 2×4 against the edge and tap the piece into the groove . On the first board, I ended up with some splintering followed by a rather sharp snap and the tongue on the board I was attempting to install turned into dust! I was using a standard hammer and not a sledge and I was amazed, but removed the board, cleaned up my mess and tried again with the same results. I then tried attaching two boards (not attaching them to those that were still installed) in an attempt to see how difficult it would be to do if there were no restrictions. WOW, this is simple! Several attempts and no successes later, I called my wife into the living room and showed her the mess. She is not one to let a little challenge ruin a project and she got down on her knees and attempted the same steps I had tried with the same results, short of breaking a board.

Decision time! Time for a meeting of the minds. Did I attempt too large a project for someone that can handle many tasks, but this one seemed overpowering. Our decisions on how to proceed in Part 3!

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