Get on the 'Flo!

I feel like discussing our 'flo-ing today (flooring for the unhip cats 'round here). ;)

Currently, the house looks like a dog got to squat and do his bizness (I'm on a gangsta roll today!) all over the carpets in 90% of the rooms.

Yuck, yeah? We originally planned on just attempting the clean the carpets and throw down some area rugs to cover the worst of it, but the carpet is put in badly too, the seams are obvious and unraveling and since we don't have to fully pay for a new HVAC (due to renovation loan), we have some money left in the budget for flooring.

We looked into some carpets, but our house is a bit larger than we thought and umm it was scary expensive, even with the super cheap basic Shaw line of carpet from Lowes. It's the installation costs that were so annoying too. Mainly because replacing the carpets in the rooms would mean replacing the carpeting on the stairs since we'd want it to all match. And stair carpet is crazy ridiculous. I think we were quoted $9 a step on installation alone. We have a lot of steps.

Sooo, I introduced the idea of laminate wood flooring to Rob. I was kinda hoping to do it in the back of my mind because I think carpet looks cheap when it is cheap. But you can get some good quality and pretty laminates for cheap too.


We're mainly looking at Lumber Liquidators, Lowes/Home Depot's laminates are more expensive and for the price you only get the cheap flimsy 6mm stuff that looks fake. We want around 8mm to 10mm so it's a bit easier for us first timers to install.

First up:

This is an 8mm Mahogany alike, and it's $1.12 per square foot. It comes with foam backing so we wouldn't need to put down an underlay. 

This is an 8mm Mahogany as well for just .89/sq. foot. But it doesn't have a backing so we'd need to do an underlay. 

This is what I'm particularly interested in. It's actual untreated hardwood oak, not a laminate, and it's .89 sq/ft. It's so cheap because it's particularly grainy, knotty, and whirly, so it's considered not perfect enough to be stained and used in the normal hardwoods. It looks gorgeous and full of character in pictures of other people's rooms though. 

Stained

Kept oak-y, not my favorite but it shows the texture of the wood well.

via 

Isn't it lovely?

Love it. Reminds me of this house's floors:

We could probably mimic a similar treatment. I just worry that real hardwood would be more difficult to diy. It's not pop and click is it? It's just planks of wood you have to get together somehow. 

Anyone have experience with diy-ing some flooring?