Emerald Hill is invaded today by the Army of Landers — Ivan and his team of eight tasked with installing the new hickory wood floors — Victor, Diego, Carlos, Leonardo, Aldo, Miguel, Manny and Gerardo.
Steven anthropomorphizes. She’s cute in that flirty miniskirt. But then she shows up in that little black dress …
Ron says it took Ivan and his army 10 minutes to remove what remained of the existing oak flooring from the upstairs hall, and the office, library, family room and entry hall downstairs. Ivan says it took 30 minutes to remove the glue. Here is most of it, loaded into a van for recycling.Then they floated the downstairs slab and some of the upstairs subflooring level and smooth with a lightweight concrete mix. Here’s the entry hall with a glimpse into the library. The concrete would dry quickly if the weather was warm and sunny — but today is cool and cloudy. It takes several hours for the concrete to dry — even with fans blowing air across the material.While they wait for the concrete to dry, Ivan and the army prepped — moving a lot of the prefinished lumber in boxes and the raw hickory treads into bath 2, out of the way. They also stacked boxes of the hickory strategically, putting it within easy reach of where they plan to install floors.By 2 pm, they are pulling a string line tight down the middle of the upstairs hallway — and snapping a chalk line to follow with the wood.Manny trowels out glue along one side of the chalk line. The army leaves clear the other side of the chalk line as a passage between rooms.The first boards are down, starting at the entrance to the master suite at the back of the photo, traveling toward the stairwell.
While the crew upstairs is installing wood, downstairs, Victor uses a jamb cutter to trim clearances from door casings and base board. This saw screams. Victor is wearing ear buds as ear plugs.
Victor flicks away the cut casing.
He test fits a plank of hickory flooring under the casing.
And pivots around the corner of the casing for a second test fitting.
The master bedroom is started. Blue painters tape helps to hold the boards tightly together, to prevent the glue from lubricating the planks apart.30 minutes later.45 minutes after that, done — and moving into the master closet.The master closet and hallway, halfway done.
Two views of the many layers of the hickory planks. From the edge and top …
From the edge and back, with the expansion slots visible to help the wood flex on uneven subfloors.
Manny finishes the last board in the upstairs loft.
Scraping smooth and clean the floated concrete floor in the family room next to the kitchen tile — removing bumps and ridges that might make the wood flooring uneven. It’s all done on hands and knees — scraping, sweeping, scraping, sweeping.
Pulling a chalk line from front to back of house to guide the proper installation of the hickory — straight and square.
Ivan and his army first work to the left of the chalk line, spreading glue up to the line and then swiftly gluing down planks. Stock is laid out to the right of the chalk line. The mallets are thumping. The house resonates with each blow.Spreading glue to the other side of the chalk line.By 4 pm on a cold and cloudy day, the army needs lights to work by.Watching the mallet fly by shadowed light.
