This Old Workshop, Pergo Feature, woodworking

Project Log: Installing Pergo "Presto" Floors

NEW! Read the 1 year later update for Project Pergo here

April showers might bring May flowers, but for me it was floors not flowers. We bought our home in October of 1999 and since that day we have been wandering around the house coming up with home improvement projects. The current project is installing new laminent wood floors in the family room and kitchen, with a runner going to the front door. After a bit of shopping around we chose Pergo's Presto line. The ease of installation and reasonable price made it a good choice for what we were looking for. We wanted something that would stand up to a good amount of traffic as well as the soon to arrive child. Having no real expedience in laying down this kind of flooring. I decided to sign up for a free Pergo class at our local Home Depot. Definitely a good call on my part. At the class, Jennifer showed us just how easy this new flooring from Pergo is to install, no glue, and it basically snaps together. I suggest you check your local resources for classes of this type. Typically they are free, and hey anything for free can't be bad. For this kind of project come armed with diagrams of your layout, and questions about your particular installation. They will be happy to go over your specific challenges. Also the pergo web site has a lot of information available.

The first step was to remove the old carpet and vinyl flooring. The carpet came up pretty easy, but the glued down vinyl floors in the kitchen were a bit of a challenge. The loan of a couple floor scrapers made this job manageable. I would definitely suggest renting one of these handy items if you have much flooring to remove. I also removed all the molding along the floors which will be replaced with new matching laminent molding.

Laying out the first line of boards was a bit of a challenge, my house like so many others lacks true straight walls and I wanted the flooring to go in as straight as possible. But once these were laid, the rest fell into place pretty well. Laying down the plastic vapor barrier followed by the thin padding which helps dampen the noise of the boards as you walk on them. Then it was a matter of snapping down the boards and tapping them into place. It took a while to get used to the amount of strength to apply when tapping them into place, I will admit I ruined a few boards by hitting them too hard. I was able to use them as ends so there was no real waste. With the much appreciated help of newest member of this old workshop, Greg, we laid down the flooring in one day. One challenge was fitting the boards around the counter in my kitchen, it took a couple refits to get it right. Its hard to say if this was because it was 3am or because there was problems with the layout. My vote is the 3am part.

Over all we spent about $2000 on around 500 sq feet of floor, including the transition molding. We chose the Oak Block style because it matches the current Oak stair well, and future oak mantel I plan on putting around our fire place. I was pleased with the ease of installation. We used the table saw to rip the first few runs of boards, but quickly picked up the hand jig saw to cut the rest, since the boards stop at 1/4 inch from the wall, the precision of the table or chop saw wasn't really needed, just a steady hand with the jig saw was enough accuracy for the job.

I supose someone could do a job like this alone, it definitely made it easier with a little help. One person installed boards and the 2nd supplied them with boards and trimmed the pieces as needed. Besides, its always nice to have friends around to keep the mood light.

I will let you all know how the floor hold up against steady use. So far I am very happy with it. Although with anything, time will tell. I would be happy to hear about your experiences with any flooring products.

Daniel