What Could Go Wrong

 My last post showed how to cut your own floor planks with Cricut's wood veneer 12x12 wood sheets using Design Space (DS). Happily, I am able to report that the floor is finished and awaiting staining, which may happen tomorrow after I buy some stain. In the meantime here's how I created the floor.

I began by making a paper template of the floor because the flooring need to be notched to go around the the center peak wall that protrudes out beyond each side panel

Making templates of difficult spaces that will be covered seems to work best for me to get an accurate template to work with instead of messing with rulers and fractions be it wallpaper or flooring. This attic requires some fancy templates for  triangle peaked front, the triangular side walls, and the trapezoids on the front of the house on each side of the center peak.

I debated on whether to use heavier cardboard or scrapbooking paper. I really wanted to glue the flooring to Cricut's 1.5 mm chipboard as I did for the addition second floor which made a very nice, solid floor, but I didn't have any on hand, so I used thin craft paper. Since two 12x12 sheets were too wide, I overlapped the pieces instead of cutting on side down to fit, with the hopes of strengthening the joint between the two sheets and secured it with masking tape. 

I will order 1.5mm chipboard next week and glue the flooring to it so have that nice, solid flooring.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

1. GLUE:  I first tried Gorilla Wood glue, thinking that because it is not water based, the planks wouldn't curl, but the glue didn't seem to like the paper template or something. I just didn't like it, so I switched to the tacky glue, which worked much better. I even pondered later using double sticky tape since some manufactured flooring peal and use. I'm sure that tape would be as forgiving a glue in that you need to be able to slide the pieces around to get a tight, accurate fit and tape doesn't not allow that flexibility. 

2. NOT ENOUGH PLANKS:About 3/4 of the way through the job, I realized that I was running short of planks. I thought I had had plenty just by laying out the pre-cut sheets and then placing the individual planks in a test run. (Better photo of the trapezoid walls.)

12x12 sheets on the floor, forgetting the waste when cutting them out in Design Space because the cutting area was 10.5x11.5 inches, a loss of half an inch at the bottom and the 1/8 inch margin that DS allows to cut around the background and the 1.5 inches with the 10.5 inch width. 

And to complicate matters, the remaining sheets that I had were the really dark walnut and I would run out of the lighter shade. I decided to cut at least another half sheet of the darker walnut.

 

FIX: Now that you read about my failure to calculate accurately, you will be now be able to have a better estimate of how many 12x12 sheets you need for your project and it certainly does not hurt to have extras. For these really large spaces, I'd cut 2 1/2 12x12 sheets all at the same time to assure consistency in the color blends for each piece of wood does have its own character. You want flexibility to mix and match shades. Even each veneer sheet will its own color variations--that's what we love about natural wood--its unique character.

 If you have such a wide variation of shades as I did, cutting extras will make it easier to have a consistent variation in patterns and shades. I was prepared to cut an entire 3^rd sheet or at least half a sheet, but I didn’t have to. I dug in my flooring stash and found some very light strips left over from the first floors that I made for the downstairs.

I also extended the planks beyond the edges of the template then trimmed them to fit from the back with scissors. They cut easily.

I cut the strips in with an X-acto blade, placing that edge at the end of the template so that I had straight edges lined up in the main flooring.

Once the glue had cured--a couple of hours--I sanded the floor using first 120 coarse grit sanding block then 220 softer grit. I let the fine sawdust fill any gaps.

I am very pleased with the final results. While it is work intensive to cut your own wood flooring, you have a unique, pretty floor--one of a kind. 

With the sanding finished, I I'll wipe the floor clean with mineral spirits, let it dry then apply the stain. I created a new test strip using Golden Pecan which is the bottom sample--the one that I originally wanted for all the flooring, but when I stained the first floor, I grabbed the wrong stain--Puritan Pecan, a lighter finish and not as rich as the Golden Pecan (top sample), so I'll use that lighter one to match all the floors--to some extent.  

Before the flooring can be installed, I need to do some electrical work. So check back next week to see my progress.

PS: Did you notice my new Mustang Coupe?  I am so exited to share it with you in the near future for this model has quite a legacy that makes it a perfect story to share during Women's History Month.

And Yes we survived the Colorado snow storm this week. In fact, our wet snow melted as it hit the ground and, so we didn't get the massive amounts that Denver and the mountain towns suffered as shown in national news. I liked one guy's advice when he battled nearly 3 ft. of snow--stay inside and let it snow. 

Have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers, Ann