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Pergo Floor Install - Layout Room
The old carpet in the train room was really showing its age. Besides producing
all the dust that would get on the layout and in my lungs, the carpet just
looked awful. While a carpet provides some cushion for fallen rolling stock and
locomotives, it is also a great keeper of ballast, screws, spikes, track nails
and all sorts of other things.
In January 2005, Melissa and I went to Lowes with the intention of picking up
some Armstrong vinyl flooring. Instead, we opted (with more than a bit of
nudging from Melissa) for a Pergo floor. The end cost was about twice as much,
but the resulting floor is much nicer and sturdier than the vinyl. The floor
cleans easily with a swiffer, and is surprisingly resilient to scuffing and
scratching. Of course, I'll have to be much nicer to it than I was to the
carpet, but it's worth it.
A low-end wood floor would have cost just a bit more than the Pergo, but I do
not yet own the tools to put that type of floor down. I'll have those later in
2005 when I put the high-end bamboo floor down in the rest of the house. In any
case, a Pergo floor is a lot tougher than a low-end wood floor, and does not
have all the large bevels that will collect ballast and scenery.
If you're a model railroader, or just like the information on this site, be sure
to drop me a note in my guestbook.
January 23, 2005
Here is the Pergo floor being put down. The Pergo is installed as a floating
floor without glue or nails. In addition, this particular type of Pergo
had the foam pad pre-installed on the underside of each plank, so no additional
pad was required. Pergo recommends at least a 1/4" gap on all sides. You'll
need that gap not only for expansion, but so you can actually snap and lock the
planks in place when you come up to a wall.
 Boxes of Pergo Pergo we purchased from Lowes. We picked up nine boxes in total. Pete Brown, January 15, 2005. |
 Pergo Tongues Detail of the Pergo tongue edges. The tongues draw the pieces closer together and keep them locked flat Pete Brown, January 22, 2005. |
 First Several Rows The first rows have been laid. The floor is still mobile, so you need to keep it from creeping up on the opposite wall and closing the required expansion gap. Pete Brown, January 22, 2005. |
 Tools I used both a hand saw and a jig saw to cut the Pergo. If not for the snow and single digit temperatures outside, my Delta miter saw and table saw would have been quicker. Pete Brown, January 22, 2005. |
 Cutout Around Closet Entrance The closet had several challenges. It was tight to work in there, and I had to get the Pergo under the door jambs. The jambs themselves were cut Friday evening with a hand Jamb saw. Pete Brown, January 22, 2005. |
 Cutout Around Floor Register The first time I cut around the register I messed it up. This second one came out nicely. The Pergo does not sit flat in this area due to the height of the metal duct flanges. Luckily this is a no-traffic area. Pete Brown, January 22, 2005. |
 Oak Register The Oak register in place over the flooring. The register was just a regular one picked up from the heating section at Lowes. A metal one such as what was there previously would be ugly and would scratch the flooring. Pete Brown, January 23, 2005. |
 Opposite Side of Closet The last piece I put in was on this side of the closet. This was the one piece I had to break the rule of only abutting factory edges. The cut was made about six inches from the wall towards the left. Pete Brown, January 23, 2005. |
 Completed Room, Awaiting Trim Next weekend we'll pick up the trim and put that down. Otherwise, the flooring is complete. Total time to lay the floor was approximately 16 hours. Pete Brown, January 23, 2005. |
We used nine boxes of Pergo at almost $60 per box. I ended up with only one
completely unused plank, but almost a full box of partial planks and other
scraps. Due to the way the tongues and grooves fit together, you will end up
with more unusable product than with a standard board-by-board wood floor.
Thankfully I picked up more than the usual 10% extra one would allow for a wood
floor.
I installed the floor over two days on the weekend of January 22nd. It's murder
on your back and knees, so make sure you get at least some good gell knee pads
with wide straps or multiple straps. The cheap ones I had did more damage than
good, chaffing the back of my leg something awful.
The tools I used for the install were:
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Fine tooth hand saw to cut the planks to length
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Jig saw and drill to notch pieces to get around corners
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Marker and blade to mark cuts
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Measuring tape
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Rubber mallet (the Friendly Pursuader) and wooden block to tap pieces into
place
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Dust masks (the MDF/HDF dust from the Pergo is nasty stuff)
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Eye protection
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Shop Vac (also used hooked up to the jig saw to reduce dust)
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Broom and swiffer for cleanup
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Crowbar
Some things that would have made the install easier:
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Better knee pads
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1/4" spacers at all walls. I did it without the spacers, but the floor would
creep up and close the gap as you worked with it. The spacers are available in
the flooring department of most Home Depot and Lowes stores. Unfortunately, the
Lowes I was at was out of them.
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Pull bar. This is a special type of bar that you can use to pull the planks
into place in spots where you can't get your friendly persuader (rubber mallet)
in between the wall and the plank. I used a crow bar, but it wasn't nearly as
handy.
January 17, 2005
Monday January 17 was a holiday around here, so Melissa and I got to work
prepping the floor. We had torn up the carpet, padding, tack strips and
hundreds of stapes over the weekend. On Monday I put down some portland
cement-based self-leveling compound to fill in several low spots. That
didn't work very well, and I ended up scraping up most of it before it was able
to set. The compound I picked up, which was all that Lowes had, was not
suitable for patching; only for flooding the whole floor. It went on with the
consistency of eggnog and did not feather at the edges. You had 10 minutes to
get it to go where you want before it started setting up. Once it started
setting up, trying to feather it with a trowel only made a real mess of the
stuff. After hearing about the experience with this particular compound,
Melissa's father informed me that there is a thicker leveling compound that can
be troweled on properly. I'll keep that in mind for future projects.
 Old Carpet Layout Room Floor. The carpet is around 15 years old. Pete Brown, Some time in 2003. |
 Prepped Floor Train room floor ready for Pergo install. Pete Brown, January 17, 2005. |
 Prepped Floor Train room floor ready for Pergo install. Pete Brown, January 17, 2005. |
 Prepped Floor Train room floor ready for Pergo install. Pete Brown, January 17, 2005. |
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The leveling compound took a couple days to dry. Once it did, we moved the Pergo
into the train room to provide it a couple days to acclimate to the conditions
of this specific room. It had already been in the house for over a week. Pergo
needs two to four days to acclimate. Don't skimp here. Also be sure to buy more
Pergo than you think you will need. If you have any unopened packages at the
end, you can return them. If you are short, you have to purchase more, and let
it sit in the room for four days before you start using it. If you cheat here,
you'll be looking at popped gaps and possibly a buckled floor.
The Pergo we purchased has a 3/32" underlayment foam attached to the bottom
of each piece. If you purchase another type of Pergo, you'll need to put the
sheet down before you start putting down the planks.
The tools used for the room prep were:
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Chisel, scraper and wooden mallet to take out high spots along the floor
seams, and scrape up 20 year old splats of joint compound and recent blops of
leveling compound
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Hand undercut saw (also called a jamb saw) and a piece of scrap pergo to cut
the door jambs to height. Note, if you have a lot of jambs to cut, purchase or
rent a power undercut saw. Cutting the jambs is hard work if you have more
than a couple.
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Dremel to cut where the undercut saw could not reach
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Pliers and a screw driver to pull up all the old staples and tack strips.
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Crowbar and hammer to pull out any stray nails
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Hammer to bang down any protruding nail heads and to get rid of floor squeaks
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Belt sander to take down larger high spots
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