A floor to remember

Before

      After

       AUBURN, Maine — The pounding of hammers and loud whining of heavy-duty saws have ceased. The dust has settled and there is only silence in our empty kitchen, but a freshly installed floor has brought our galley back to life.  My kitchen no longer looks like it was hit by an errant RPG.

Two contractors single-handedly ripped apart our 60-year-old dingy kitchen floor, which was coming apart at the seams.

The floor project was put on hold to pay for my son's $5,000.00 smile.

A lot elbow grease went into removing the stubborn and ancient floor, which fought contractors Bruce Pinette and Bob... every damn step of the way before they laid down the off-white linoleum.


This is a dirty job, but these guys are equipped and possess the know-how that would give the cast of contractors on "This Old House" a run for their money in the home-remodeling business.


For three days, Bruce and Bob labored as they pulled, ripped, sawed and stapled their way across our filthy floor. Bob resorted to a roofing shovel to blast apart the cemented composite layer of flooring, which could probably survive a nuclear missile strike. Chips flew across the room as Bob broke a sweat. I was ready for a beer after watching them hammer away at my floor.


This was no job for amateurs.  And when they finished prying apart the floor — and our lives — they began nailing down expensive plywood in just over a day. Our kitchen has more angles than a pentagon and the house is a bit crooked thanks to time and nature. 


Everything has shifted, but thanks to Bob's precision cutting and Bruce's guidance, they made each piece of underlay fit snuggly.  


When you survive a project like this, you feel grateful to have your kitchen back without maneuvering around nail guns, saws, brooms and plywood. I missed my stove the most and am tired of having the refrigerator in my living room, although a cold beer is just feet away from me.  


This inconvenience was a small price to pay for a brand-new kitchen floor.  Before I decided to hire these two adept contractors, I entertained the notion of tackling this project myself.


Foolish me!


When I thought about going it alone, and being the journalist that I am, I began researching the project at Web sites like "This Old House." They all made it look simple and explained it could be done in hours.  That maybe true if you are Bob Villa surrounded by crew of expert handymen who know the difference between a hammer and a screwdriver. 


What I learned was that no project is simple and it would take weeks for newbie like me to complete such an undertaking — or just go berserk and throw up my hands.  I was no match for this task and that is why I turned to the experts.  


Mr. Pelletier and Bob, for the reasonable price tag of $2,200 busted their butts to do a great job and gave a tired-old kitchen a new lease on life.  


You could say we are floored by their master craftsmanship.