Backyard Cabin Floor

Mr L’Orange & I have been busy painting the doors, skirting boards, window architraves and beams in the cabin. Other than the shower door we have no other tradework needed so it is all down to us to get this project finished. 

The painting has taken forever, partly because we have had to do so many coats to get a good finish. Whenever I am loosing faith and patience, I try to ask myself would 'Baz from the Renovators' be happy with the quality of my work? This usually self shames me into fixing up my mistakes.

After a very long trip to Bunnings (as LALO fans will know, one of my least favourite shops), we purchased our floating floorboards for the cabin. We couldn’t get the inexpensive jarrah colour floorboards that we wanted so ended up with thicker boards that were a light, maple colour instead. We also got 2mm insulation with a waterproof layer and a trim to go around the edge of the floorboards as the skirting boards were already on (top tip, it is best to lay your floor before installing skirting).

In all honesty, I was quite glad we were doing the painting and floor last as the stream of tradies we have had through are so messy, they would have left dirt and scratches everywhere if the floor had already been complete. We’ve already had to touch up a heap of paint work thanks to the plumber’s efforts.

In order to prepare, Mr L’Orange watched some videos on the internet about laying floating floorboards and then got busy rolling out the insulation and cutting bits to size with the jigsaw. We realised, quite quickly, that a few items are essential including:

Spacers,

Tool for knocking in each section

Hammer

Masking Tape

Metal Ruler

Metal Right Angle

Liquid Nails

Jigsaw

Dropsaw

Pencil

Measuring Tape

A friend who has laid a floating floor before

The hardest part was cutting the wood for the door frames as they were a lot more fiddlely. Luckily Anthony, who is staying with us at the moment helped out and sped the project along. 

Unfortunately, now that daylight savings have kicked in, it is dark by 6pm and trying to do detailed cutting gets difficult. The floor laying has definitely taken longer than expected and our quick ‘2 day job’ has turned into 2 days plus 4 afternoons/evenings.

I went back to Bunnings to pick up the door trims (which we had forgotten) and discovered they didn’t have the size or colour we needed and it would take 10 days to get more. How frustrating, when we are so close to getting completely finished. 

I went to 3 other shops in town that sell timber flooring and in the end Laminex proved to be utterly amazing and found me a piece of door trim that was an exact colour match and they even gave it to me for free. What awesome service?! Will definitely be going back to Laminex and trying to avoid Bunnings even more.

I am in total awe of Mr L'Orange's amazing DIY efforts on this project, the completed floor looks amazing. Finished cabin photos will be coming up next. Watch this space to see our gorgeous complete cabin next week!