For years, I refused to buy into getting rid of my carpet. I liked my carpet, it felt warm and gave my dog a place to lay. After 4 years of watching my investment get torn and dirtied, I decided it was time for a change. (Spending hundreds of dollars a year on carpet cleaning seemed like it was an investment not paying off in my bank account)

I didn’t have a large budget, so I decided to take this project on myself. I called over a few buddies, made a run to the beer store and from there removed all the carpet in the house. My theory here was that if we ripped out the carpet quick enough, I wouldn’t have time to question my decision… it worked.

It took us a weekend, but we were able to buy all the laminate wood flooring at a local discount flooring supply store. An important side note here: when buying flooring, be sure to test things like texture and surface hardness. Run one of your keys over the surface of the wood to test how hard it is to scratch the wood. Most laminates now have scratch resistant surfaces, but some (especially at discount stores) can scratch quite easily and give you headaches trying to maintain your floor down the road.

I am happy to announce, that 1 year later, the floor looks amazing. No scratches, hardly any maintenance and my dog no longer tries to attach the vacuum (as vacuuming is a thing of the past) Not to mention the compliments I get as people walk… I never got compliments on my carpet!

If you are looking for home upgrade that will pay you back when it comes time to sell, look into installing wood flooring in your home. If you have no experience installing flooring yourself, there are tons of contractors out there to give you competitive bids. Be sure to get several quotes. Business is relatively slow an there are tons of good deals out there so jump on flooring installation plans before it’s too late!