How far can it go? Do it yourself hardwood floor installations are really becoming a no-brainer. At least the actual installation part of it. Take locking hardwood floors for example, the latest rage. It's almost as simple as laying the stuff on the floor and it practically connects itself...at least the better products like the ones Mirage makes.What's next? We've come from the floating floors that are glued together to the so called click together floors and now locking...no glue, no nails...no clicking.
I remember about 15 years ago Robbins had a product that made the installation of the skinny 2- 1/4" strip flooring faster. Two boards were attached to one another similar to a longstrip type looking floor. The benefits were installing the floor twice as fast. Instead of nailing every 2- 1/4" wide board you were effectively nailing a 4- 1/2" wide board. Big time saver, but it didn't last. I don't know what happened to the concept.
Big difference from nailing those skinny strip floors. Though I've never had the privilege, 1- 1/2 " wide strip floors were popular at one time. Imagine hand nailing those floors!
There are some guys in North Carolina that have an interesting idea with solid unfinished flooring. Considering it does take quite a bit of time to start and end an installation when you get near walls they came up with an idea of three boards connected to one another, cutting the labor time drastically.
So now that they have this product, how about one large flooring square that can be dropped into place? Maybe something like four foot by four foot squares? Possibly, but I could foresee some transportation or handling problems, not to mention trying to cut the stuff. This would really get the job done quickly and easily. Four by four? 16 square feet at a time.!Why not, there's carpet that can be installed in a similar fashion. On the right are carpet tiles offered by Lowes. Could it be a matter of time we may see something similar with hardwood flooring?
Puzzle Floor is interesting, but how many are clamoring to the idea? If it wasn't a gluedown only type of installation I could see more popularity with the do it yourself market. More on Puzzle Floor.
