A Singaporean In Australia

Tiler guy did a good job. The grout gap was only 1mm, and the cornering were neat and tidy. With that out of the way, I could comfortably plant my transition bar and start flooring.

I started working the moment the tiler left. It was already about 3pm by then. I had to push myself because there wasn't any indication how long I would take to finish my job. They supplied me only 55sqm of boards. That would be enough for me to finish the living area, a small bedroom and the walk-in wardrobe area that Jen would be using for all our clothing when we moved into Savvy Steve's incomplete house.

The greenish thing you see is the underlay I mentioned in the previous post. That didn't took me long to lay. It came in large rolls like a haystack. You just need to place it neatly and give it a smart kick. Doing so will see it roll to the other end of the room. Rinse and repeat.

Like any flooring work, the general area will never pose a problem. The difficult areas are the edges and corners. In general laminate floors do not have a problem at a straight end of a wall. The problem lies in poor plastering jobs done by lazy plasterers who refused to bend down to get the job properly done. Uneven floors, especially at the edges, will also pose a similar problem. I found out the hard way in the beginning. Getting these issues rectified should be done first before laying the laminate boards. However, if you are new to this, your eye will not be trained to identify such things right from the start. The good news is, I will be able to avoid similar problems in other areas I will have to take out later on. 

The job looks best only when the scotia (see left) is finally placed. Placing laminate boards is not a physically demanding job. The challenge is actually dealing with your own weight rather than a single laminate board you will be holding most of the time. To work fast, you need to move fast. So there will be a lot of rapid bending, squatting and springing yourself up. My legs felt absolutely sore at the end of the day more than any part of my body.

By 7pm, there wasn't much done. I felt tired from the painting work done during the previous week and earlier in the day. I remained myself that I was only human and the only human working on this. Moreover, it was my first attempt and I should be congratulating myself as long as I didn't fuck the job up. I wished I had my dog with me. Not my family members, though I missed their presence. Work and family simply don't mix. When you need to get things done with 100% intensity, you cannot have the distraction of chatty wife, an excitable toddler and wailing baby.


Night was falling and there was a neighbour on one side who had already moved in. That meant I could no longer operate my powered jigsaw without risking their wrath. As a good neighbour, I reckoned I should finally stop. It was already 9pm and I had been rattling non stop with my jigsaw prior to that. Ha.


My poor friends had to be spammed with photos of my work once too often. That was how I motivated myself to keep going subconsciously. They started with, "WAAAAAA!" to "Wow" to "Wa....." When I realised what torment I was putting them through before bedtime, I told myself to stop it.