How to Save $300

So, the other day I wrote that we'd decided on hiring a handyman to deal with installing our portable dance floor. The idea seemed good, we'd used the handyman service before and their prices had been reasonable. There also was the fact I wouldn't have to do the back-breaking labor myself to think about. Okay, at least that's what I was thinking about. Anyway, I put the call in and had a man come over on Thursday to give us a quote on the installation and (hopefully) perform the work. I spent most of the day imagining I'd be coming home to an installed dance floor and we'd get our first practice session in on the new surface. It's funny how things can change in the span of a day.

I got the call in the early afternoon. Kelly wanted to check on the pricing before giving the okay to install the floor. I about choked when the number came back at almost $300. As I said before we'd hired the handyman to do various jobs and none of them came in at much more than $100. Apparently, the guy doing the installation sensed it'd be just as much of a pain in the ass as I thought. I hung my head in defeat - another night of doing combat with unwieldy floor panels was in my future.

So, we knuckled down and after two hours of cursing and wrestling hardwood, viola we've got a brand new dance floor! Never mind the bruised heels and palms or the cut fingers, the floor is in! In the process we've picked up a few tips. If you ever plan on installing your own dance floor I highly recommend the following.

• Find a beefy buddy who works out to help you with the project. It'll be worth the case of beer you buy to have help muscling the floor around. With enough brute force you can push a ten square foot floor around for short distances.


• You need a flooring tool. No, you won't find one in your hardware store but you can find a couple of acceptable substitutes. I recommend a 'wonder bar' and a claw hammer. The hammer is good for catching the edges of the panels and getting them up off the floor while the wonder bar will lift the panels enough to do the hard work of edging them together.


• Measure very carefully. Sure, it's obvious you don't want to order twenty square feet of flooring for ten square feet of space but you may not realize you need a good amount of room around the dance floor in order to maneuver the panels into position. Make sure to consider the edging too - it will eat up about three inches on all sides not to mention the room to get it attached.


• The floor panels have sharp metal frames on the bottoms and they'll the scratch the hell out of anything they're placed on. In our case we installed the dance floor over a parquet wood floor and we got some serious, deep gouges in the floor. Luckily the dance floor covered them.


• Bend the clips out and use WD40 to lube them. You want to bend the clips out, they will be too tight to install and a dab of WD on them definitely helps them slide over the edges of the neighboring panel. Trust me; you'll need all the help you can get.

We danced on the new floor for the first time tonight and it was worthwhile. It almost feels soft underfoot, absorbing all the force that would normally reflect right back into your joints. I know I've griped about the installation of this floor a lot but in the end, saving our knees and ankles for another decade of dancing is well worth four hours of inconvenience, irritation, and a slightly sore back. Hey and $300 will buy a lot of aspirin!