Sandra, Wolfgang and their daughter Klara live in Paderborn in a house built in around 1935 as part of a former railway workers’ village. When Klara was born in April 2018, the new parents’ plan to renovate the old building with a modern extension began to take form. And it wasn’t long before the wheels were put into motion. It was a very hands-on project and they even laid the Lindura flooring in the new space themselves.
Because they wanted Klara to be able to have her own room as soon as possible, the little family needed space to grow – though they are still only using the ground floor of the 180 m² railway worker’s house as they rent out the two upper floors. But before the youngest family member could have her own space, the couple had plenty of work ahead of them, because they didn’t want her room to be over in the new extension. “It was like playing musical chairs: the living room became the kitchen and dining space, and then the extension became the living room. Then Klara would move into the space where the kitchen had been,” Wolfgang explains the complicated, yet well-thought-through plan. This solution meant the kitchen-dining room has direct access to both the terrace and the new living room in the extension, which also has its own door to the terrace and a four-metre floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the garden. “It's ideal,” says Sandra, who has plenty of experience in finding the best solutions to problems under time pressure thanks to her job as a project manager at a communications agency.
While the room plan was scrapped and drawn-up again many times during the planning phase, one thing was always certain – the flooring. “Once we’d laid out all the alternatives on the table, we both knew instantly that we wanted the Lindura wood flooring by MEISTER,” Sandra remembers. This option was the perfect solution for everything the pair wanted from the new floor. Since they’re a very nature-loving family and the other parts of the railway cottage still have the original floorboards from the 1930s, there was no question that the floor had to be wood. It also had to be hard-wearing and easy to maintain, as the house is home to daughter Klara and their cat Paul, so floors strewn with Lego bricks and toy cars, not to mention the odd muddy paw print from the garden, are a common sight here. To make sure feet and paws stay toasty, they also decided to install underfloor heating. And, if at all possible, the project manager and her partner wanted to lay the floor themselves.
Deciding on the colour was the only really tricky decision for the pair. As the old floorboards in the other rooms are over 80 years old, and wooden floorboards take on their own character over time, it’s impossible to create the same look throughout, even if the new colour were to be almost identical. Trying to replicate the look of the old floor would be a daring undertaking that could easily end up looking too forced. To get a better idea of the options the Lindura range has to offer, Sandra and Wolfgang visited the specialist retailer Kuhlpeter KG in Paderborn. “We got lots of invaluable advice there, it was really helpful.” After talking to a specialist and having another final look at the MEISTER website, the two let go of the idea of replicating the look of the existing floor and opted for the Lindura Lindura Authentic white washed oak 8742 instead. “We like light spaces and the range has lots of bright and lively shades,” Sandra shares. “It also creates a lovely contrast to the old floorboards.”
“Our advisor at Kuhlpeter told us that it was actually really easy to lay the floor ourselves with a little care and attention,” Wolfgang recalls. It was only after this reassurance that he finally trusted himself to do it. Alongside his job as a photographer, he also puts his craftsmanship and technical understanding to good use repairing beautiful classic cars. But before getting started with the wood flooring, it was time to lay the insulation and sound-absorbing cushion. This was a project that called for yet another MEISTER product: the MEISTER Silence 15 DB underlay material. Measuring, cutting to size, laying and fixing was easy, and the 27 m² insulation layer was smoothly laid in less than an hour.
Next, it was time to unpack the Lindura planks. Sandra and Wolfgang started by thoroughly looking through the online instructions for laying Lindura wooden flooring. “The videos in particular make it really easy, as everything is explained step by step,” enthused the DIY enthusiast.
Thanks to Masterclic Plus click system, the individual planks link seamlessly with one another, and “once you have the knack for it, laying the flooring is a piece of cake,” Wolfgang confirms. The pair decided to combine two plank formats, and so their new floor is made up of wide and narrow planks alternately. “It really does create such a vibrant atmosphere,” explains Sandra, who had carefully researched the various laying patterns before they started.
Once the extension to the former railway cottage finally had its perfect flooring in place, all that was left was to fit skirting boards to create a clean and seamless transition between the floor and wall. Sandra and Wolfgang decided on a PK-9 model from MEISTER in white with an angular profile shape, and also chose to use these skirting boards throughout the rest of the house to create a feeling of cohesion between the rooms. Installing the skirting boards really was child’s play in the truest sense of the phrase, as even Klara was allowed to get stuck in. Her little hands carefully placed one fixing clip after another in the proper gap between the wall and the new floor. As the skirting boards only need clicking into place rather than gluing, they’re easy to remove and replace at any time. “It’s really practical. We actually ended up needing the electrician to fix something after we’d finished all of this, and the click-in mouldings meant this wasn’t a problem at all,” Wolfgang explains.
At the start of the project, the pair thought that floor-to-ceiling windows could be a big challenge. “We weren’t sure whether there was a good solution for the point where the windows and floor join,” Sandra remembers, but the MEISTER edging options quickly put their worries to bed.
The family needed literally one afternoon – complete with a coffee break – to lay the Lindura wood flooring in their own pattern, bringing them a huge step closer to their finished new living space. They were barely finished when daughter Klara put the freshly laid floor to its first acid test. Muddy wellies shouldn’t be a problem, should they? “We were able to simply wipe away the dirt with a wet cloth, whereas I would have had to be a bit more careful with parquet,” says the satisfied mum. After the mess was successfully cleaned up, they could arrange the first pieces of furniture in the new living room. Happy, if a little tired, Sandra, Wolfgang and Klara were able to sink down into the sofa. Even Paul the cat seemed pleased that there’s finally a bit of peace and quiet in the old railway cottage in the heart of eastern Westphalia.
