28
votes
Accepted
Will adding another layer of plywood improve shed floor bouncing?
Normal plywood has the wood fibers in its outer plies oriented along the 8 ft length of the plywood. There exists specially marked plywood that defies this convention, but from your photo it's clear ...
- 10.5k
22
votes
Does hardwood floor REALLY need an expansion gap?
When an irresistible force meets an immovable object, in this case you get floor buckling. It's been observed in practice countless times.
Feel free to repeat the mistakes of others, or learn from ...
- 223k
20
votes
Orange material in grout lines - need help to identify
Looks like schluter ditra waterproofing membrane.
Amazon describes it:
This universal underlayment specifically designed for ceramic and stone tile eliminates the main cause of cracking in your ...
- 4,553
19
votes
Accepted
Sanding down or staining floor tiles possible to alter design?
Ceramic tile has none of the properties of wood. It cannot be sanded or stained.
Tile has a top layer that is very hard, the "glaze". It is the layer that has the pattern and color. Sanding ...
- 38.2k
17
votes
Why can't you install larger floor tiles without thinset/adhesive?
Let's assume your floor is really, totally, flat - to some absurd degree of precision.
Guess what! Your tiles are not. They are nominally flat, but have slight deviations due to the realities of ...
- 223k
16
votes
Filling in a sunken living room to level of other floors
One way to raise the floor, and possibly the most reasonable cost wise, is to install what I would call sleeper joists sitting the top of the existing subfloor and than add new subfloor covering over ...
- 65.7k
16
votes
Accepted
How should I refurbish a concrete slab with a rough surface?
This surface isn't a result of poor workmanship. It has been severely degraded, either by overwatering, a faulty mix, or chemical damage. This is why you see so much aggregate (and aggregate pockets).
...
- 144k
15
votes
What is this pipe coming out of the basement floor?
In a basement, galvanized pipe like that could have been a pipe feeding oil from an underground tank to an oil heater that has long ago been removed and replaced with something else. I had one like ...
- 15k
15
votes
Can anyone tell if this floor joist damage was from termites or wood rot?
The black color indicates wood rot caused by moisture.
Termites would be dry and the wood would be the same color with tubes eaten through the center.
- 38.2k
14
votes
Is mosaic tile a poor choice for a bathroom floor?
Mosaic tile is not a poor choice for a bathroom floor.
Mosaic tile is harder to install than regular tile. Harder to cut, harder to lay out evenly, and harder to level. Find someone who is able and ...
- 43.5k
14
votes
Is mosaic tile a poor choice for a bathroom floor?
Mosaic tile looks nice, but it's HARD to clean.
Mosaic tile has FAR more grout lines than large tile, and grout lines are MUCH harder to clean than the tile itself, both because the grout lines are ...
- 161
14
votes
Accepted
How do I go about repairing/redoing this uneven and damaged basement concrete floor?
The best solution would be to break it all up and re-pour a nice monolithic reinforced slab. That's also expensive and a lot of work, so you might want to consider attempting "not the best" ...
- 223k
13
votes
Accepted
How can I remove cured expanding foam from floorboards?
I'd try scraping before sanding, using a razor blade scraper or a furniture scraper -- a slightly more targeted tool.
- 32.1k
13
votes
How should I refurbish a concrete slab with a rough surface?
Grinding is an option. Many home stores rent them out for a modest fee similar to the one shown below from Home Depot. If the surface doesn't have a lot of aggregate, the grinding would go fairly easy ...
- 83.8k
12
votes
What is this pipe coming out of the basement floor?
This could be:
water
waste
gas
oil for furnace
radon system remnants (unlikely) but the earlier ones used metal pipes
other
The picture is pretty clear, this pipe was installed when they poured the ...
- 50.1k
12
votes
How should I refurbish a concrete slab with a rough surface?
Unless you're married to the concrete look, I would consider doing a resin surface over that. I suppose you could even do a clear resin if you like the concrete look. You can even coat old and new ...
- 4,222
11
votes
Accepted
Should I use an orbital sander or a belt sander for sanding a section of varnished floor?
I've got both types of sanders and I use the belt sander when there is a lot of wood to be removed and the orbital sander when the amount of wood to be removed is small. You have a little better ...
- 83.8k
11
votes
Why can't you install larger floor tiles without thinset/adhesive?
Thinset is required for several reasons:
Thinset will fill any voids to provide an even support of the tile, regardless the tile's irregulariy or the floor's unevenness.
Glue or thinset will ...
- 16k
11
votes
How should I refurbish a concrete slab with a rough surface?
Floor leveler
For example, Davco Lanko-133.
It flows freely and is largely self-leveling. It can be 1-25mm thick which will be more than adequate. It is relatively expensive compared to other concrete ...
- 380
11
votes
How can I improve insulation on a lower level floor without modification?
Carpet/rug pads will add some insulation value.
The math of insulation is such that throwing rugs over as much of the floor as possible (use small washable ones for potentially wet areas like kitchen ...
- 223k
11
votes
Are the hangers on these joists sized and installed properly?
I guess the answer would be: only a structural engineering report can answer this. You have such issues to consider as the span and dimensions of joists, the required load to be carried, the carrying ...
- 1,078
10
votes
How to laser-level close to a surface
That's actually the way one normally does such things, and has been since before there were lasers, other than one normally uses a rod rather than a tape for more consistent results. You establish a ...
- 223k
10
votes
Floor Joists Knot
It always happens and was a total miss by the framing crew. But, unless you're springy upstairs it's not really a problem. The adjacent joists will assist just fine for normal empty area loads above.
...
- 10.4k
10
votes
Sanding down or staining floor tiles possible to alter design?
What you see as messy, I see as surprisingly realistic, just imitating a different species than your third picture.
If you really, really want the yellow tone of the second picture, as if the wood had ...
- 32.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Can you fur up floor joists (rather than replace) to meet load requirements?
Probably not. Simply stacking boards does not increase resistance to flexing as much as a thicker board would. You'd be better off sistering the joists, I believe.
- 32.1k
9
votes
Can I overlay lumber perpendicular to floor joists to raise the floor height?
I would say that the main issue with putting down boards like that is cupping or bowing of the wood especially since this is a high moisture area; that's dirt beneath the joists, right? Look at any ...
- 16.8k
9
votes
Accepted
Floor supported by nails, is it structurally sound?
imho I would be adding joist hangers to those joists. The nails may had luckily done the job so far - perhaps due to not many people being in the room at once or it's lightly used.
Something like this,...
- 28.1k
9
votes
Is mosaic tile a poor choice for a bathroom floor?
No. Mosaic tiles can be an excellent choice for a bathroom floor. The 2x2 octagon/dot kind of tiles are popular in bathrooms.
More often than not those types of tiles are especially suited to bathroom ...
- 5,750
9
votes
Accepted
Would using glue between the joists and sheathing increase rigidity of the floor?
Glue increases the joist stiffness assuming that you use the correct glue. That's the only structural benefit. ASTM D3498 is the specification for the glue that you would use. Basically the stuff has ...
- 10.5k
9
votes
Are the hangers on these joists sized and installed properly?
There's a part number stamped on the bottom. look that up and read the instructions, it will cover the suitability of that hanger.
I suspect that taller hangers should have been used here, or the ...
- 23.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible