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 ...
- 5,369
21
votes
Chipped floor planks keep snagging my socks
These are "shakes" - this is where the lumber separates along the growth rings.
Fill the cracks with glue (PVA / polyurethane / epoxy / cyanoacrylate) then place cling wrap over them and ...
- 19k
19
votes
Should I discard all flooring in a package containing mold?
Contact the seller and tell them about the problem. They should send you a new package and take back the mouldy one.
- 291
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 ...
- 25.1k
14
votes
Accepted
Should I discard all flooring in a package containing mold?
Contact the seller to see what can be done with your time line in mind.
If you cannot get replacement before some hard installation deadline, remediating what you have is certainly possible: use the ...
- 15.8k
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 ...
- 34.3k
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
11
votes
Chipped floor planks keep snagging my socks
When facing a similar issue in my home office (but with smaller bits of damage) I found a good color-matched wood filler, and applied it according to the package instructions. It has held up well, and ...
- 9,282
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 ...
- 27.6k
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 ...
- 5,532
9
votes
Moving into a home that had dogs, and I'm allergic... what should be on my to-do list?
If the previous owners are taking their furniture and a large area rug, that removes a large part of the problem. Any other rugs left that you are going to keep should be shampooed/cleaned by a ...
- 6,788
8
votes
Accepted
What is underneath the original bath tile in my 1950s home?
It is likely a mud bed/mortar bed which was what was used before thinset and cement board became the standard, basically a dry pack of sand and cement lightly wetted and screed flat.
https://www....
- 1,695
8
votes
What is the standard time for fans and dehumidifiers to be in a small bathroom after a flood?
Days. Or weeks. Or longer.
Relevant factors:
Outdoor climate
Indoor climate
Severity of the flood
Airflow in flooded areas
Affected material type
Affected material volume
Production capacity of the ...
- 130k
7
votes
Is mosaic tile a poor choice for a bathroom floor?
If you make a tiled walk in shower with the drain in the center, for water to drain properly the floor needs to be sloped towards the drain. So you need the floor to be an inverted pyramid. With large ...
- 8,767
7
votes
What is the standard time for fans and dehumidifiers to be in a small bathroom after a flood?
There is no "standard"
It depends on many factors like how long was it soaking, what materials have been exposed to water.
It depends what dehumidifying equipment and methods used. Since you ...
- 16.9k
7
votes
Moving into a home that had dogs, and I'm allergic... what should be on my to-do list?
You'll need to wash/clean the walls either my doing it yourself or hiring it out. The floors will need to be inspected for damage under the area rug where urine could have seeped into the cracks ...
- 78.8k
6
votes
What are squares of carpet called?
Yes, they are actually called carpet tiles. They have some definite advantages over traditional wall-to-wall carpeting:
Easier to install
Can install without moving everything out of the room
Can be ...
6
votes
Accepted
Flooring issue in a house we just sold, new owners want us to foot the bill for the repair
This is not your responsibility to fix. Stop talking to them until you have, at a minimum, talked with your real estate agent or the attorney you used for your sale. You're just making them think ...
- 9,282
6
votes
How to add 3/4" hardwood flooring to stairs that have stair nose?
If you are not opposed to cutting off the existing nose, it would be the best solution. Since you are adding 3/4" outward to the riser that would even the stair tread depth back to the original ...
- 25.1k
6
votes
How should I fill a gap between concrete and wood subfloor?
You don't bridge something like this, especially with thin metal. That would leave you with an ever-sagging trough as traffic stretches it out.
You also don't use caulk, foam, or any other soft ...
- 130k
6
votes
Accepted
Securing plywood subfloor to trusses
Overlap (one on top of the one next to it) - no. Try to land the joints on the trusses, yes, so for typical 1.5" thick truss material, there's only 3/4" of truss width for each bit of ...
- 202k
6
votes
How can I repair cracking grout at an entry door threshold?
That's grout that broke and should be replaced with caulk. I'm not 100% clear on what all the parts in your picture are but I'm betting there is some movement between the tile and that gray piece to ...
- 1,770
6
votes
Moving into a home that had dogs, and I'm allergic... what should be on my to-do list?
If you are strongly allergic to dogs, it would be in your best interest to hire a professional cleaning service.
Let them know about your allergies and get estimates based on the square footage and ...
- 25.1k
5
votes
What kind of product is on the market for flooring transitions with large height differences?
Three options come to mind. If you have basic wood working tools, make a ramp out of a sheet of plywood. You could also construct a ramp form and pour some mortar into it. Or get a 2" x 12" ...
- 78.8k
5
votes
How can I add flooring to this attic without compromising the insulation?
Decking won't affect your insulation since you're not compressing or otherwise affecting it. With 16" joist centers you're probably fine with 1/2" OSB as a floor, but if you want less flex ...
- 130k
5
votes
Sanding down or staining floor tiles possible to alter design?
I don't know about your flooring, but normally underfloor heating allows replacing tiles. Most of the times the tubes are embedded in an layer of screed, as the tiles demand an hard underlayment
- 3,064
5
votes
Accepted
Should I try and salvage this new bathroom floor
The person who did that is no tradesman. The job of installing backing in a bathroom is not delivering the materials and attaching them. The job is to level, plumb and square everything, and only then ...
- 4,165
5
votes
How should I fit flooring planks between my walls?
You seem to have a common misunderstanding about flooring (which also applies to roofing, and many other modular things). There's no correlation between your walls and the flooring.
Also, you can't ...
- 130k
5
votes
How do I stabilise a delaminating pine floor?
Do the edges of the growth rings actually lift up if you put a fingernail under them?
If so
squeeze some wood glue under there
push the grain back down
put down a sheet of waxed paper (shiny side ...
- 43.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Can I shoot a floating floor with a nailgun to hold it down better?
They call it a floating floor for a reason. It needs to expand and contract so nails and screws into the subfloor are a bad idea. There are adhesives/epoxies that can be injected through a hole in the ...
- 78.8k
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