Flooring
Strengthen Joists
You wouldn’t believe the types of questions I get about how to strengthen joists. So, this means we’re talking about basements, crawlspaces, and attics mainly–accessible places where you can get to the joists without ripping apart half of your house. Now, none of my advice about how to strengthen joists applies to houses that... »
Vinyl Tile Cutter
Cutting sheet vinyl–accurately–is a monumental pain, and it’s nice when a good crew of pros does it for you. So, you might start to think: Hmm, tile vinyl flooring…easy. By contrast, vinyl tile (i.e., usually twelve inches square) seems like a walk in the park. What could be easier? Slice the stuff apart with... »
How to Get Rid of Vinyl Flooring Bubbles
Sheet vinyl flooring can develop bubbles of trapped air. Since these bubbles are covered by a seamless sheet of vinyl on the top, and by the underlayment or subfloor on the bottom, they will never go away. How do you get rid of them? One of the reasons you bought sheet vinyl flooring in... »
Installing Cork Flooring
Cork flooring is supposed to be one of those new-fangled ‘wonder floors’ that has all the properties of vinyl flooring, yet remains ecologically sound. While I disagree with this hyperbole, installing cork flooring is one of the more interesting things you can do for your house, and it certainly is a conversation piece. But... »
Stapling Sheet Vinyl Flooring
Installing sheet vinyl flooring can be a big pain in the ass, with first cutting out the template, cutting the vinyl, dealing with the goopy and stinky adhesive. Wasn’t sheet vinyl flooring supposed to be pain-free? Yes, it can be–when you staple the sheet vinyl instead of deal with adhesives. Methods – From Hard... »
Subfloor for Resilient (Vinyl) Flooring
Resilient flooring seems like one giant piece of duct tape: it will stick to anything. Well, it can’t. And that’s why choosing the right subfloor is pretty important before laying resilient flooring. In case you didn’t know–and why should you?–resilient flooring is the oh-so-sensitive term nowadays for the more hated term, vinyl flooring. Got... »
Laminate Floor Rating?
Q: Is there any kind of laminate floor rating agency or list of laminate floor ratings? A: You’re more apt to find an objective rating system with older, more established types of building products than you are with laminate flooring. Laminate flooring is still a fairly new industry and, as such, there are no... »
Water Based Floor Finish
When you’re finishing your own wood floors, you’ve got a few options as to floor finish types–but one tends to stand out: the water based floor finish. After all, finishing wood floors is a messy, smelly process that often forces homeowners out of their houses for days at a time…so why make things harder... »
Shellac Floor Finish
Two things regarding floor finishes are somehow lodged in the popular mind, and they are: varnish and shellac. Here, we’re examining just one of them–shellac floor finish–and hopefully by the end of the article, we will have straightened you out. In other words, shellac is a pain in the ass and I have no... »
Applying Floor Stain on Wood Floors
After you’ve done the “hard” work of installing your wood floor, sanded it…and sanded it again…and cleaned it, the process of applying floor stain seems as easy as eating a piece of cake. And while it’s true that nothing can compare to the work of actual floor installation, you can seriously screw up your... »