Ask a Building Trades Professional

[Cutlass]

@ civvver, see if you can get a sample of each type for comparison.



@ Magister, when I'm screwing something into cement, after drilling the hole I fill it with caulk or liquid nails. Something like that. That helps prevent the cement from breaking up with the screw, and the screw being loose afterwards.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I demoed the carpet today.

After removing the old carpet-to-linoleum transition strip I found the kitchen flooring is actually thicker than I thought. It seems to be a full 1/4 inch. That is close enough to the Shaw floring height that I may have to take back both of the transitions strips I bought so far and get a T-molding instead.


I found that the settling crack extends much more than the 3 or 4 feet I had guessed. It goes all the way to the opposite wall, but there is no noticeable vertical displacement in the middle and the opposite side is higher near the other wall.

I think this sub-floor was poured as 3, maybe 4 separate slabs.

The part near the outer wall is beautiful, with a perfectly even finish and no defects (unless you count the crack where it meets the middle slab.)

The middle slab seems sound too, having no other cracks either, but has a smoother finish and darker less even color. Parts of it seem like they may contain traces of some old adhesive residue. It seems a little bit higher on the side near the kitchen.

The slab under the threshold to the kitchen is slightly lower and less even than the main slab, although it still seems sound enough.

The slab extending about 3.5 inches (less than the width of a single flooring board) past the wall separating the rest of the den from the kitchen is not in such good shape. (It may be part of the same slab as in the threshold. It is the same color. It looks like the original frame for when they poured this had a sort of step shape near the site of the opening. The corner near the threshold is the worst part.) It had a few noticeable cracks when I first uncovered it, and the cement broke up more when I removed the tack strips and the nails holding them down. There are some chucks a couple inches in diameter which are just sitting there unattached. I'm not quite sure what should be done about this.

The problem portion seems to be between 1/8 and 1/16 lower than the main slab. I wonder if the self leveling compound could fill the cracks and bind it all together, or if it would seep through the cracks and be wasted.

Originally I thought one bag of LevelQuick was more than I needed, but now I suspect I'll need a second one.

I do have a tube of masonry/concrete repair caulk, but haven't opened it yet as the caulk gun I borrowed from Habitat was not working well when I tried it with ordinary caulk. I think I happened to grab their worst one. I may head back to the site (or the truck parked by the office, which is much closer, if someone is there to let me in) tomorrow to swap it for a better one.




I also removed that broken in-wall electric heater today. I thought I turned off the circuit breakers for that room first, but apparently the heater was on a different circuit than the ceiling fan or television. I managed to electrocute myself, but fortunately the jolt made my hand spasm away before any harm was done. I turned off the main power to the whole house before proceeding any further. Once the appliance was out I put a wire nut on every wire and wrapped everything securely in several layers of electrical tape. Then I vacuumed out the cavity, cut a scrap of insulation to fit, and stapled and taped it in place. I salvaged a scrap of faux wood paneling from a Habitat demo since it matched the material of this room's walls. (Actually I leaned today that this room has drywall, but the former owners covered the drywall with paneling rather than mudding it.) I cut that down to size and secured it using a borrowed electric Brad Nail Gun. (I'm not sure that will be enough for securing the baseboard, so I may need to go back to borrow the real nail gun too.) After painting it to match the rest of the room, you'd never know it was ever any different from the rest of the room just by looking (tapping it does make a different sound where there is no drywall behind the panel).

On another wall some of the paneling is popping out and nothing I do seems to be able to secure it. I think there may be something going on with the drywall behind it. I may just have to hide it behind furniture again.


I of course had to remove both the bottom window trim and the baseboard in order to replace the paneling around the heater. That piece of window trim had significant chunks of it chewed off by the pet cockatiel we had when I was a teenager. I contemplated replacing all the window trim, or buying a new piece for the bottom, but ended up cutting down a piece of baseboard to use there instead (since they were the same material). Some of the baseboard seemed to have minor mold or water damage, but I think the piece I used here seemed fine expect for nail holes (which I would caulk if the caulk gun were working). It looked ugly before I painted it, but not so bad now.


I ran out of the old ceiling paint we had while about 1/5 of the ceiling was left. I found some old primer too and continued with that, despite some concerns that they wouldn't match. I think they ended up looking the same, although my family complained that the primer had a lot worse fumes.

I'm not quite sure that I still like my decision to paint the window, door, trim, and casing semi-glossy bright white, but that paint was free and it would be much more of a hassle to get more in the wall paint color to put it back like it was. (Enough ceiling paint dripped on the crown molding that I had to do something.)


I installed quarter rounds in the bathroom, covering gaps between the baseboard and tile which a contractor installed 4 years ago. The brad nail gun did not set the nails quote deep enough though, and I can't find the nail setter I thought I borrowed.



I think all that dust and fumes got to my lungs. I may want to take a day off tomorrow. Luckily my dad decided that his recliner is more comfortable in the other room where me moved it, so he is not in such a hurry for me to finish as I expected.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I was planning to start the leveling today, but when I double checked the slope I realized it was enough that I'd probably need to buy at least a couple more bags of the leveling compound. Since the primer would need to reapplied if I don't get all the leveling done within 24 hours, I decided to pause. Also, I realized that I'd probably need a grinder to lower a couple high spots and to roughen an area where the slab seems too smooth and primed.

I ended up asking Bobby for Eli's number. Eli is the flooring specialist that Habitat has been using for all of its projects for the last couple years. I believe he has about a decade of flooring experience from before that. His employees are the ones who installed the product I have at that last house. I'm not sure if I could afford to pay him to actually do all the prep work for me, but I do know he charges Habitat less than half of what his competitors require.

I called Eli about half an hour ago and he said he couldn't give me much advise without actually seeing the subfloor in person, but that he would be glad to stop by my house on Monday to provide a free consultation.

 

[Cutlass]

If you've been working with these people, and have made a good impression on them, offer to trade them if they'll help you with the leveling (at the very least. This seems the task you'll have the hardest time with.) and in exchange you'll work for them for a day or whatever.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Eli just left.

He said that for a project of this size it probably would not be worth it to have his guys come out and do anything, and that I should be able to handle the job by myself. He said I should probably be able to finish the flooring install itself in a single day so long as I devote at least 2 days to making sure the subfloor is done properly first.

At one point it sounded like he recommended forgetting about the leveling and just installing new carpet, but later he made it clear that he thought the hardwood would be much better so long as I install it correctly. He'd only go with carpet himself because he personally has a busy schedule right now and would rather finish the job in under 2 hours than over the course of multiple days. I don't have anything else on my schedule for almost 2 weeks, so I might as well take the time to do it right.


He did not see any moisture building up below the plastic I glued down, but opted to use his digital moisture tester rather than rely on that amateur method. His device revealed that the main center slab had twice the normally acceptable moisture context, while the rest were within the proper range.

He first said I'd need to get a liquid moisture barrier, but when I showed him the Bostik glue from Lowe's he said that should be good enough. He has used that kind often and likes it, while he very much dislikes the Roberts glue (which I was planning to return to Home Depot anyway).

He was not a fan of either of the transitions strips I'd bought. He called the one from Home Depot worthless trash. He said the one from Lowe's could work, but that it is really meant for tile and that he'd prefer one meant for hardwood. I told him that Shaw only sells them in 78 inch lengths and told him the price, which he agreed is not reasonable. He said he was sure that his suppliers could provide an 8ft wooden reducer (not an exact match, but one that would blend ok) at a more reasonable price, and that he would get back to me with a price quote within a few days.


His emphasis was on how important it is to level the floor properly. The self leveling compound I already bought is his favorite kind to use. He commonly uses about 16 bags of it when installing new floors in a whole house. He said it would be a waste of expensive material to try to make the whole floor perfectly level (which would require building up the floor on the outside wall 2 inches or more), but that if I smooth the LevelQuik out using a 6ft level or scrap baseboard I can get it flat enough. He said I might be able to get away using only the single 50lb bag I have now, but more likely would need anywhere from half a bag to two whole bags more. It needs a day to cure before you can pour a second layer anyway, so he said I should mix and apply the first bag and wait to see if that is good enough before returning to the store for more.

He said I would not need both of the bottles of primer, that the slab closest to the exterior wall is in good enough shape not to need priming at all, and that he would ignore the instructions which said to prime again if you are pouring more leveling compound in an area more than 24 hours after first priming it.


In the 3.5 inch area where the concrete is cracking, he said to take a hammer and break it up more, to knock down the high spots and remove any loose pieces. He said that pouring some LevelQuick in the hole would bind it together much more securely than any other sort of concrete patch.

Where there is a bit of a ridge near the threshold, he also recommended relying on LevelQuick. He said he could lend me his grinder, but that grinding down that much concrete is a very difficult, time consuming, and messy job which I would want to avoid if at all possible. The highest spot on that ridge is level with the Linoleum, so I should just try to make that whole area level at that height.

He said to use blue painters tape on the edge of the linoleum and then tape together part of the empty flooring boxes to make a barrier to be sure the leveler doesn't flow into the next room.

Currently a T-Mold transition strip would fit better, but after using leveling compound there I would need a reducer.


He said that most of the little drops of paint I left when I repainted the wall a couple days ago are small enough not to matter, but pointed out a couple I should scrape up before proceeding.

He said the tar paper that was below the carpet and which I used as a drop cloth is now trash, and that trying to use it to protect the walls would ruin them more than the leveler. He said I could spend money on brown paper rolls to tape to the walls to protect them while leveling, but that it is probably a waste of money. If I'm careful and take my time it shouldn't be too messy.


He recommending orienting the boards in the opposite direction as everyone else had advised. He said it might look better visually to run parallel the longest wall with the large window, but that the boards would be much less forgiving of my subfloor imperfections if laid in that direction. If I can't get it perfectly flat or if it settles more in the future, it would be better for the vertical displacement to to spread out over the full (~4ft) length of a board than to all happen over the 5 inch width.

He said to make sure that the boards are staggered by a distance at least equal to their width. (I'd previously been advised at least 4 inches, which seemed too little to me.)

I measured that if I were to install it the direction I originally intended then I'd be left with 2 inch scraps, but the way he recommended the excesses would be 18 inch sections which could easily be reused.


Running in the opposite direction would also make it easier where the floor meets the door casing.

He said I would need quarter round or shoe molding to fill the gap between the floor and the bottom of the exterior door threshold. (Luckily I have a free scrap from habitat that is long enough even if I return all that I bought from Home Depot.)

He said I would definitely need to caulk the edges around the floorboards and then install baseboard, quarter round, and/or shoe molding to hide it.


He recommended buying a rubber mallet (specifically the white rubber kind, not the black rubber) to use to help force the boards into place. (I couldn't find the one from Habitat when I looked to borrow it, but I recall it was the black rubber kind anyway.)

He insisted that I should not trust the straightness of any walls, but must use a chalk line to lay out my pattern first to make sure everything stays square. He said I need to start from where the hardwood would meet the linoleum.

 

[Cutlass]

Sound like you're getting the advise you need and have what you need to plan it out and get started.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I went back to Home Depot a couple days ago and returned the quarter rounds, the cheap floor metal, the wooden dowels, one of the two bottles of LevelQuik Primer, and a gallon of white paint. I bought two more 50lb bags of the leveling compound, new electrical faceplates, a white rubber mallet, and some trim to use as baseboard. (The prices were not as good as shown online. I ended up doing with the type of trim they had used before, as it was a cheaper option and matched the rest of the room's trim.)

I removed the broken concrete from that 3.5 inch area (actually more like 5 inches, as it extended under the wall) and found a flat solid and very sound slab 2 inches bellow it. That is too much of a height difference for a single pour, so I applied the first bag of leveling compound in the morning and the second that night.

The self leveling in that gap turned out beautiful, but where I had to try to feather out (including the second pour over the gap, to make it match the adjacent slab) manually doesn't look so great. I think the stuff cures too quickly, especially when I'm spreading a whole bag's worth by myself.

I managed to scrape off most of the drips and ridges I left behind, but it is still pretty rough. The threshold to the kitchen is not quite high or flat enough yet.


I spoke to Eli over the phone a couple hours ago.

He said that the floor being rough or smooth doesn't matter much (with hardwood; it would for vinyl), so long as it is level. I can keep scraping it, but should not use a hammer. He said an 1/8 inch gap below any part of the 6.5 ft level is too much. Most of my floor seems to be within tolerances, but not one side of the threshold to the kitchen. I think I'll need to mix and pour another half bag of leveler.

Eli still recommends a wooden transition strip rather than the metal one. He however forgot to check his inventory for one until I reminded me via text the night before last, and has been busy dealing with car trouble since then. He said he was planning to visit his showroom this afternoon anyway, so I hope we get back to me tonight.

He said he could try to give my subfloor another look and advise me before I begin, but only if he gets his car fixed (or replaced, as he is not sure it is worth sinking that much money into an old Dodge Neon) first so he couldn't say it it would be Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. I was hoping to be done by then.

He recommended that I check out another distributor near here. I called them an hour ago.

They have only one option for wooden transition strips in he right height. It is unfinished oak that can be cut to any length up to 14ft, at a price of $3 per linear foot. They do not sell the finish there, so I'd have to go back to Home Depot or Lowe's for that and try to find a close enough match to blend. They do sell self leveling compounds in 25lb bags for $13, which is better than the $33 50lb bags from Home Depot.

Edit: I heard back from Eli. He does not have anything long enough in stock, and said that he probably wouldn't be able to beat the $24 price tag if he did. He is pretty busy so while he said I'm still welcome to call with questions he doesn't think he'll have the time to stop by and check up on anything.

 

[Cutlass]

You're making progress. Keep at it.

 

[Vectors]

How important is it to use mold resistant joint compound in a bathroom?

 

[Cutlass]

If it's available, and not too expensive, might be a good idea. I wouldn't call it necessary. Better to get the walls good and smooth, and then use mold resistant paint. But if a bathroom is properly ventilated and kept clean, you usually don't get a mold problem.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I got a call this morning from my boss asking me to come pick up my paycheck. He only had about half of the funds he owed me, as he said he hasn't been paid in full himself yet, but promised he'd get me the rest eventually.


While I was out I stopped by the flooring place Eli recommended. I forgot to bring a sample of the floor board with me, but went ahead and purchased what he (the one guy who was fluent in English, who I think was the owner) said was the right kind of transition piece for 3/8 inch thickness hardwood. It doesn't have a tongue or groove nor a lip to sit over the flooring, but just sits adjacent to it. I hope that is the right kind.

I'd been quoted a price of $3 per linear ft on the phone, but in person he said it would be $3.50 per linear foot if they cut it for me or $2.75 if I took a whole piece. They had a 9ft piece which I took whole as it was cheaper than having a 95 inch piece cut from it. The quoted price did not include tax, so it came up to $26.48.

I could have gotten baseboard for $0.05 per linear foot less there than what I paid for the trim at home depot, but I was in my Camry. I did not have a way to transport long pieces home, nor think it was worth a second trip.

I meant to purchase the cheaper 25lb bag of leveler while there so I could get a refund on the 50lb bag from Home Depot, but forgot. I mentioned it when I first got there, but then got distracted while searching for the right transition and no one reminded me before checkout.

I tried mixing half of the remaining bag this afternoon and pored it near the threshold. I should have measured exact portions into separate containers before pouring, as I think I ended up making it slightly little too wet. Some of it managed to flow past the barrier I had taped in place to protect the kitchen linoleum. I hope this is not a problem.

I seemed to have better luck smoothing the floor with a long level rather than scrap baseboard or trowel, but the partial bag did not end up being enough to make it fully flat. I'll probably mix and pour the rest of it tonight and then just hope that is enough, as I really don't want to need to buy more.

A couple hours ago I went to the closest Lowe's to return the metal transition strip I bought from that other branch further away. There was no hassle.

While there I purchased a wood stain and polyurethane for the transition strip. I was going to buy a 2-in-1 product, but they had a smaller variety of colors. The sales rep convinced me it would be better to get a cheaper stain that would blend more closely, even though it comes up to about $3 more together with the separate can of polyurethane I'd need to seal it.

When I got home I applied the first coat of the stain, which did make the strip look a lot better. I'll need two or three more coats before it will blend with the flooring though.

After applying the first coat I realized that I probably should have cut it down to the proper length first, so the sides would match the top. I guess I can do that once it dries.

Edit: I went ahead and put a second coat of stain on the transition strip tonight, and then used up the last of the floor leveler. This time I weighed the bag and did the math to come up with the perfect water to mix ratio. I think I'm getting better at producing a feather edge too. It is still not 100% perfectly flat, but is definitely better. I don't think it is worth going back to buy more, so I'm just going to hope it is good enough. There were a few drips I'll have to scrape up once they dry, so I'll do that and sweep/vacuum again tomorrow after the family comes back from father's day lunch. I'll also have to take down the barrier to the kitchen and try to clean up the linoleum near the transition. I may get as far as undercutting the door/threshold trim, cutting the transition strip to fit, and snapping chalk line guides, but probably won't glue anything down until Monday.


Edit2:
Today I put two more coats of stain on the strip, and am wondering if I should apply one more or just use the polyurethane later tonight. From some angles it looks like a great match, but from most it seems like it still needs to be darker and a little less warm.

I managed to get up the leveling compound that seeped onto the linoleum, although traces of the tape stayed behind, Trying to get all the tape up caused a couple pieces of the leveler (about 1/16 inch by 3/4 inch by 6 inches) to flake off. I think it will probably be ok, as the transition strip would cover the whole thing and would have lots of other area to be glued down tightly.

I just undercut the door and threshold trim to get the boards to fit properly.

While using the oscillating tool to do that, I discovered that it has a masonry rasp attachment that has no trouble smoothing out any of the rough spots in the stuff I poured. It is not hard enough though to rough up the main original slab, which I still fear is smoother than the glue recommends.

The process of smoothing things out is generating a lot of dust. I don't think that I could sweep or vacuum it all up. Would it be a good idea to mop the smoothed floor and let it dry before starting to glue things down?

I also noticed that the trim I bought, when lying directly on the hardwood that is lying directly on the floor, does not come up as high as I'd like. I think I should take it back and exchange it for the standard trim fiber boards (which are $0.02 less per linear foot, at either Dome Depot of Lowe's)

I have a question about the transition strip. Do I need to under cut the sides of the threshold for it too? Would it be a problem for it to fit tightly between the walls, or for it to have a slight gap?

The way the threshold casing was built there is some shoe molding running along the kitchen side of it (presumably since the trim used on that side was thicker) which happens to stop at the same thickness as the new flooring. I could easily have the transition strip's corners sit under it and not need to undercut anything else.


Edit3: My ears are still ringing from grinding stuff down. I hope Bobby doesn't mind that I wore down his oscillating tool attachment. I hope also I never have to deal with so much dust again. Moping seemed to help some with that though.

I went ahead and laid out the boards on the floor to see if they would lay flat and if I have enough.

I laid them in the direction I originally intended, parallel to the longest wall and the window. They are sitting 3 boards end to end and 30 side by side. The 3 boards together are 2 inches too long, but that would be easily solved once I cut them. There is still a gap of a couple inches between the last board and the outer wall, so I will need to rip 3 boards lengthwise.

There are 10 extra boards left over. If I choose to use the nicest ones, that leaves me with 2 which are about 8 inches shorter than the rest, two which were not properly finished for the last few inches, one with a chip broken off of it, and five which have unattractive knots. I could use most of any of those boards with no problem though.

Obviously I have not cut the boards yet, so I have them lying side by side without staggering them at all for now.


I have not yet laid them out in the other direction, which Eli recommended. I will probably try that, but probably won't actually take that advice. I believe I have a lot less wasted material the way it is currently set up, and might even have too little the other direction.

(The way it is now, I estimate my waste as 2 linear inches x 30 boards + 22 inches x 1 of boards in the threshold, or 82 linear inches. The other way it would be 21 inches x 16 boards before the threshold + 16 inches x 20 boards in the threshold or 656 linear inches. With most boards being 58.25 inches long, that is the equivalent of nearly 10 more boards of waste. If I couldn't find a way to reuse those cut pieces I'd either run out of material or come very close. I could probably reuse some of that and be ok, but I'd be a lot more limited in where I place the joints.)


More importantly though, I think I did a pretty good job of flatting the floor in that direction but in the process made it a little less flat the other direction. The way I poured the leveler near the threshold left a slight crest in the middle. The subfloor under the casing I cut away is also lower, since the lever did not flow below that trim. I don't seem to be able to make the boards in the corners of the threshold sit flat if they have to disperse that incline over the narrower width of the board. Since the style of transition strip I got does not have a lip to sit above the boards at all, those boards twisting would be a very noticeable problem.


Also, the transition strip looks better when sitting next to a full length board. When I arranged it in that direction, my parent's did not even realize that the finishes were not an exact match. When the grain direction changes they don't match so well.

Also, the wall with the door is not as level, so even after undercutting the door frame I think having a board lay parallel the door leaves too large a gap. If the board side by side can be shifted slightly no one would ever notice.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

It is so frustrating not knowing where to start when everything is uneven! Even the casing of the threshold if of a different thickness on either side, by about 3/8 of an inch. None of the walls are perfect, but the ones near the door and threshold are the worst.


When I spoke to Eli he said it is fine so long as the transition strip is flush with or slightly higher than the floor boards, and that I could cut the linoleum down if the transition is too high. In my case it seems too low though. (I have not cut it down to size yet, but did cut an inch of the length after finishing it to make for easy comparisons.)

I think that applying the stain and polyurethane made it shrink. (I'm sure it also made it nonreturnable.) It is at least 1/16 an inch shorter, and the leveling compound brought most of the slab near the threshold up about that much higher than the linoleum too. If I have the boards on the edge and the transition over the linoleum, then half of the board's height is exposed. The groove is hidden, but an unfinished portion is still exposed.

If I move it back somewhat so that the transition strip is angled so that the bottom edge of one side sits in the groove, then it appears flush. I'm not sure that is the most stable way though. Maybe I should put down a thick bead of caulk or silicon first, and then have the strip lay on top of that?

The project would be so much easier on a plywood subfloor where I could nail things down or use screws to hold the chalk line in place.

At first I thought that the transition strip should be secured first and the rest of the boards could be based on that, but Eli said this morning that it should be the last thing applied.


I'm again vacillating between which direction is the best to run the boards. When I spoke to Eli last I said I was thinking of going back to the make it parallel the longer wall/window/threshold because when I placed one board on the sides of the threshold they wouldn't lay flat. When I put multiple boards together with the tongues secured in the grooves they seem perfectly flat though.

In the perpendicular direction I would need to use the jig saw to notch a corner off of one board but could just to the chop saw to cut every other piece. I was worried for a while that I would not have enough material for that direction, but upon closer examination it seems the scrap pieces could be used and would provide a sufficiently random looking spacing between boards. When I lay the boards this way it seems a little easier to position the transition in a way that looks good, but I think that when actually gluing it would be a much bigger challenge to keep that edge perfectly aligned. I wish this was the kind of floor where I could screw down a temporary piece of wood to hold everything in place.

In the parallel direction, I was hoping to have full boards along the wall next to the threshold and then a single board within the threshold. Unfortunately the middle of that wall bows out by more than the thickness of the trim, so a full board there would not hide under the threshold casing at all. Also, a full board in the threshold would cover about an inch of the linoleum and could not lay flat on both surfaces at once. If it continues that far into the kitchen at the incline of the den floor, there would be enough of a gap for another floor board to sit below it and the transition strip would be worthless. I would probably need to use the table saw to rip it down half an inch before the linoleum starts.

 

[Cutlass]

If one wall is bowed, and the others are not, that's probably the wall you want the ends of the board at, not the side of the boards. It's easier to make that adjustment with the ends. You're just going to have to look at all the imperfections you're dealing with, and decide which ones you have the skill to deal with, and which will be too hard, and you'll have to go with the decision on how to minimize the hard ones. The transition strip, you can probably build up one side to make it even.

Most houses aren't perfectly square. The older it is, the less square you'll get. Houses settle over time, and sometimes had imperfections right in the original building of it. All you can do is try your best.

 

[GinandTonic]

Yeah. Also consider which areas will be visable and/ or walked on. Uneven can creak when you walk on it. If that happens by the doorway thats bad. If it creaks when you move furniture in a corner thats not so bad.

If the floor is uneven it MAY be necessary to use a bit of sandpaper to make the toungue and groove a little looser and allow a small element of bowing. Only a couple of degrees per join. Some products may have a little give in them, others can make a really ridged join.

Hide any visual imperfections under the skirting boards and any creaky bits in the corners.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I have now installed most of the floor boards. I did the first 5 rows on Tuesday night and the next 24 on Wendesday night, stopping at about 4:30 am Thursday morning.

I have 12 boards left to install, which will leave me with more 8 to spare.

I would have finished the job, but I ran out of glue with only 3 1/2 rows to go. That is slightly less than 30 square feet. (That makes sense, because despite the Lowe's salesman saying that one container should be good for a 180 square foot room the package actually says it covers 150 square feet.)

I certainly hope I won't need to spend a lot for another big container of glue.

I see on the HomeDepot website that they sell 1 gallon containers (for $27.98, estimated to cover about 50 square feet) of Roberts 1407. They also sell the same stuff for $5.49 in tubes (estimate to cover up to 12 square feet each) for use in caulk guns. (The mention of Caulk gunds reminded me that Eli originally suggested adhering the transition strip with Liquid Nails, which is cheaper an is also supposed to bridge larger gaps. I wonder if that would be good enough to hold down entire boards too.)

The parts left to do are near the threshold leading to the kitchen, and the last two boards before the most uneven wall (which varies by 1/2 inch over a 6 foot span). These remaining parts are at the highest elevation (since the floor slopes down lightly towards the window on the opposite wall) and the furthest from the exterior of the house, but the closest to the kitchen. (The threshold is just inches from the refrigerator, which could be an issue if people spill drinks often or if the icemaker/water dispenser malfunctions.) I

Do I need to get a moisture barrier for the last couple feet? I originally bought but back the Roberts 1407 glue because it did not include a moisture barrier like the Bostic Wood-Grip (which was comparably priced only do to a really good sale at Lowe's).

The cheapest glue that contains a moisture barrier and is available at the local Home Depot is a $149 for a 4 gallon container. (Online they have a $76.97 4 gallon container from another brand, but that could take 2 weeks to ship.)

Lowes no longer has the sale going on like when I bought the Bostic Wood-Grip, and I don't see anything less than $175 thatt explicitly mentions a moisture barrier in the description. They do however have but $65 2 gallon containers of Botic Multi-Grip, which is also waterproof urethane and which is supposed to be anti-microbial.




I had some issues getting the board tongues to fit in the grooves for the 5th through 7th rows. (This is about 18 inches away from the settling crack that I repaired, in an area where I did not pour LevelQuick because I was running low and it seemed flat enough already.) Tapping them in on one side would make them pop out on the other. I remembered that one instructional video recommended using a certain kind of floor board clamps to keep the boards tight, and wondered if that would fix the issue here. I called Home Depot just before they closed to ask if they had them. They said they did not and that it would not help anyway, because my problem was almost certainly caused by an uneven subfloor. He strongly recommended that I stop what I was doing and scrape up the boards and glue that were already down, take pictures of the area from different angles, and bring them into their store in the morning to show their flooring specialist and ask his advice. I declined to take his advice; I don't think it would be possible to do without destroying more boards than I had to spare, and it could have taken weeks plus a lot more money I don't want to spend to get more.

After hanging up I did another row, and found that it fit perfectly. I did not have any problems getting any of the remaining rows tight enough.

I did find that using blue painters take as recommended seemed pointless. On the first few boards we tried we'd just used the Bostik wipes to clean some errant glue, and found the tape after barely touching it could not adhere to anything. Later when I put some on clean boards I found it would stay down but still moved so easily that it did not seem to be doing much. I ran out of one roll and could not find another, so I just eschewed that step.

I think this kind of flooring has a special finish that is supposed to make it scuff resistant and easy to clean. Actually, I found the Bosik wipes were unnecessary. The glue comes off the surface just fine using only friction, and a lot faster using mineral spirits.



Most of floor looks great and feels very secure, even more so than the professional install from that other house. The door frame is quite uneven though. I was already told to put some quarter round below it, but would might be a difficult cut to make that fir securely around the casing trim to hide the exposed edges of the floor boards below it. The unevenness of the door frame also threw off some measturements of board length, leading to one board having almost a full inch gap between it and the opposite wall. (We would probably put our sofa back there though, so no one would see it.) The other exception are the aforementioned boards in the 5th through 7th rows from the outer windowed wall. That is not a high traffic area. It would mostly be hidden under the television table and my dad's recliner. Do you think I'll be ok leaving those boards with their tongues out of the grooves?

My first thought was to put some clear silicon caulk in the gasp to keep moisture out and just hope for the best. Then I remembered that I have an unopened container of wood putty I borrowed from Habitat, which I believe was left over by the flooring contractors who put these boards at the other house. They used some of the stuff to fill nail holes, and then sanded and colored it with a special marker to match the finish. I don't have one of those, but I suppose I could instead use some of the stain and polyurethane let over from finishing the threshold piece. Do you think that would be better?


Speaking of the threshold piece, I'm wondering if I could get away with using popsicle sticks under the edge of the reducer so as to raise it up to (just a hair above) the level of the wood. I have plenty of them, and when I place some there it looks much better. I'm not sure if they would interfere with the secure bonding of the wood to the linoleum though.

 

[AlmostCivilized]

I have a triple-joist that is a little high, and this is probably caused by it getting wet during its build. My concern is that the joists might be of low spec, or perhaps spaced incorrectly. What can I do force the builder to investigate properly?

I have Kronospan laminate flooring, and I have been unable to source a stair nosing with good match. I am looking into kerning the planks - is this a realistic proposition?

 

[Cutlass]

I have a triple-joist that is a little high, and this is probably caused by it getting wet during its build. My concern is that the joists might be of low spec, or perhaps spaced incorrectly. What can I do force the builder to investigate properly?

I have Kronospan laminate flooring, and I have been unable to source a stair nosing with good match. I am looking into kerning the planks - is this a realistic proposition?

I don't really understand what you're trying to say. Can you explain it better?

 

[Cutlass]

Magister, I wouldn't buy a moisture barrier at this point. And those are to help when you have dampness rising up through the floor. They don't help if you spill something on the top.

I wouldn't leave any of the boards with the tounge out of the grove if I could avoid it. Even in a hidden spot, it'll be seen eventually. And may cause other issues. Without seeing it, I have a hard time picturing what you're dealing with. And from your description, I can't always tell if you're dealing with the ends of a board, or the side. These are different issues, and require different approaches to solving. If it's the end of a board, take a scrap from another board to fill in, or adjust the length of several boards to make it look more natural. If it's the side of a board, cut the last board before the wall lengthwise at an angle or on a curve to fit the wall. That's not the easiest thing to do with hardwoods, and may be even more difficult with engineered wood. But it's sort of what you need to do to fit the space.

You can use spacers if that is what will give you the proper fit for height. When doing that try to have as complete coverage of the area as possible, so that you don't get a squeaky floor piece. Or you could try using some floor leveler in there.

Without laying eyes on your problems it's hard for me to offer the best advice. My method is often to look the problem over, then go away and think on it for a while while doing something else, and then go back to it.

 

[AlmostCivilized]

Mine are two unrelated issues.

First is structural. The floor is uneven, it actually has an unwanted bump at the main triple joist and this causes about 3mm per meter slope in one room and is forcing me to raise the tiling in another room because otherwise the floor repeatedly cracks. The builder says the slope is within tolerance, but is the high triple-joist within tolerance? That's obviously expensive to fix. Is it even possible to adjust a triple joist after the house is built? What are the alternatives? We assume the triple joist is high due to wet weather when the house was assembled but it should be made to a standard that it does not swell in the first place so the builder's weather explanation is not good enough for me.

Second is a floating floor with planks manufactured by Kronospan. UK regulations require domestic stair steps to be bullnose to create a visible edge. Other European countries have different regulations making square steps OK, so the stair nosings typically sold in Europe are of square variety. The few available stair nosings that do not ruin the stairs are also not a match my floor on grain/colour. Kerning is a process of bending laminate, and I wonder if I can create custom bullnose steps from Kronospan laminate that has been bent using kerning. Would such nosings be structurally safe? Its my own idea so not seen any DIY guidance on the topic. Can someone help me obtain different solutions from the USA where these kind of products seem a lot better?

 

[Cutlass]

I don't see any way to fix that joist problem. Is this a new house, and you're talking to the person who actually built it? I don't really think it would be a moisture and swelling problem. More of a problem that someone's measurements were a little off when building. The repair of that would be a really major undertaking. Look at how the joist is supported. The whole house would have to be lifted off that, and adjustments made.

I would consult a professional flooring installer to try to find a solution to get a sound finished floor. If you try to do it yourself, you may have to remove all the tile and use a floor leveler or some other method to blend the floor heights in.


I don't see how you could bend a laminate to get the effect you want. Others may know more. But if you could do it, I don't see any structural issue. If the bullnosing is for visibility, then it's not a structural piece. What you want is something that will be stepped on many times without deforming. And so not creating a trip hazard. If products available in Europe don't meet your needs, then you could try searching American sources, and see if they'll ship internationally. But you may have to accept an appearance you don't love.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...rds=stair+nosing&sprefix=stair+nosing,aps,250