Basement Floors

Before the arrival of baby Logan, we got started on finishing the basement.  The first step was to deal with the floors.

In the laundry/utility room, we decided to paint the concrete floor to clean it up.  We used a concrete primer and paint to finish the floor.  This will brighten up the room and make it easier to clean.

Here’s the transformation:

In the rest of the basement (the area that will become our family room) we plan to install carpet.  To prepare for the carpet, we needed to install subfloor.  Dave did some research and found a new product that has a half-inch profile which will save headroom. 

The product is called Tyroc.  The base of the subfloor panels are rubber, made from recycled tires.  The surface is magnesium oxide which is resistant to moisture and decay. 

Although it was hard to find in Toronto, it was worth searching for.  It was relatively easy to install and, so far, we’re happy with it.  Here are the before and after shots:

We’ve chosen our carpet from Lowes and will have it installed once the painting and trim is done.  Progress is much slower now that we have a baby who we’d rather spend our time with.  However, Dave is starting to find some time to work down there, so hopefully Logan’s play room will be ready soon!

New Hardwood Floors

While we were able to save the original hardwood floors on the second storey, we decided to install new hardwood on the main floor.  With the amount of demolition we did, we knew that the floors would be too difficult to save.

Originally, we thought we wanted oak flooring.  But, after looking around and doing some research, we decided to try something a bit different.

We chose Sucupira (Brazilian Walnut).  It’s a medium brown exotic wood that is supposed to be quite durable and stands up well to lots of traffic.  Since it’s on our main floor – including the foyer and kitchen – durability is important to us. 

The hardwood floor installation was one of the final projects we completed before we moved in. 

We’re really happy with how the floors turned out.  The Sucupira is a really warm colour and it’s a great match for the colour of stain we used on the stairs and upstairs floors. 

Old Hardwood Floors

The original hardwood floors were in pretty good shape on the second storey.  We decided to get them refinished so we protected the floors with paper before we started the demolition.

Once the drywall was finished, we hired Tip Top Flooring to refinish the floors, stairs and railing.  (Thanks to Maggie and Rob at Okay, Now What? for the referral!)

We knew that we wanted to go darker than what was originally there, but selecting the stain colour was a lot harder than we had anticipated.  After hours of staring at samples and changing our minds a couple of times, we settled on Early American.

  Given that the floors, stairs and railing are three different types of wood, we weren’t sure how they would turn out.  Fortunately, the colour was a good choice and we’re really happy with the results.

Fixing Creaky Floors

As you may remember, we decided to keep the original hardwood floors on the second story.  We covered them to keep them protected during the renovations and will get them sanded and re-stained before we move in.

The only downside to keeping the old floors is that there were a number of creaky spots.  So, before installing the drywall on the main floor ceiling, we decided to do a bit of work to get rid of some of the squeaks.

One of Dave’s colleagues recommended using construction adhesive along each floor joist where it meets the subfloor (we used PL Premium adhesive).  Since the ceilings were down, we were able to reach up and do this from below.  It took some time, but was worth the effort.

Once it dried, it eliminated the majority of the creaky spots.  It’s not a perfect fix, but it definitely helped a lot.