It’s been exactly a month since I finished installing Plywood Floors. I still need to put up the baseboard and some transition strips where the floor meets tile, so the project isn’t actually “done” but that’s how most of my projects go. So, how are the floors holding up? The only complaint I have so far…
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You’ve got the stain on and let it dry per the manufacturer’s directions. Now, it’s time to apply the Polyurethane. Because I was on a bit of a time crunch, I went with this fast-drying, water-based Varethane Semi-gloss Polyurethane, which only requires a couple hours between re-coats. Applying Polyurethane is really simple. The first thing to…
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Your floor is in and all the knots have been filled and now it’s on to the next step: Staining! If you’re anything like us, you want to make sure you don’t get stuck with a stain that you really don’t like. That means you’ll have to do some color testing. Minwax offers small, 8-ounce containers…
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So your planks are cut and sanded and you’re ready for installation. This is the part of the project where things really start to take shape.The first thing you need to do is figure out which direction to lay your planks. Most people suggest laying the planks perpendicular to your floor joists for added support….
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One of the drawbacks of DIY Plywood floors is sanding. Because I wanted a rustic look and also because the plywood edges were full of splinters, I decided to bevel all four edges of the boards. This meant that I needed to sand each board individually. I used a 5-inch orbital sander from Harbor Freight…
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So, you’ve decided to give installing Plywood Floors the old college try, huh? The first thing you’ll need to worry about is buying and cutting the wood. Buying the Wood Buying plywood should be pretty simple, right? Well, turns out there a a lot of options. I choose to go with 15/32″ plywood, which cost…
Continue reading →We have carpet on our main level. We also have dogs and kids. So, you can imagine that we have lots of stains, dog hair and who knows what else calling our carpet home. In every house we’ve owned up to this point, we had nice red oak hardwood floors, but the location and other amenities…
Continue reading →(Warning – before you start putting in combustion air vents: Wear gloves when working with sheetmetal. Trust me!) Before we started the basement project, our furnace had one four-inch combustion air vent that drew air in from the outside. When I got my building permit, I learned that I’d need to have two six-inch combustion air vents…
Continue reading →Thanks to my new building permit, the basement finishing project is now legal as far as the city of Lakewood is concerned. After months of measuring, planning, drawing, re-meausuring, re-planning and re-drawing, I finally had my act together enough to gather all my plans and apply for a building permit. I stopped by the permit counter on…
Continue reading →Every had a situation where something small cases the biggest headaches? The entire basement project has been on hold for a while because of one electrical wire that runs across the bottom of the floor joists in the exact spot I need to place fire blocking and the top plate of a wall. But this has…
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