Flooring

After we tore out the carpet from the basement and bedrooms, we began to lay the flooring of choice, fir to match the other bedrooms. To lay the flooring you need a flooring gun. You can buy a high end one if you plan to do flooring frequently. We just bought an inexpensive one since we only plan to do it this once.  

You will also need a chop saw to cut the flooring to size.  Once you get the hang of it goes in rather quickly. We rented an orbital sander at this point and gave the floor a good sanding to smooth it out and prepare it for staining.

 

 If you are using unfinished hardwood, like us, you will need to stain it.

 We used a squeegee brush to apply the stain.

After you stain it you will want to put a protective coat on it to preserve it.

Carpet Removal

We had these nasty carpets in our basement and bedrooms. We decided to rip them out so we could put in better flooring.  If you ever rip out carpet you need to remove the baseboard. Luckily we did this earlier when we painted the walls. Carpet is probably the easiest to remove of flooring because it rips out quickly.

Make sure to wear a mask an glasses when working with carpet.

Sometimes there may be staples from the underlay that may need to be removed.

Removing carpet is simple when done properly.

PAINTING

Painting is probably the most essential aspect of renovations. 

Paint is a deciding factor on how a room affects a person, by giving the room a feeling like warm or cold. 

 Usually painting is done last in a renovation, however in ours we decided to do it first so that we would not get paint anywhere it was not supposed to be. 

 To begin, we removed all of the electrical plates and the plates on light switches. 

After this was done we washed any dirt or debris from the wall that might mix with the paint and leave a mark.   

Several chemicals can be used for this process but we used T.S.P.

Since we wanted to replace it anyway, we tore out the base board with a cats-paw.

On every paint job you must put on painters tape to give yourself insurance when you cut in on corners.

Room before painting

After 2 coats of paint our painting was done. If you are using darker paint you will need more coats.

Next up will be removing the carpet...