What’s first? Floor, Ceiling, or Walls??
TheHandyWife
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Hi,
My husband and I have just bought a “new” old house. We are starting to work on many upgrades and can’t seem to come to a decision as to what should be upgraded first, the ceiling, floor, or walls? We have never really been in a situation where we have had to do all of it, so I’m curious, where do we start?
The house is a back split. We’re doing the split part which will have a drop ceiling, hardwood (floor is existing concrete) and drywall for the walls.
Any suggestions would be great!
Replies
First should be to make sure you have the roof and foundation in good shape.
The rest depends on what condition it is in now and where you want to end up.
The way you have phrased the Q is like asking "How do I get to NYC from here?", when we have no idea where HERE is.
BTW, what is a back split? Sounds like something a cheerleader might do...
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Thanks for your response,
The roof and foundation are in good shape. The room we wish to redo is in good shape. The joists are straight, no water damage. There is little to no dampness, and the concrete looks level. A backsplit is a type of house just as bungalows and two stories are. The difference is, a backsplit sections off into 4 levels. Google it! :)
Thanks again.
OK, what I found looks like what we have always called a split level. So you have something that is good now.Where do you want to go with it? IOW, what do you want to gain or to end up with?And why the dropped cieling? That usually devalues a house
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We are looking to put a drop ceiling in because there are junction boxes on the ceiling which connect to the upper level as well as a bathroom plumbing.. I don't think we are allowed by code to cover up live junction boxes with drywall? We are on a bit of a tight budget and can't afford to re-wire the house with new wiring and no junction boxes. We are planning on doing a bathroom reno in the next 4 years, but in that time we need a finished room for future children to play in!
What we would like to end up with is a modern, updated room. The present room consisted of a horribly outdated stapled panel ceilling with wood siding (the kind of wood siding you would see in a cottage) i'm not sure what it's called, but it looked like thin sheets of wood. The flooring was ugly carpet. Since we are redoing everything AND have a concrete floor, we're not sure where to start, do we do the floor first, then ceiling, then walls or what? dave seemed to answer the question with walls, ceiling then floor.
OK, See at first, there was no mention that this is a basement level room. That kind of information is critical to getting the right advice here.Yes re-work walls first,sans baseboard. Then install your new drop cieling and finally the floor.Because of the low level of the floor and the concrete, you might want to consider engineered floating floor instead of hardwood. It will take the abuse of kids playing on it too, as well as possible dampness. ( BTW, what kind of heat? If radiant infloor that could change advice.)There is a product called Dricore made to snap together for a subfloor in basement situations to provide a wood surface for instalation of hardwood. IF your slab is entirely dry year 'round, you can lay a floating floor over just a mat buffer on the concrete.Afte4r the flooring is done, you can install the baseboard. You might want to have prepainted it. That is easier than painting cut in to wood floor on your hands and knees.There is an advanced search feature here that can lead you to previous threads on wood flooring, a common subject.
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A backsplit is a type of house just as bungalows and two stories are. The difference is, a backsplit sections off into 4 levels. Google it! :)
I did (had too). That appears to be one of those very regional terms that is common in the region, but not anywhere else. Hmm, wiki sugests that backsplit is "rare"--wonder what definition of "rare" they are using.
This is a bit different than "bungalow" which really means two different things depending on which side of the Canadian border one looks from. (So, I'm "used to" double-checking what is meant when bungalow is used). Similar consideration has to be used when "ranch" is used to mean a specific house style.
Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
For the split part - walls first, finish and paint. Then the susp. ceiling. then comes the flooring and then the trim.
Dave
More information would be helpful. Are there structural issues? Wiring changes? Plumbing? I like to assess the current state of the building. Then discuss the ideal/proposed final outcome and then come up with a critical path. Its complex.(All this, upon reflection, is about the same thing as what Piffin already said.)
Edited 9/3/2007 10:03 pm ET by sisyphus
On the houses I do, finished flooring always comes as close to the end as possible. Granted, for example, with hardwood, shoe mold would come after the floor, and any flooring that goes under a toilet has to be installed sooner. I always prefinish shoe mold though. The idea is to install flooring as late in the game as possible to minimize the possibility of damage to the floor, and to reduce or eliminate the need to protect floors with tarps, etc.
In general do floors last. Then you don't have to worry abou them getting mucked up by the other work.
yeah - get your sorry butt over here and clean up that gallon of blue paint you spilled all over my maple flooring, ya putz!;)
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I don't do wood flooring, and I don't paint interiors. So sorry, you'll have to find someone else to blame.
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LOL, you shovel snow?
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Not aftr Feb 1.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin