HI all,
I am in a house that I am going to start renovating and adding onto very soon. My question has to do with the floors in the livingroom. It currently has carpet over badly termite damaged pine t&g. When I am finished it will have new pine flooring but until that happens I need help with what I can put down to hold me over. The carpet has to come up, it is old, nasty and well just has to go. I will be living here while I am renovating so I need something that I can either paint or stain to hold me over for the year until I am ready to install the new floor. Am I safe laying down plywood and painting or staining it? Will the edges curl or any other issues like that arrise in a year?
Thanks alot for the input and suggestions,
Bob
Replies
Bob,
Just installed a floor in a house where the people lived on painted sub-floor in the family/ breakfast room for 10 years. It wasn't supposed to take that long but.........anyway the husband rolled on oil based deck paint every 3 years or so. The wife kept a clean house and I was suprised how good it looked after that long.
Ditch
Bob,
If the ply you are considering is thick enough to accommodate them, you might consider inserting some biscuits in the adjoining edges of the sheets to prevent curling and mis-aligned edges. No need to glue those biscuits in this instance.
What do you mean "hold you over until ready for new floor"? Sounds like you really don't need to spend additional money now to hold over when you will be tearing it all up to do it right in order to lay the new floor.
There is a strong possibility that you will find more damage than you really expected when you pull up the carpet and the old flooring. You might be better advised to plan on demoing right on through the subfloor to get at the joists, sills, etc. Perhaps you've already been under and checked out the joists and found them satisfactory. If so I would still recommend a complete gut of the subfloor and then an installation of AdvanTech which you can then live with for whatever the length of time it takes to be ready for the finished floor. (Years, if necessary). You won't need to paint or stain the product thereby saving time and money and it is a very smooth product which will be easy on the tootsies and will not splinter underfoot like plywood might. Granted, it is an OSB, but not what you might be used to seeing and using. Toss down a few area rugs for atmosphere and you're good to go.