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Squeee-Squwah!

That is the sound our downstairs floor makes - and the entire downstairs vibrates when someone walks across the current oldy floor. Not a lot - but you know when someone's walkin around. No sneaking into the kitchen for a cookie in this house.

The current wood floor floats on... well, I'm not sure what it's covering, but it's even older and rougher wood. Plus, below, the beams are way off 16 on center, therefore, there's not as many of them to properly support the floor.

So, prior to putting in a new floor, Mike wants to firm up our current one. Our carpenter has advised us to install more support beams from below and then screw down the current floor with long, high strength screws. Mike wants to hire him to do all this... and I'm wondering, how much is that going to cost for labor and materials?! Never mind the 3/4 ply that needs to go over the old wood floor before the new one can be installed.

You know - I can make cost estimates all day long and try to work out every detail. And in every single case, the job goes over budget before it even starts!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can I ask why aren't you taking out the old floor? Once you put down the 3/4" ply, plus the laminate, you are a whole inch up. Just enough to trip going room to room. If you are going to be putting in sister joists, you might as well take out all the other layers of flooring you don't need. Sure, doing it right the first time will cost more $$, but listening to your floor squeak for the next 50 years because of the extra layers you didn't need to keep in the first place seems a bit crazy.

Oh, and the only downside to laminate is that it is slippery for the pets. No natural grain, just glossy.