Threshold, Door, Meet New Floor

This is just a dumb ole' technical post (and a retro one at that) being we have done little more than domesticate our home since the "move in". However, I have aquired the tools and materials to pimp our front door, as I had alluded to earlier. On that note, we have opted for the beveled glass inserts rather than an obscurred artglass filler, and props go to the homies what gave up the good advice, merideth & davidlbc. After looking in the local gaziers for the proper inserts (1/4" thick glass w/ a fat bevel), I realized the price was too puffy for me. Instead I found a stained/lead glass supplier who was able to get them to me for ~$1.50 ea. Not as thick nor fat as I'd hoped for, but adequate and a steal at that. That will be my task for this weekend.

Now,since we are already in the foyer, I should like to point out to you the incident that brought me to the above circumstance. It was the last day I would work on the house prior to our occupying it, and the task was for me to complete the flooring in the foyer. This meant a number of peripheral issues needing to be addressed:

- flashing where the flooring met the outdoors (this is about waterproofing)
- reseat the threshold (now 3/4" higher)
- cut off 1/2" from the bottom of the door
- remount the door (actually 1/4" higher, but not because of the floor)

Here you see the nastiness that was before. This is only a gratuitous shot; not much to say here. We (parental supports & I) proceeded to lay the flooring up to and just beyond the first door jamb you see on the right of the picture. I chose to keep the existing oak threshold (at least for the time being) so we ran the floorboards to ~3/4" beyond the interior edge of threshold. As you may realize, the endgrain of a board more easily soaks up water/moisture than does the edge (think about grain like a tight bundle of tiny straws), and leaving the endgrain facing outside spells disaster. For this reason, one must place a terminal cap board perpendicularly and span the opening rather snuggly. I had a 1/16" clearance where this cap met either jamb (for eventual expansion). I won't bore you futher with calculations involving the coefficients for ash and the wet/dry bulb temperatures of the region.

After I got the first floorboard past the jamb (to establish the lay-line), I trimmed the cap you see here to a width just shy (3/4") of the exterior edge of the oak threshold (not shown). I will explain the reason for this gap later. I also need to point out a curiosity of this (and perhaps many ~100 year old) house(s). The (original d-f) flooring does not sit on top of the (original d-f) foundation. Again, the (o) floorboards stop just shy of the wall studs, and this meant that the (o) threshold that you see here was separate from it and there was a 1/4" gap that I really don't know how it was covered. We don't build like this these days.

Instead, you lay the floor joists on the foundation & sill plate, and sheathe that with a sub-floor (typically 3/4" plywood). You then start your wall framing on top of this tabula rasa, threshold included. Well, not so here for some reason. And a garage is the same way. The interior concrete slabs are poured up to the foundation walls (rather than with the foundation). This may account for it being horrifically fractured and fissioned. Some day....
Anyways the consequence of that was that the top of the (o) threshold was higher than the top of the (o) flooring. I had to plane down the new end cap ~1/4+" to make it lock with the tongue ends and make for a flat finished surface. Fuss-fuss-fuss. I then fastened it down with wood screws and a fat bead of liquid nails, flashed the edge with a bit of handy-dandy all-purpose Z-bar (as shown), more liquid nails and screws, and voila! We are waterproofed! The (not-exactly orginal) oak threashold goes atop this, and a nice water-resistant wood trim piece (like teak) will go under that and cover the face of the Z-bar.

Next up was the door. The initial problem was the door was mounted so there was a gap in excess of 1/4" at the top. This is something you can stick your finger through, or watch heated air escape from on a cold night. We took the door off its hinges, epoxied the screw holes on the jamb, and waited for it to cure. Next the hinge mortises had to be re-mortised to allow for the reseating of the hinges. A nice sharp chisel works great for this. After planing/sanding off the remaining excess off the door to make it fit (which was actually less than 1/4") we re-hung the door. This actually took 3 times to get the fit just right, and it was on that last re-mounting that I broke the window getting it off the sawhorse. That was 5 weeks ago now that I have been staring at a taped up window every day....And I imagine changing these mini-panes are not going to be much easier than this was. We will see by my next post, unless I am electrocuted by my re-wiring fix-up first.

A Footnote about Flooring

- REV.2 -

Wood flooring comes in all colors, lengths & sizes. It comes in a variety of widths and thicknesses, too. Just hope that the floor you bought doesn't. Now I would like to call this a review, but there are a few too many caveats that disqualify that (more on this later). By appearance alone, we were duly impressed with the Bellawood 5" Ash (select, pre-finished) that we acquired for a pleasing price. But as we got to installing it, we found a number of variances that should not be. Specifically:

- 1/16" (max) difference in width
- 1/16" (max) difference in thickness
- both ends not being parallel

I can only hope that this is not endemic in all wood flooring. We purchased our flooring as a quasi-odd lot. They claimed it was mostly due to being in the warehouse for so long, rather than for manufacture defects and therefore retains its 50 yr finish guarantee. This was the same floor we had wanted beforehand, type, size & grade, and it was all they had which was exactly 105% of what we needed. Happenstance, no? So until we actually purchase an "official" set, I will have to withhold my review in regards to their milling accuracies. For now, my rule of thumb is to avoid all gaps I can easily slide a folded sheet of (20 lb) paper into, or an empty envelope. This is what I have to do in each of the above cases to some degree for each board I put down.

Now, variations in color and length are expected, even desirable. Having a board that is just "*" wider than its adjacent one will cause tremendous grief when the next row comes along. The same goes for boards that are wider at one end. What happens is that you will have a sizable gap between your floorboards, one that will welcome dirt, grit, hair, etc., and will stare back at you when you try to admire your otherwise beautiful floor. There are three solutions...well, four, but I don't like that fourth one. I am listing them is decending order of preference.

(1) The first thing I try is to sand down the bump-out, assuming it is rather less than that 1/16". This bump-out is the result of boards that are not of uniform width, rather than mis-alignment. I use a palm sander on the face above the tongue of the piece stapled down, and on the lower lip of the groove on the piece about to be laid. You need to do this latter part or it wont slide in flush. (2) If it is nearer to that 1/32" difference, I will shape only the board about to be put down. This may involve extensive sanding, but I am not so good at sanding a level face over, say 12" at that depth. Other wise I will pass it through a table saw. I might do this differently if I had a rabbet or shoulder plane, of the Lie-Nielsen variety. O! How I wish I had a plane. I will have one by the time I get to laying the floor in the rest of the house. whish-whish.

Here is a 5' board I had to 'shape' that had ~4' which needed 1/16" shaved off. That's 4-feet. There's no way I could evenly sand 1/16" off 4' (O! How I wish I had a plane). I just hadn't noticed that the preceding board (upper right) was that much narrower until after I installed it. Rather than rip it up and find another (I could spend half my time doing this), I chose to move on and deal with it. I chose a board of the wider variety (why are they not uniform???) and shaved off that difference on my table saw, then beveled the edge with the sander. It fits, is nearly imperceptible, and keeps the leading edge straight for the next row. I will have to hand coat these edges later with an aluminum-oxide finish.

(3) A less desirable solution is to come back and fill the gap with wood putty. I will have to do this in a number of places. I will also have to find a way to seal it, probably with a tiny paint brush and a polyurethane finish. This is acceptable, because it is in the recessed seam and not directly walked upon. But it's still a visible "fix". (NOTE:I will have to do this because I missed it while installing intially) (4) Even more undesirable is to try to take up the difference by wedging something like a screwdriver into the subfloor and bend it into place. This is sometimes necessary, especially if the board is longitudinally warped (aka, crooked). But if doing this throws your leading edge out of line, you will be doing this evermore, and dealing with other repercussions, as well.

Another problem I've been encountering is a variation in the thicknesses of boards. Now this is relatively normal, which is why prefinished boards have beveled edges to make up for any differences in milling. To me, 1/32" difference in thickness is acceptable, but 1/16" is not. The solution: Don't intall a board that is that much thinner/thicker. It's not that you'd stub your toe, but you would definiately be aware of it, even see it. I do NOT recommend shimming or remilling the groove or bottom to level it out as you are inviting squeaks into your floor instantly. Just be mindful; you should notice it on the initial dry fitting, whereas it easier to overlook the width issue mentioned above. This is something that an unfinished floor benefits from as they are sanded down prior to finishing. But overall, this has been less common to confront from what we have seen.

The last issue is one I deal with 90% of the boards I put down, one of unequal butts. I am rather disgruntled that the machine that mills the end tongue cannot do this parallel with the machine that mills the end groove. Both ends should be 90°, or if not that, then at least be parallel with each other. I know this is the case because the joint lines run straight through the two rooms and do not bend or curve away (taking great pains to ensure this). Why, therefore, am I left with up to 3/32" gaps at the bottom of the end joints? The one you see here is only 1/32" and will be sanded. For these lesser instances, I can just sand the groove-end down to match, but in the greater discrepancies, I have to angle the chop-saw .25-.75° to re-cut the groove end. And of course, I then re-chamfer the new edge with a sander. Feh!

Note: More pictures will follow soon, within another
day or so, some to be replaced. Need to retake some shots, so stay tuned.

Let's Go Bowling

We’ve a lane open for all you Hepcats! We began laying down new floor this weekend, after a weeks-worth of whirlwind activity that ended with freshly primed and painted ceilings. My ever gracious (and industrious) parents worked all week to help us push the house along so that we may move in mid-month. For those of you betting against us moving in on this fourth rescheduled date… congratulations. That’s right. We will reschedule our move-in date ONE MORE TIME (and may this be the last-last time). This comes after much hand-wringing and consternation and not without a massive and valiant effort by those involved.

Our timeline allowed for having the flooring complete by last Sunday, but beginning task that was delayed by you’ll-never-guess-what; it starts with a “str-“ and ends in a “-ping”. Yes, never underestimate the time to strip. Rather than leave some stripping to be done over a beautiful new floor or freshly painted walls, we all worked laboriously to get as much of that finished that would lie in harms way. All that remains to be done is inside both built-in bookcases and buffet. Because we were not able to complete the flooring on Sunday, we will not be making our previous move-in timeline. I mean, it could be possible, but many other essential things would be sacrificed, like making the bedrooms and closets smoke-free scented. There’s nothing like turning all your jackets into smoking jackets, is there?

It was Friday evening that we had the essential stripping, neutralizing, washing and sanding complete, rather than Wednesday. So instead of having the ceilings painted before the weekend, they had been painted mostly on Saturday, and part of Sunday. It was early on that later day that we began to lay down the floor. Dad & I spent the former day prepping the floor, sealing the hole from the original centralized heater and laying down the felt.

Prepping the Floor

Now, Bob Villa recommends using a layer of rosin paper between a new wood floor and a wood-based subfloor, but we used 30-lb felt (roofing type). 30 & 15-lb felt is impregnated with asphalt, ideal for moisture resistance from below if you’re over a basement or crawl space such as we are. Typically rosin paper is for floors over a climate controlled space, like a second floor or apartment. Rosin paper’s role is to only prevent the floor squeaks from wood-on-wood, as it is a pushover with moisture. To maintain a flat surface, we lay the thick felt end to end, rather than overlap as you would on a roof. Flatness takes precedence over barring moisture when it comes to floors, so moisture retardance is quite adequate for our uses.

Eliminating Cigarette Odors & Painting

As for painting, my mom took on that task. Again, it seemed prudent to have the ceilings painted BEFORE we put in a new floor, and it was quite good that we did. We opted to prime the ceiling with Zinsser B-I-N Primer Sealer. This seems to be the best product hands down for eliminating aged cigarette odors. It adheres to both oil and water-based paints (such as latex), and does not need glossy surfaces deglossed to adhere properly. It is shellac based, and therefore has denatured alcohol, so wear adequate respiration for this. Paper masks are no good. It dries and is ready for painting/recoat in 45-60 minutes, although it outgases for some time afterwards. Ventilate and be free. Also cleaning brushes is done differently; the product recommends washing the brush in ammonia, and then household cleaner afterwards, though I imagine denatured alcohol would do the trick. Painting with B-I-N is not easy chore. It is runny like cooking oil and loves to drain from a brush tipped sideways.

For the final coat, we chose a flat latex of a color called Rich Cream. Its rather a yellow just orange of center, with only white without complimentary color to de-saturate the hue. We toyed with colors having names like Lemon Soufflé, Melted Butter and Banana Cream; I found myself salivating. Who makes this stuff up? I rather wish it were YellowB5 or somesuch. Now every time I look up at our ceiling I’ll think “mmm…coffee/pastry”.

Laying Down the Starter Row

So as she finished the painting in the dining room, we started laying down the floor. Most sources recommend starting against one wall or another, but with the built-in bookcases flanking the center rooms, we wanted to center the floorboards between those. Being 5” planks, their placement would be more notable. We marked the center, measured to the wall where the foyer entrance resides and marked the second point equidistant at the front end of the living room, to run the boards parallel with that wall. This entrance (perpendicular to the bookcases) would be the second noticeable place if the floorboard joints look funny. That settled, we ran a chalkline the full distance to the buffet and screwed in backer boards. This keeps the first few lines of board from drifting out of line when the impact of the nailer hits.

Then my mom, perched on the ladder still painting the ceiling, pulled the equivalent of a back-seat driver. Who does flooring from a ladder? She asked if we shouldn’t center the board, rather than the joint, on the center line. Blinking nonplussed, it slowly occurred to us that she may have a point. She pointed out that the boards may end with a joint ~½” from either built-in, which would be bad (think ¼” wide board here). So we mocked it up, and discovered that she was EXACTLY right. I still marvel at how she does this, and I’ve known her all my life!

So we unscrewed our nice straight line of backer boards, and re-fastened it 2½” over. Here you see our original center line and then the revised one (including a faulty snap of the line). Then we began the actual flooring using a rented pneumatic flooring nailer/stapler and 2” staples. We used a slotted block which fit over the tongue to hammer the boards into place rather than hammering the tongues directly, risking damage. By the time we got to the built-in, we had plenty of board from the joint. Phew!

When we got close to the fireplace and the nailer couldn’t fit, I had to pre-drill pilot holes and hand nail the boards down. The hardwood boards would split if I hadn’t piloted them. I also had to drill a countersink shoulder and use a center tap to get the nails clear of the tongue. When I get too close to the wall or seat even to do that, I will need to top nail them in with finishing nails, countersink and putty over. I’ll show this soon, so stay tuned. One final picture, however, is as it stands after the first day of actual flooring.