Library builder

To avoid splintering wood floors when sanding them, keep at least ‘h in. of solid wood above the tongue of T&G flooring. The easiest way to assess the floor’s thickness is to remove a forced-hot-air floor register and look at the exposed cross sec­tion of flooring. If that’s not possible, pull up a threshold or […]

Wood floor refinishing can be as simple as lightly sanding an existing finish and applying another coat of the same finish or as extensive as strip­ping the floor finish completely and sanding it several times before applying a new finish. If the floor is just grimy and dull from too many coats of wax, it […]

Vinyl and linoleum are the two principal resilient materials, available in sheets 6 ft. to 12 ft. wide, or as tiles, typically 13 in. or 12 in. square. Linoleum is the older of the two materials, patented in 1863. It may surprise you to learn that linoleum is made from raw natural materi­als, including linseed […]

The materials in this group—bamboo, coconut palm, and cork—are engineered to make them easier to install and more durable. And their beauty is 100 percent natural. Bamboo flooring sounds implausible to people who visualize a floor as bumpy as corduroy. However, bamboo flooring is perfectly smooth. It is first milled into strips and then reassembled […]

In the old days, building material to be installed and the first to show its age, as it was crushed by footsteps, swollen by moisture, and abraded by dirt. Foot traffic is as heavy and gritty as ever, but today’s crop of engineered flooring and floor finishes is far more durable—and varied. However, flooring is […]

О Turn off electricity to the affected outlets and fixtures, and confirm that it’s off by using a voltage tester, as shown on p. 235. Remove the cover plates and other hardware from the outlets so the hardware protrudes as little as possible. For an outlet relatively flush with the surface, simply position the strip […]

Installing wallcovering would be a snap if there were no corners, doors, windows, and electrical outlets, where you need to use extra care. TILTING TRIM AND COCKEYED CORNERS In renovation, trim and corners are rarely per­fectly plumb, but strips of wallcovering must be, regardless of tilting trim and corner walls out of plumb. If your […]

You can join strip edges in three ways: butt seam, overlap seam, or double-cut seams. ► The butt seam is the most common, its edges are simply butted together and rolled with a seam roller. ► An overlap seam is better where corners are out of sguare or when a butt seam might occur in […]

О Before you start hanging wallcovering, turn off the electricity to affected outlets, switches, and fixtures, and check with a voltage tester to be sure the power’s off. Measure out from the door casing, if that’s where you’ll begin, and draw a plumb line that will become the leading edge of the first strip. If […]

Newly installed drywall must be sealed before you hang wallcoverings. Otherwise, the drywall’s paper face will absorb paste, making it impossi­ble to remove the covering at a future date with­out damaging the drywall face. To seal drywall, apply a coat of universal primer-sealer, which is an excellent base coat for papering and painting. Plaster must […]