Carpet Cleaning

Vacuum

The first thing to be said about carpet cleaning is that the surface should be vacuumed regularly. This is also good for the fibers as well as for cleanliness because sharp sand edges can cut the carpet fibers. In reality carpet is a destination for everything that gets dragged into the home including insects. This is why it should be treated with the same respect that you would a favorite sweater or pair or sports coat. So instead of going bare-footed put on a pair of slippers.

Take Out Old Shampoo

Just like rinsing your hair you have to rinse a carpet. Liquid carpet cleaners leave a build-up and this is a magnet for dirt. If you are renting a machine mix 1 cup of vinegar for every 2 1/2 gallons of water and clean the carpet with this first. Now go back over the carpet with just warm water. This will take the shampoo out and leave the carpet softer.

Stains

Never rub a stain, just blot it.  most stains come off with shaving cream. leave it on for 15 minutes and blot with white vinegar.

Club soda or a 30/70 mix of peroxide to water: This will work for red wine stains and orange popsicles.  Apply and wait 30 minutes. Then rinse with a vinegar/water solution.

Brake Fluid: No kidding, This will remove food stains. it contains the same chemicals as the professional dry cleaners use. Just dab it on a clean cloth.

Baking Soda: Animal spills and other stains

Cleaning

If you love your carpet a professional carpet cleaner works the best. They have the best tools and the exerptise to get all the dirt from the bottom of the matt and out. The store-rentals work to a point but just wet the rest down. And the pros will not leave a soap residue for you to get out later.

Leather Flooring

Leather has become an instant hit as a flooring product. The hides are carefully chosen and dyed and the process shows the real character of the leather. These are made into tiles that are 1/8″ thick and can be stamped with another texture as well. Not only is leather  tough and beautiful it also retains warmth and deadens sound. Cleaning up is a breeze with a vacuum or slightly-damp mop.  Imagine stepping on a floor with your bare feet and finding a surface that warms to body temperature in an instant. Yes, leather will scratch and show scrapes but, like a beautiful leather jacket, this will add character.

Recycled Leather

In the early days of car making Rolls Royce, Cadillac and other high-end cars sported leather seating. In fact that was one of the reasons people bought these expensive cars. However, these days every car manufacturing label, even the Korean cars, have the leather seat option. In fact even minivans and pickup trucks have this luxury. With the life of a vehicle judged as less than 10 years junked cars produce recyclable leather and plastics but have you ever wondered what happens to all this leather?

Recycled leather is fast-becoming a fashion statement in the flooring industry. When you think of all the leather sofas, jackets and automobile seats that get thrown out every year it makes sense for someone to reclaime these items and turn them into another product. However, the leather does not come back as a re-dyed or polished version of its old self. Instead it goes to a mill where it is ground up. This powder is then mixed with natural glues and rolled into a hard surface with tecturing that makes it look like a grain leather. From here it is made into planks or tiles with a natural backing like cork.

Whatever leather product you choose, tannery or recycled you will be on the cutting edge of flooring technology while using a renewable resource.

Large Tile Installation

It used to be that 8″ x 8″ ceramic or porcelain tile was classed as “large.” Most bathroom tile at the time was 4″ squares and mosaic-on-web so the 8″ square was considered a big tile. In the late 1970’s 12″ x 12″ tile came into vogue and this was thought of as being huge. But today those sizes are just a drop in the bucket.

In order to sell this tile many of the tile stores would advertise the product as “quick to install.” In their minds, more space meant that the floor filled up faster with less tile. However, in many cases the opposite was true: larger tile took more time to set up and get level than the smaller ones. Today, it is not unusual to see 18″ x 18″ squares and even 24″ x 24″. But what does this mean for the installer?

What larger tile means is that the subfloor tolerances cannot be too great or else there is a risk of breakage. In other words if the large tiles are not set down on a flat surface with the right amount of mastic then the weight of the tile, traffic and lack of support may collaborate to break the tile. For example, if the floor level is out by 1/4″ over 10 feet an 8″ x 8″ tile will not have a problem with this. However, as we go bigger we see the differences. A 12″ x 12″ tile has a small enough surface area to compensate for the uneven surface but pressure on the 18″ square might cause it to break in time. And few people will carry spare tiles of that size.

The key to the successful placement of large tile is a level floor. I fact it must be level from one side to the other. To gauge this stretch a chalk line from one side of the room to the other and gently snap it so that no heavy chalk will hit the low areas.  Do this every foot across the room and then do it again putting perpendicular lines down. You might have a partial checkerboard effect but where the chalk is heaviest is where the floor is the highest.

If there are a just a few high spots you may be able to sand them or plane them out depending on the material. (With oriented strand board you will have to use a leveling compound on the low spots) Once you get the floor leveled put down a thin subfloor like 1/4″ plywood. This will fortify your changes and give a smooth surface on which to install your tile.

If there is a basement the low spots may be raised by shimming between the joists and floor in the low places. The key is too get the floor as even as possible.

Fixing a Sagging Floor

In older homes floors may sag or warp for many reasons. Moisture and age are two of the main culprits but heat is also blamed in many other instances.

For example, century -old home never had central heat when first built. In the winter the steady source of heat was the kitchen because the stove was needed for cooking. the parlor may have a fireplace or coal heater as did the dining room. One small, coal heater in upstairs hallway would heat up there. When indoor toilets first became in vogue they were upstairs to help with the drainage and a slotted vent in the floor helped warm air to get up there.

When central heating arrived vents were cut into floors to assist in heating. This put heat into places that had always followed uneven temperatures and certainly no direct heat. And this was a major cause of floor sagging and warping.

Fixing an Uneven Floor

1.  Reference Line: there are two ways to do this. First is go to the basement and run a string from one end of the beam to the other nailing it on the post just behind where the beam joins it. When the other end is done the same way and the string tightened the string line is where the beam used to be and where you want it to go.

2.  Footer: Because the home weighs so much you can’t just support it on the concrete floor because this could crack. You need a new footing. So, find out the mid point of the beam, or where the sag is the lowest, and mark the spot. If the floor is concrete you will have to rent a jackhammer and drill out a 1.51′ x 1.5′ hole. Then dig down around 2′ and line the hole with vapor seal. Then fill this plastic-lined void with concrete. The bagged pre-mixed concrete is the best. Just figure out how many cubic feet you need and buy that many bags. Trowel smooth with the top of the concrete floor.

3.  Jacking: Let the concrete cure for 2 weeks then get a 12-20 ton hydraulic jack an place it on the floor beside the new footing. Using a 1/4″ pressure plate on top of the jack measure a 6′ X 6′ post to fit between the plate and the bottom of the sagged beam. As you slowly pump the jack have someone upstairs to watch for cracking in the walls or flooring. If cracks appear stop and evaluate them. If they can be fixed with drywall compound then continue until there is a crown in the beam. (You must be careful here because windows can break. Have you helper pay close attention to noise from the window frames and stop before this happens)

4.  Jack Post: When you are satisfied that the beam is slightly above the string place the adjustable (jack) post on the new footing and snug it unde the beam. Drive long screws through the holes of the metal top plate into the beams to fix it. Then use a long screwdrive into the holes in the jackpost to tighten it. Check the beam with the level before lowering the hydraulic jack.

Painting Ceramic Tile

When home owners want to change the look of a room there is only so much that they can do by painting the walls and ceiling. When it comes to the floor vinyl can be recovered with more vinyl and ceramic tile can also be covered with flooring. However, many people do not have the money to spend on a flooring job.

A great way to spruce up tile to to paint it. Whether it is floor or wall tile it can be painted and this paint will last if the right procedures are taken. However, it is not recommended to paint tile in showers or any other place where it will be getting wet often.

1.  Clean and Preparation: Every surface to be painted has to ve cleaned or prepared in some way to clear the grease and dirt away. The best cleaning methods are trisodium phosphate (TSP) and oxygen bleach. Both are powders that are mixed with water. They will nor leave residues like other cleaners. Sart with with one piece of floor at a timed and go to the farthest pat of the room and work backwards. Apply the mixture on the floor with a mop and let it sit. Use a scrub brush on a broom handle and work hard on the surfaces especially the grout. Now use an electric sander with a fine grit to roughen up the surface so the paint will hold.

2.  Primer: Always use an alkyd primer before painting on a hard surface like tile. Although this is oil base you can put a water-based paint on it and it will hold.

3.  Paint: There are two types of paints: oil and water. Oil-based paints, like the primer, give off VOC’s which are volatile organic compounds, and are not recommended for those with allergies. The gas will go but it will take a few weeks. Melamine paints are the toughest. Water-based urethanes are also good and won’t yellow after time.

4.  Painting: For tile use a fine bristle brush for both the grout and tile or brush the grout and use a roller on the tile. For contrast the grout may be painted another color. Or the tile and grout can be painted a neutral color and the tile stamped with a new design. As these patterns will be exposed they should be a glaze-based product.

Let the paint cure for a couple of days without stepping on it.

Stair Tread Recapping

Many homes are now built with generic stair treads, either a wood composite or plywood. These are the carpeted or covered with a thick, hardwood stair tread or replaced with a wood-filled, hardwood veneer tread.

The pluses that come with using a hardwood veneer product is that they are cheap, strong and usually have a full wood-grain finish whereas even solid ones can be three or more pieces of board glued together. However they are only available in certain wood species. And what about the homes that have good stait treads but they just need a face lift? Do you paint them or remove and replace the trades with a nice hardwood or hardwood finish? Recapping old treads or new construction is a great way to go if you want a new look with about half the cost of replacing the treads.

Tread caps are made to go over the exiting treads. They can be from 1/2″ to 1″ thick and are meant to go with a 1/4″ riser piece. The “stinger” and risers can be made from the same wood. A top stinger is the wide strip that goes up the staircase and is notched to fit the stairs on its bottom and straight on top. The bottom stinger is notched in the same way so that the top fits the angles of the treads and the bottom is straight.

In this way a homeowner can redo the complete staircase without having to remove one stick of wood.

Stone Floors

When people began putting floors in their dwellings their first materials were wood or stone. Both got their feet off the dirt which increased the sanitation of the home and made it easier to keep clean. However, wood had the tendency to rot and so few early wood floors are around today while archaeologists have examples of thousands of stone floors.

People began to put in stone floors from the materials at hand so the Scottish castles utilized granite and slate while the Romans used marble, travertine and limestone. Many of the Mediterranean floors were smooth because the stone was soft and easily milled.

Today, stone is making a comeback because of its beauty and durability. Whether on countertops, floors or tables the color of stone is being seen. One of the big reasons for its resurgence is the rise of production in the Third World as well as improvements in transporting the product.

Granite: The best part about stone is that the colors differs depending on where it is mined. At last count there were over 1,000 different colors and designs of granite from the classic black-and-white to mottled colors. It is extremely hard and resistant to acids and stains. As it is porous it will need to be sealed once a year to prevent a build-up of dirt in the pores.

Marble: The classic stone floor is marble. Go into most institutions and government institutions and you will see marble floors and even walls. Marble is the end product of the compression of limestone much like a diamond is to carbon. Therefore marble is not completely impervious to acids or stains so must be sealed. In fact the leeching of acids and other materials in the sedimentary stage of marble’s evolution makes up much of the coloring.

Travertine: The second stage of the aging of limestone is tarvertine. Of course it is soft and more porous than marble but this gives it unique qualities. The surface of the stone is usually pitted and some installers fill the holes with grout. From the store travertine can be bought either “filled” or “unfilled.” It is usually bought in tile form. It’s smooth, shiny finish is beautifully colored and is available in a wide variety of colors from a bland gray to a bright red.

Limestone: A sedimentary rock, limestone was a pillar of the building process until the early 20th Century. Like marble and travertine it is the oxides and acid etching that give limestone it’s color and texture. As like marble and travertine limestone reacts with acids and should be treated at least once a year as even ornage jiuce will react with it. Many of the old buildings made of limestone are black because of the acid rain reacting with limestone blocks.

Slate: Slate is a metamorphic rock which means that it beagn as a sedimetary stone andwas transformed over the millennia. Unlike the limestone-based metapmorphic rock like marble slate comes form shale which is a combination of clay and/or volcanic ash. As with others, however, the coloring comes from other mnerals leeching into it in the sedimentary stage.

Floor Insulation

There are few morning pleasures as nice as walking on a warm floor. In the past bedrooms were rarely heated, or if they were it was a small heater that rarely had an effect on the floor. This is why most bedrooms always had rugs. But even in today’s warm homes there are spots where the cold comes up through the floor and money is being wasted. And there are areas f the home, dubbed “bonus rooms,” that can qualify for living space if they were protected from the cold.

Floors over areas that are not heated include garages, basements and crawl spaces, garages. In these instances insulation can be put up between the floor joists. Crawl spaces area tight fit for putting up fiberglass batts but rigid foam insulation can do the trick.

1. Seal and Caulk: Floors have seams and they are visible from underneath. Make sure you seal all these cracks because insulation, although good at keeping heat in, will not necessarily keep out drafts.

2. Cut: The insulation should fit perfectly without have to be cupped or folded. If not gaps will occur that will suck out the heat.

3. Tiger Teeth: Metal rods clamp onto the bottom of the joists and hold the insulation in place at just the right height. These are called “tiger teeth” and are spaced every 24″.

4. Cross Bracing: When the insulation has been installed caulk between it and the cross bracing.

5. Vapor Barrier: If you are putting in vapor barrier do it first. Putting in on the outside of the insulation might create a moisture build-up and cause mold in the insulation.

6. Crawl Space: Put vapor barrier over the earth in a crawl space. Seal the seams with tape.

Another great way to put up vapor seal and provide better heat protection is to install a radiant foil sheeting under the floor. These can be cut into strips and fit in between the floor joists or run in one continuous sheet and draped over the bottom of the floor joists rather than cutting. The insulation would go in after this is done.

Subfloor Magic

Basements can be a difficult place to put in a finished floor whether it be tile, vinyl or laminate. And many experts tell you to forget about hardwood in the basement. Why? Because even in dry climates basements have moisture, usually from the concrete floor. The porous concrete absorbs moisture during the wet times and spits it out through cracks and seams.

Another hard fact in northern climates is that concrete sucks the heat out of a basement. Even framing the walls won’t stop the heat loss. There has to be something to prevent the concrete from absorbing the energy.

One way to get the floor you want in the basement and some insulating factor happening is to put vapor seal over the floor and build a stud frame, just like you would on a wall but horizontally on the floor. Then you can put rigid insulation between the studs and cover this with a deck. This will definitely work.

An easier way to do this is through a new product that comes in 2′ x 2′ squares. From the top each square looks just like a piece of oriented strand board. In fact OSB makes up the top of the square. It is also beveled for tongue-and-groove fit to the next square. What is unique is the bottom layer which is either a hard-plastic, raised “waffle” panel or one made of rigid foam. This is glued to the OSB. When the squares are attached to each other you have a subfloor ready for finishing in almost any type of flooring.

The unique part of this subfloor is that the plastic base is a series of channels. This allows air to get in an evaporate any moisture but keeps the finished floor almost an inch above the concrete.

Kick Plate Floor Heaters

The new kitchens are marvels of new storage techniques. Pantries and base cabinet setups line the walls leaving little room for heating elements or ductwork down on the floor where it is needed. So unless you are willing to use in-floor radiant heating there are few other options other than a radiant heat source from the ceiling. And this takes a long time to get doen to the feet!

A good compromise is the kick plate heater, named because the unit fits underneath the base cabinet and produces an airflow horizontally from a fan inside. The heat source is an element which can be either 240 or 110 volts depending on the unit. Some heaters actually come with a switch where the voltage can be changed to either 110 or 220. This is common in European countries.

The nice thing about a kick-plate heater is that is gets hot air to the area where it is needed quickly. At 750 and 1500 watts respectively they do not have to be on for very long to get the desired effect.

Installing a kick plate heater requires an electrician to hook up the power. The thermostat has to be wired as well. The unit, itself, goes underneath a base cabinet in an area where it will spread heat to to the biggest area. in other words don’t have it pointing at the island because the heat will be confined.

There are many styles of grills to cover the kick plate heater, from brass to wood. As for price, they start at around $120 and can go above $300 for a high output heater.