Hello
So, this year, I plan to do one of the biggest tasks, that I would be doing throughout my DIY life. Please note, I am disabled both physically and mentally too. So, this project will take a good amount of 2024, if not then 2024 and 2025.
A quick history.
We moved in (my mum and 2 sisters) 26 years ago, and my mum worked and worked, (she was a school caretaker, site manager, site foreman (they built half a school, with my mum catching out major problems (she got electrocuted, noticed a huge fire hazard which the builders didn't fix and a fire broke out), She left this job, as there was many health and safety issues that the school didn't take on. Then oversaw 2 schools at the same time, which turned into 3 as both schools were closing but they were replaced with a new build.
My mum took us on holiday, I want to say in 2001-2, after mum did loads of work on this house as the landlords said the decorating etc is down to us, they will fix structural, we had neighbours looking after the house, but we came home to hose pipes hanging out the windows, huge water pumps pumping out water, we found out that the neighbours came in one morning and found water rushing down everywhere, our hot water tank somehow came crashing down from the loft, landing on my mums bed, and on its fall, broke all the pipes. Now this house has very bad walls, so the water damage made the walls fall down too.
It took a couple years of my mums hard work to get the house back from not just liveable (like housing did), but bring it back to being a home.
For some unknown reason at the front of the house, in the front 2 bedrooms, they didn't rebuild (I assume after the damage) the outside walls out of brick, or anything other than a 5ml board. The window frames are wider than the wall.
Mum complained and the housing said, maybe next year, maybe next year, by this point, my sisters had moved out, and I got my mums room, and mum got the back of the house room. The front 2 bedrooms wouldn't get past 5°c in winter, then comes along my niece, who physically couldn't sleep in a cold bedroom, (I like being cold, so no issues in my room), but it took until covid outbreak for housing to come out agree my nieces room was too cold and she got a new wall... (plasterboard with insulation with a small battened frame), a new radiator, and more insulation plasterboard on the end of house wall (which is brick). Her room is now warm, and she stays here a few nights per week (her mum, (both my sisters are paramedics), and her dad in the Navy), hence why the urgency. The guy who said that my nieces room was too cold, said my room was too cold too (after he was happy with how my nieces room turned out). With the new radiator in my nieces room, they had to lift up my flooring, and instead of taking up a board, so it would go back, they ripped it out, forcing us to replace it ourselves again.
So, I couldn't live with half a bedroom floor, we stuck down some roll flooring (is it vinyl?) so at least that my room would look nice. So, they came to replace my wall, (it is just 5ml hardboard with a plastic coating on the outside) they had to remove my radiator, doing so, instead of rolling the floor back, it was cut out... about a foot back into my room. The man who put the new wall in (again just insulated plasterboard), said that the plumber needs to redo the pipe work, as the wall was now 3 inches thick. So, they come and instead of putting new pipe work in, he somehow got the pipes angled through the wall, to the radiator as it wasn't in the budget for a new radiator. This ended up falling off the wall when I bumped into it getting in/out of bed, and a different guy came out and put some "strong" ankers.
Fast forward another year, I managed to build myself a small workshop (smallest you would ever see, its smaller than a bin shed that my mum built years prior. So, now I think this year, I have all the tools, built up skills, and ready (health permitting) to finally put down flooring in my room that should be still here some 20+ years ago.
The original floor boards to the house are still here, with the joists, and we plan to use that as a base level, put down some foam flooring underlay (water damaged swollen bits of flooring here and there) we put down laminate flooring which is still mostly down in my room, with the rubbery flooring on top, so at least those who see my room via the landing area, it looks nice.
I can't tell you (I have no idea) how my mum got the flooring she put down many years ago, but I know they were from her school days (I think she got the wood at wholesale cost, managed to get the over ordered cut off boards from the school build, or some other way), but I am looking at doing the same process in my rooms new floor,
Question times.
Should I try and
Flatten my original boards, put down underfloor padding then a subfloor before the finished flooring,
Keep original boards with underfloor padding then a subfloor, with the finished flooring on top
Flatten original boards, put down the padding, with finished floor on top
Keep origanal flooring, with padding and finished floor
Replace original boards, put down subfloor with finished on top
Replace original floorboards, and put the finished boards on top?
What sort of wood would be good for flooring?
What sort of paint or stain should I put down?
It should be water resistant (like a spilt drink, easy clean up)
So, this year, I plan to do one of the biggest tasks, that I would be doing throughout my DIY life. Please note, I am disabled both physically and mentally too. So, this project will take a good amount of 2024, if not then 2024 and 2025.
A quick history.
We moved in (my mum and 2 sisters) 26 years ago, and my mum worked and worked, (she was a school caretaker, site manager, site foreman (they built half a school, with my mum catching out major problems (she got electrocuted, noticed a huge fire hazard which the builders didn't fix and a fire broke out), She left this job, as there was many health and safety issues that the school didn't take on. Then oversaw 2 schools at the same time, which turned into 3 as both schools were closing but they were replaced with a new build.
My mum took us on holiday, I want to say in 2001-2, after mum did loads of work on this house as the landlords said the decorating etc is down to us, they will fix structural, we had neighbours looking after the house, but we came home to hose pipes hanging out the windows, huge water pumps pumping out water, we found out that the neighbours came in one morning and found water rushing down everywhere, our hot water tank somehow came crashing down from the loft, landing on my mums bed, and on its fall, broke all the pipes. Now this house has very bad walls, so the water damage made the walls fall down too.
It took a couple years of my mums hard work to get the house back from not just liveable (like housing did), but bring it back to being a home.
For some unknown reason at the front of the house, in the front 2 bedrooms, they didn't rebuild (I assume after the damage) the outside walls out of brick, or anything other than a 5ml board. The window frames are wider than the wall.
Mum complained and the housing said, maybe next year, maybe next year, by this point, my sisters had moved out, and I got my mums room, and mum got the back of the house room. The front 2 bedrooms wouldn't get past 5°c in winter, then comes along my niece, who physically couldn't sleep in a cold bedroom, (I like being cold, so no issues in my room), but it took until covid outbreak for housing to come out agree my nieces room was too cold and she got a new wall... (plasterboard with insulation with a small battened frame), a new radiator, and more insulation plasterboard on the end of house wall (which is brick). Her room is now warm, and she stays here a few nights per week (her mum, (both my sisters are paramedics), and her dad in the Navy), hence why the urgency. The guy who said that my nieces room was too cold, said my room was too cold too (after he was happy with how my nieces room turned out). With the new radiator in my nieces room, they had to lift up my flooring, and instead of taking up a board, so it would go back, they ripped it out, forcing us to replace it ourselves again.
So, I couldn't live with half a bedroom floor, we stuck down some roll flooring (is it vinyl?) so at least that my room would look nice. So, they came to replace my wall, (it is just 5ml hardboard with a plastic coating on the outside) they had to remove my radiator, doing so, instead of rolling the floor back, it was cut out... about a foot back into my room. The man who put the new wall in (again just insulated plasterboard), said that the plumber needs to redo the pipe work, as the wall was now 3 inches thick. So, they come and instead of putting new pipe work in, he somehow got the pipes angled through the wall, to the radiator as it wasn't in the budget for a new radiator. This ended up falling off the wall when I bumped into it getting in/out of bed, and a different guy came out and put some "strong" ankers.
Fast forward another year, I managed to build myself a small workshop (smallest you would ever see, its smaller than a bin shed that my mum built years prior. So, now I think this year, I have all the tools, built up skills, and ready (health permitting) to finally put down flooring in my room that should be still here some 20+ years ago.
The original floor boards to the house are still here, with the joists, and we plan to use that as a base level, put down some foam flooring underlay (water damaged swollen bits of flooring here and there) we put down laminate flooring which is still mostly down in my room, with the rubbery flooring on top, so at least those who see my room via the landing area, it looks nice.
I can't tell you (I have no idea) how my mum got the flooring she put down many years ago, but I know they were from her school days (I think she got the wood at wholesale cost, managed to get the over ordered cut off boards from the school build, or some other way), but I am looking at doing the same process in my rooms new floor,
Question times.
Should I try and
Flatten my original boards, put down underfloor padding then a subfloor before the finished flooring,
Keep original boards with underfloor padding then a subfloor, with the finished flooring on top
Flatten original boards, put down the padding, with finished floor on top
Keep origanal flooring, with padding and finished floor
Replace original boards, put down subfloor with finished on top
Replace original floorboards, and put the finished boards on top?
What sort of wood would be good for flooring?
What sort of paint or stain should I put down?
It should be water resistant (like a spilt drink, easy clean up)
