Day 1054: Getting walked all over

OK, massive post ahead.

The plumbing was all done. Finally ... And now it was time for the actual floors to go down. Joan and Rene are going to come in about a month's time and Carolyn is getting visibly concerned that there is no floor in the room. Can't understand why.

But contrary to any kind of logic.. to get the floors down, I need to take them all out. This was not because I was looking for more work or even because it makes for good blogging material. No, the reason for this was twofold: 1) I wanted to insulate underneath the floors as the room gets pretty cool in the winter time and this would be my only chance and 2) I noticed a joist in the corner had seen better days and was getting a bit spongy.

So there you go, all the floorboards had to come out. Believe me, this is no easy task, particularly as they were all tonge and groove. So out came the my new addition, a Stanley reciprocating saw to the rescue.  

You'll see that I numbered the boards and put a direction on them to help me put them back in place. I did it on the top as they are going to be covered anyway. If you're doing this and looking to restore the floorboards, just number the bottom instead.

With the boards all out of the way - and a very sore back to show for it - it was finally time to address that rotten joist (quite literally).  You can see in the photo below why there was an issue. This one was exposed to the air brick outside and over the past century has been struggling with a little water getting in. 

In taking that one out, I also noticed the joist against the wall needed to be retired. So that came out too.

The new joists were pressure treated to help with the damp, but I also soaked them in a water sealant to make sure this one will last another 100 years. I'll be long gone by then anyway.

So there you go, a floorboard-less floor. And dirt that hasn't seen the light of day in 120 years. And still no dinosaur fossils, treasure or really anything of note. I should give up on that hunt as I always seem to end up with the same result.

The new shiny (not really) joists in place. I couldn't disconnect the internet as I would have lost my tunes - and a builder cannot work without tunes in my opinion.

Next after all the boards were up and joists were replaced, came the netting to hold the insulation. There is purpose built stuff which is pretty darn expensive for what it is. The stuff I used was garden netting which is pretty, darn cheap. But it still does the trick. I used this and a couple of thousand staples to hold it in place - and, no I'm not exaggerating on the number here believe me. The netting was a PITA still though as it was just difficult to work with but I couldn't seem to find a good way of stretching it out and fastening it. I'm putting this down as just a difficult job. 

Quite the opposite, laying down the insulation was a breeze. Unroll the roll, cut and place. Rinse, wash, repeat. This took no time at all. 

After the boards went down, finally I started on the 9mm hardwood ply. This was mostly to manage any height difference in the floorboards for when I lay down the engineered floor. Why 9mm? Because I like to overbuild things. My thought was mostly that it would allow a countersunk No.4 screw and provide a smoother transition over any unevenness in the floor.

I also picked up another tool for this one ... an impact driver. I'd been eyeing one for a while and used some of my BP voucher points to buy a gift card and pick up this bad boy. Thanks BP!

Drill drivers are fantastic and really worth the purchase for anyone doing a lot of screwing (um, in the building sense). I should have bought one ages ago. They make a hell of a racket, but much less stripped screw heads and torque on the arm.