Floor boardom

1/6/12

With the concrete polishing guys here doing their thing, the kitchen/living room area is off-limits as far as working in there, so I began futzing around with the over-the-garage add-on that will become my studio. As you may recall, the floor was frighteningly bouncy, the bulk of which was fixed by adding a giant reinforcement beam in the garage below. The room doesn't feel like you're going to fall through it anymore, but the floor was still a little squeaky and soft-feeling. Two reasons for this; the original owners cheaped out and used 1/2" plywood for the floorboards (3/4" would be more appropriate) and it's nailed to the joists instead of screwed. The inherent flex of the 1/2" ply makes the nail issue worse, because it tends to want to bend and pop up the nails, then it's more squeaks and bendy-ness than Charo.

So... I yanked up the carpet and padding, removed the tack strips and remembered the joy of removing tons of staples used to hold down the padding. They didn't even bother with the formality of baseboards up there, so that was a time saver (it'll have them when I'm done). I then set about screwing the floorboards down and removing the nails (to prevent future squeakage), and developed a procedure pretty quick: screw in drywall screw directly behind nail, nail then usually pops up a bit, then use two hammers, a big one and little one with the little hammer getting hammered under the nail by the big one, then yank nail. It's tedious work, because there's a LOT of nails, but I'm being very thorough because I intend to install a laminate wood floor, and I'd rather make the floor as tight and squeak-free as I can now. I'm close to half done, and though the floor isn't like walking on cement, it's still making a huge difference. Certainly a nice improvement over the flexible-flyer mess it was when I moved in... I can't believe people inhabited that room (and they did). As it stands, I ran out of drywall screws (hello Lowe's!), so I'm at a temporary standstill which is fine because my back hurts!

I also have to figure out what the hell to do with the carpet. The piece in back corner wasn't that big, and it's out, but the main room area is a large piece that I can't move on my own, and I'm not sure whether I should try and donate it (it's not in horrible shape), or cut it up and throw it away. I'm open to suggestions. Once I'm done securing the floor, I gotta figure what I'm doing about a vocal booth (and decide whether I'm going one at all). That area straight at the right rear of the photo is such a great location...

BTW, the downstairs concrete floor currently is about as smooth as the average basement; the entire "first cut" with 70 grit polishing wheels is complete. Monday they go to 100 grit, but he tells me it gets quicker each step.