Our memorial day weekend was spent replacing the floor in our basement. When I say ‘our’ and ‘we’ I mean, my boyfriend and his dad. This project is way to advanced for little ol’ me.
Background: When we moved in, the basement was in shambles. From flooding, the floor had rotted (it was ply-wood with tile on top, not to water resistant) and it had become a storage area for junk. But, this basement, in it’s glory was absolutely amazing. My grandfather was a mason worker and he had crafted a bar (see below) that was so unique and because of that we decided to restore the basement to it’s former glory.
Since I wasn’t skilled enough to participate in most of this project (expect picking out the floor and decorating of course), this is just going to be a before & after post. But, if you are interested in how the tile was taken up, sub floor and floor were put down, feel free to shoot me a request in the comments!
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Tips:
1. We put down a sub floor (like this) over the old concrete. This cushions the floor, evens it out and protects the wood panel if there is any type of flooding (it is a basement after all!)
2. We used tongue and groove flooring. We were originally going to go with a stick and peel (because it is easy to replace) but this looks nicer, has no gaps and wasn’t too much more money. This is the flooring we used.
Hindsight:
Be prepared to mess up! During this, from taking out the tiles — our stairs actually collapsed. It was an easy (and needed) fix, but don’t be shocked when something goes wrong.
Disclaimer: We saved a lot of money by having someone who actually knew what they were doing help (my boyfriend’s father). If you don’t have anyone like that to help out– seriously take some time to educate yourself on the process, get the right tools and find the right materials. If you really screw it up, you would wind up with a costlier mess on your hands than if you just hired someone from the beginning.
Young, Broke & Doing it Myself 