Monday, October 24, 2011

My oh my


Well, it's officially begun.  Josh, my contractor arrived on Friday morning at 8am with two workers to take out the sub floor and the existing glass sliding door in the garage.  I decided to come home around 1pm to see if they had finished.  I knew it wouldn't take long.  They had the proper tools and the muscle to get the job done quickly.  When I arrived at 1pm no one was there and everything was out.  The disappointing thing was, it looked as though they removed old vinyl commercial floor tiles that were existing on the concrete floor.  Now that being said, I have no idea what condition they were in and from peering into the garbage bin they looked to be a beige color which I am not fond of anyway.  Then began my journey...okay...my obsession to find a inexpensive but beautiful solution for my garage floor.  I was thinking it would be bare concrete with a sealer but now because of the old vinyl tile glue, my garage floor is now black from the old adhesive.


So many options.  Epoxy, VCT flooring, ceramic tile.  I decided to hit the internet full speed.  Wallas, I found what I wanted via forum message boards.  It would be VCT flooring (Vinyl Commercial Tile).  It was relatively inexpensive, it looked great and I was pretty sure I could reapply over the glue on the existing floor....at least that's what I though initially.  This is where it got really complicated.  Message boards galore, I found many opinions.  No you have to remove the old adhesive, no you don't have to remove it as long as the mastic is really really thin.  I tried acetone, as a few suggested, to see if I could get it off.  It did work but would take a lot of work to do the whole 264 square feet.  I've decided it will be fine to go over the residual adhesive, as one person who was in the same predicament as me had called Armstrong flooring and they said it would be fine to go on top. I'm crossing my fingers!

So now that I had decided what I wanted to put on the floor I looked up the cost from Home Depot.  It seemed I would pay about $1.00 per tile.  I decided to go on Craigslist to see if anyone was selling VCT.  Low and behold I found someone selling 9 boxes (45 tiles per box) for $12.00 per box.  I would need just over 6 boxes so I would get 7.  I quickly wrote the CL poster.  Yup, still available.  They were in a nice grey neutral colour which would work perfectly.  This works out to .27 each tile with no tax!!!  That means it will cost me $84.00 for the whole floor (plus glue, the rental of a roller and a piece of metal trim for the transition into the garage from the garage entrance and possibly cove base (not sure of the edges yet).  I then wondered if I should do this myself or get my contractor to do it.  Well kiddies, I have decided to give it a go and do it myself.  Luckily I found a number of "youtube" sites showing how to lay it (very helpful).  I have added a picture of the tile I've found on CL.

 I thought I was done painting the ceiling in the garage....wrong!....upon further inspection it looks like in some spots the original oils from the wood have come through the primer and paint and left a yellowing.  I guess I'll have to prime some of those areas again and then paint with latex AGAIN!!!  Every time I  paint I get a headache from looking up constantly.  I guess I'll be taking on more headache! I also changed my mind on the lighting I had purchased.  I had bought a bunch of lighting from Rona because I had gift cards.  I do still like it but I have decided I want the garage to match the interior of my home.....so,  I picked up two cool pendant lights from Home Depot that look a lot like my expensive lights in my master bathroom ($29.99 each) and the rest of the lighting I got from IKEA.  See pictures.  It's going to look spectacular.  I'm going to get Josh to box in  the wires and fan pipe on the one inside wall and when I'm ready to get my cabinets (who knows when) I will butt them up to the ceiling so it will be flush and look professional.  My cabinets will also be off the floor which I think will look cool and will protect them from any water that may accumulate, doubtful but you never know.  It will also make it easier to clean under them without the leg attached.

I am getting a new steel beam put in above the garage door because the existing one was too short for the glass garage.  This will be installed on Tuesday.  I will also get final measuring done the same day for the glass garage door. Speaking of which, the door came in and they made the wrong door.  They didn't opague the glass so now it has to be custom etched.  No biggie but just thought I'd mention it.  I can't wait for that to be installed!

Well that's all for now...stay tuned

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