Hardwood Floors - Steps

[TouchDown]

Paul - I got something like that from Harbor Freight - VERY cheap, but worked.

Here's a few update pictures / before and after...

This is upper cabinets and soffit above cabinets as I prep wiring for the pendant lights.

Before Kitchen - pergo and dark oak with laminate countertop.

Cabinets out, soffit down, and mudded and taped.

Carpet ripped up in the livingroom, and the wife is still "excited" about the project at this point...

First few rows down. Taking longer than expected... Ut oh.

FIL helping to lay out / sort the wood and I'm slaving away!!!

Made it around the Fireplace, this was my biggest worry before the job, but it turned out OK.

Pendant light boxes installed, drywall finished, floor finished, cabinets have bene painted and installed and new countertop installed. 5 days past planned, but I still have my sanity - sort of.

Most of the doors on. Wife is feeling much better at this point in getting "her" kitchen back. Living in the basement for 2 weeks has been... um stressful.

I took this to compare against one of the first photos for comparison.

A new office area we bought cabinets for and installed, when the pic was taken, still needed the countertop...

*** see post below*** hit pic limit.

I did this project like all my others, get 90% done, get so worn out that I take a break, and never want to start it up to finish it off...

I still have to get the stair nose installed, a few more base boards installed, crown molding installed on all kitchen cabinets, and a few threasholds to complete. And I'm on here showing you instead of doing anything about it!!! I'm a procrastinator.

All in all it still took 2 weeks, just had to rearrange some planned things for it to finish on time. And after I finish this, I still have to do the steps, hardwood our bedroom and closet, and tile both upstairs bathrooms. Maybe that'll be a winter job???

 

[TouchDown]

Hit pic limit, here's the pic of the office.

 

[Fluvial]

Wow, TD, it's amazing how much that lightened the kitchen up, putting those white cabinets in.

We took all the carpet out of our house (except for two kids' rooms) and stained the concrete. It looks great. I love having the hard floors; I don't think I'll ever go back to nasty old carpet.

 

[TouchDown]

We took all the carpet out of our house (except for two kids' rooms) and stained the concrete. It looks great. I love having the hard floors; I don't think I'll ever go back to nasty old carpet.

I've always liked the look of stained concrete. We have a few rooms in our plant that are polished concrete and it is magnificent. I bet it is unbelievably maintenance free. Great idea.

 

[Fluvial]

All I do is sweep and mop it. Once a year I redo the wax on the high traffic areas - I use that same wax that's supposed to be for Mexican Tile.

What I liked the best about it was the cost; something like 16 cents a square foot.

 

[Road Guy]

we are going to do one of the rooms in our basement with the stained / sealed concrete and cut some patterns in it so it looks like big tile, some of our neighbors have done that and it looks really nice.

well this past weekend I finally got around to doing the stairs, I didnt feel like trying to paint the riser and stain the tread so I bought all oak and will stain everything once I get it sanded (tonight) to do 14 steps it cost..... $600 just for the wood, and what sucked is that I could only find the stair treads in 4' lengths, and my stairs and most of the free world has 3'. I have a cheap table saw and thing had a hard time keeping up cutting oak that thickness. I tell you when your working with a stair tread that cost $6.50/ LF you measure abuot 6 times to make sure you dont have any waste!

I think the people that built my house put down an entire tube of liquid nails on every step because it was extremely difficult to get the old pine stair treads up....

 

[Fluvial]

It will look so great when you get done though. I *love* the look of wood.

Re: the concrete - we cut the squares in our bedroom, but in the rest of the house we just didn't bother. It still looks great.

It's kind of hard to keep the lines straight (or so hubby says).

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

All I do is sweep and mop it. Once a year I redo the wax on the high traffic areas - I use that same wax that's supposed to be for Mexican Tile.
What I liked the best about it was the cost; something like 16 cents a square foot.

That looks great. Though I think in my neck of the woods a tile floor would be frigid in the winter!

 

[Fluvial]

I think in my neck of the woods a tile floor would be frigid in the winter!

You may be right. I've never lived that far north.

When we had a dog, he loved lying on the cool floor in the heat of the summer.

RoadGuy do you have any pics yet?

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

When we had a dog, he loved lying on the cool floor in the heat of the summer

Our kitchen floor is stone tile. The dog likes it when he is hot, but it is a double edged sword. His water bowl is in there and it gets REALLY slippery when it splashes around.

 

[goodal]

painting the riser is a bad idea. especially white. ours has stained tread and white riser and the riser looks like crap year round because of scuff marks. we have painted it, cleaned it sealed it you just cant keep from getting it scuffed

 

[cement]

Here's a few update pictures / before and after...
This is upper cabinets and soffit above cabinets as I prep wiring for the pendant lights.

nice work TD! I hate those old oversized soffits.

We re-did ours last year but found the soffits were full of plumbing and electrical. I know my limits so we brought in a contractor to rebuild smaller soffits flush with the cabinets.

 

[snickerd3]

Very nice work TD. We removed the soffits in our kitchen too...opened things up very nicely!

 

[Road Guy]

we'll I still need one more coat of polyurethene but here is how my steps turned out....

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Holy crap! Your house is haunted!

 

[snickerd3]

we'll I still need one more coat of polyurethene but here is how my steps turned out....

looks good!

 

[Supe]

Definitely looks better than if you were to paint the risers.

 

[TouchDown]

Nice Look RG. Definitely a lot of effort there, but worth all the work, for sure!

 

[Road Guy]

I've got to do our bedroom and two kids rooms and the whole house will be hardwood and tile, really dreading those last 3 rooms

 

[Fluvial]

Definitely looks better than if you were to paint the risers.

I disagree. They're gorgeous, Road Guy.