DIY Life

I'm a hardwood floors gal all the way. I love the rich colors and patterns that come from natural wood, and there's just something about a good game of sock hockey in the kitchen that gets me every time. Yet I'll admit --- it's sometimes tricky to clean hardwood floors. After all, how do you reach those cracks and crevices between the planks?

Turns out that if you follow a few ground rules, you'll have shiny, gleaming wood floors worthy of a palace. Ready for the tips, straight from our friends at ShelterPop?:

1. Sweep wood floors twice weekly with a soft, fine bristle broom. Avoid hard brooms as they may scratch the surface of your wood.
2. Vacuum twice monthly to remove dirt, sand and other small particles. Use a soft brush attachment to minimize any scratching from the vacuum's wheels.
3. Because water is one of a wood floor's worst enemies, get rid of water right away! Remove wet spills as soon as possible with soft towels or a wet/dry vacuum, then dry thoroughly. Be sure to dry cracks between the planks with a napkin-covered toothpick for heavily soiled areas.
4. Use a very well wrung-out, damp mop when mopping polyurethaned wood floors as excess water can seep into seams and ruin a wood floor.
5. Some floors may require periodic waxing and buffing. Get recommendations from your floor's manufacturer for the specific procedures for your floor, and be sure to avoid using harsh chemicals when cleaning.

Your clean hardwood floors will gleam in no time!

With many tiles averaging anywhere from $2 to $9 per square foot for installation, this DIY trick will save you a pretty penny... literally.

Take a cue from The Standard Grill in New York City and cover your floors in pennies [heads-side-up, of course]. I'd use a dark grout to make the copper pop and think this would look smashing in a lovely stainless kitchen.

If you want to get really adventurous, add in a few international coins from your travels and play with the shapes/sizes of the pattern. For a kid's room, you could even try your hand at Ski-ball and tile an area of the floor with remaining Chuck E. Cheese gold coins.

What do you think --- tiling your floor with money? Fantastic or frivolous? And what happens when you drop your loose change on the floor? Eek!

Is a noisy mattress disturbing your ZZZ's? While those squeaks and creaks are mighty annoying, don't assume there's nothing you can do about them. There are, in fact, quite a few quick and easy tricks worth trying.

1. If your mattress is not a pillow-top, turn it over. Any improvement? If not, then:

2. Rotate the mattress (so that the foot end becomes the head end and vice versa). A change in weight distribution on the springs can make all the difference. Regular rotation is recommended anyway by mattress manufacturers, just to ensure even wear.

Today's New York Times features an article about exhausted travelers catching sleep while stuck at airports. One enterprising gentleman, Frank Giotto, is even selling an airport camping kit. The "Mini Motel" includes a tiny one-person tent, air mattress, pillow, sheet, alarm clock and eye shades, plus some other extras.

So... how do you fall asleep in an airport? (Assuming the Mini Motel is nowhere to be found.) An awesome list of tips can be found at The Budget Traveller's [sic] Guide to Sleeping in Airports. Top tip: bring an inflatable pool raft so you can spread out on the floor in comfort... if security will allow it. It's cheaper and lighter than a regular air mattress.

You will need: a canvas drop cloth, upholstery fabric for the appliqué designs, and some other decorative fabric for the trim. You will also need a few sewing essentials: fusible web, iron, sewing machine, and scissors. Interested? Check out the step-by-step instructions here.

I have to admit the finished product looks amazing, atlhough I don't think it would work well in high-traffic areas of the house. A piece of non-slip foam backing underneath would be a must for safety's sake.

For more rug-related advice, check out Debbie's post on rug flipping.

If you've been reading DIY Life for a while, you know that I really love my Roomba. Well, now my loyalties are divided because I recently met Roomba's floor-washing cousin, the Scooba.

For the uninitiated, Roombas and Scoobas are robots that vacuum and wash your floor, respectively. I was skeptical that either device would do a particularly good job, but I'm happy to have been proven wrong. To keep my Scooba happily cleaning my floors for a long time, I baby it just like I do my Roomba. If you've got a Scooba, here's how to keep it in tip-top shape.

Perpetual Remodeling Syndrome (PRS) is brought to you every Thursday by Kelly Smith, who is hopelessly afflicted with this home-altering ailment. Remodeling can be a never-ending and contagious illness, so read on, at your own risk. Don't say we didn't warn you.

For the past few years I've been involved in what I have come to call PRS (Perpetual Remodel Syndrome). Ahh, the joys of home ownership. Since I do enjoy doing home improvement, I feel it's a blessing that my subdivision has no home owner's association. I know the argument; it keeps the standards up. But at least here, there's only one tacky house out of a few hundred.

That being said, today's topic is laying interior ceramic tile floors. Laying tile on a porch or patio has its own considerations.

Tools for the Project

• Wet saw
• Scraper
• Notched trowel
• Tile spacers
• Electric drill
• Ribbon mixer
• Utility knife
• Claw hammer
• Small pry bar
• Knee pads (Trust me!)
• Chalk line
• Tape Measure
• Rubber mallet
• Grout float and sponge
  

Preparing the Sub-floor

We wanted ceramic tile in the living room but wanted to keep the carpet until the kid could navigate without falling down. I found that the easiest way to remove the carpet was to pull it off the tack strips, cut it into 5' wide strips, roll them up, and use plastic tape to secure them. Then, I did the same with the padding. Next, use the claw hammer and pry bar to take up the tack strip. If there are any drywall compound splatters on the slab from the initial construction, scrape them up.

Now, to get the slab clean, don't sweep; the dust that has sifted through the carpet is very fine and will go airborne. Use a shop-vac. Eyeball the slab carefully. Minor imperfections are alright but if you have major ones, skim them with thinset.

Do Your Tile Layout

Find the center of the room in both directions and snap chalk lines. Visualize this; the chalk lines will look like a big plus sign with the intersection being in the exact center of the room. These are your "control lines." Be sure that your control lines are perpendicular. Use the 3-4-5 method and adjust as needed.

Now it's simply a matter of measuring back to find your border tiles (taking the grout line spacing into consideration). Once you have the border tile size, snap chalk lines so you'll know where to start laying tile. The lines will be parallel to the control lines so the borders might vary in size a bit as you go down the wall. Don't do all four sides of the room; you only need two walls (intersecting in the corner you'll be starting out of). Leave an exit; don't be like the guy that painted himself into a corner!

Mix the Mortar and Lay the Tile

I used mortar on my floor but there are other adhesives out there as well. Your choice. Spread the mortar or adhesive with the trowel evenly and begin laying the tile using the spacers. I like to lay about two rows of four full tiles on one chalk line and then cut and lay the borders. Then I do the same for the other line. Seat each tile by lightly rapping it with a rubber mallet.

Remember to spread the mortar slightly beyond where the tile will lay so there's no void. Voids cause tiles to crack at some time in your future, drawing displeasure from your spousal unit and casting a shadow of doubt over your impressive DIY skills. Don't go there.

All done? Clean up your tools and have an adult beverage of your choice.

Time to Grout!

Grouting is the fun part. I let the mortar dry for twenty four hours first. Mix the grout using the ribbon mixer again. I know you can buy it premixed, but that's cost-prohibitive for all but the smallest of projects. Start grouting where you started laying the tile if that worked well for you. Arm yourself with the sponge in a bucket of water.

First scoop some grout onto the float and work it in between the tiles (removing the spacers as you go). Then grab your sponge, wring it out, and start wiping the grout off the tile surface with a light touch, and forming the concave shape typical to grout lines. As the tiles dry off, you'll see a glaze on them. Don't worry about that now; you'll wipe it off with cheesecloth later.

Finally, after a day or so after the grout's dry, come back and apply a high-quality grout sealer. Other than nailing up the baseboard, your work here is done. As before, clean up your tools and enjoy an adult beverage. You've earned it!



Additional resources:
Laying a vinyl tile floor (This Old House)
Tile setting tools (The Tile Doctor)
Installing hardwood floor (Hometips)
Laying floor tile (Hammerzone)

The old saying - measure twice, cut once - is a lesson most DIY'ers learned the hard way, and if you're like me, learned more than once. We're replacing some old carpeting on our stairs and upstairs landing. I did some quick measurements this morning, and we headed out to look at carpet. Arriving at the store, the sales-person had all sorts of questions about what dimensions of roll we needed. I didn't have the answers handy. This highlighted my inability to do simple math quickly in my head, but also my sloppy measurement and incomplete information which could have caused a big mistake and an even bigger expense.

I thought I'd share with all of you two of the things I learned about getting accurate flooring measurements when determining what size of carpet you need.

Choosing new flooring? Experiencing painful indecision? Well, I sympathize. In fact, I just about tore my hair out last spring while trying to decide what should replace the disgusting cheapo vinyl in our kitchen. Here's why it's so stressful: a new floor is a big commitment, and you'd better choose correctly. Wish you'd gone with the hazelnut hardwood instead of the java bean laminate? Too late! Unlike a coat of paint, you can't just redo your floor in an afternoon. Then there's the expense factor. Phew. Flooring is darn expensive, especially if -- like us -- your sub-floor is uneven.

Before you give up in frustration, check out a really awesome interactive design tool. Flooring manufacturer Mannington's My Virtual Decorator is free and it's compatible with both PCs and Macs. It's easy to use and the photos look pretty real. Best of all, while the basic Virtual Decorator can be used online, the My Virtual Decorator program can be downloaded to your hard drive. Once it's on your computer, you can click in your own photo for use in mock-up designs. To get the proportions right, though, you'll need to use a photo that incorporates some special tags that you can print out from your home printer.

The photo of my kitchen (above) shows what correct tag placement looks like. Once it's up you can decorate the scene however you like, changing the color of the walls, and, of course, trying out all the different flooring types and colors.

I have a tiny kitchen. It is so tiny that I can't stand it when my husband and I, or even my two year old and I, are in the kitchen together. That is a recipe for driving me bonkers. When my counter (seriously, I only have one, and there is a sink between the counter space!) gets messy, I get upset because the kitchen is way too small to have any clutter at all.

In the time it takes to brew a fresh pot of coffee, you can de-clutter your kitchen counters, clean the stove, and have a shiny clean kitchen floor. Here's how to speed clean your kitchen:

Here's a quick DIY fix to get your deposit back when you move out of wood floored rental property or if you've invited everyone and their cousins over for a big party and realized that your wood floors look like ...well, you know. I came up with and have used this technique upon moving out of our last two rentals with great success. With this low cost, quick and genuine method, there'll be no need to completely refinish a gently worn wood floor by sanding and applying several coats finish just to get your money back (which would probably cost as much or more than your damage deposit in the first place).

All you need for this project is a small can of clear polyurethane (I prefer semi-gloss, but gloss could be appropriate too), a pair or two of nitrile gloves (I keep them stocked in the kitchen for handling meats), some clean smooth rags (that you will throw away), and your favorite mop (with a clean head). keeping a can of mineral spirits on hand is a good idea but hopefully you won't have to use it. A quart of polyurethane should be more than enough to do a two bedroom apartment with wood floors throughout.

In Gary's post about increasing your homes sale value he recommends making sure that your floors are clean. He stresses the good impression this creates, and I totally agree. It doesn't matter if you're gearing up for a sale, or looking to better enjoy the space you have, refinishing your hardwood floors is a fabulous way to being a little luxury to your room.

Finishing or re-finishing a hardwood floor isn't the daunting task you might think. With some careful planning and diligent attention to detail you could take on this DIY refinishing project. There are important details in each step so be sure to check out the site for full instructions. Here's a summary of the steps: