silvergoldmagazine.ca
HOUSE + HOME
JUST ASK BOB
Bob answers your questions about home
renovations and DIY projects.
Hi Bob – We are in an older home built in the 1960’s, with a
basement that was already finished when we purchased the home
several years ago. The walls are well insulated and we don’t mind
the painted paneling and acoustic tiled ceilings – but the flooring
needs to be replaced. As far we can see, moisture does not seem
to be a problem. Can you advise about the different products
on the market for basement flooring? We will be replacing the
flooring in a carpeted “Rec” room that currently has carpet over a
raised wooden subfloor that sits on the concrete, and in a laundry
room area that is just the painted concrete. Thanks,
– Fran and Mike G., Hamilton
Research, research and more research;
I cannot stress that enough.
Spend time talking to your family and friends, walk up and
down all the isles at the big box stores to get ideas – these stores
even offer work shop seminars, spend time on the internet
investigating the different types of building materials on the
marketplace, call your city’s local building department and
ask lots of questions about permits and contractor licensing
requirement, and even call your home insurance company and
ask them how this basement renovation may affect your home
premium. You will need to be armed with all this knowledge
before and throughout the entire building process.
Make the tough decision: Do it yourself,
or hire a contractor?
Doing it yourself, by picking at it will take a long time (can
take years), but you will however save yourself thousands of
Just Ask Bob,
and you could
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dollars. If hiring a contractor, insists they prove to you that
they have all of the following in place: License, references (at
least a dozen), contractor’s insurance and contractor’s Work
Place Safety Board Insurance coverage. It is a good idea to
“test” your contractor’s patience before you hire them – that
will reveal a lot about their personality and character. You can
also Google their name and company name to investigate
them for any potential red flags.
Water. Your basement is essentially sitting in a hole in the
ground, surrounded by earth and water, it is not a question
of will it ever leak, it is a question of when will it leak. Even
without direct water leaks from the exterior, the concrete walls
and floors will always emit moisture, at times very high levels
of moisture. Ensure you are building a “smart” basement that
will handle the water when it leaks and not cause mould and
damage to your finishes. Here are some products that I strongly
recommend, please take the time to research them yourself;
An absolute must-use product!! Floodsill™ is a waterimpermeable base plate for building basement walls and
partitions, and can save you up to $15,000 of mold and water
damage repair: www.floodsill.com
Schluter Systems has an amazing product line for many
basement applications, and a must for basement shower stalls:
www.schluter.com/products.aspx
Georgia Pacific has created a real step up when it comes
to mould resistant-drywall, where the drywall’s paper (the
food source for mould) has been replaced with fiberglass:
www.buildgp.com/dens-fiberglass-mat-gypsum
Mike Holmes shares this video with ideas on total basement
insulation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jSuWbdJy5A
Building healthy: It’s not always just
about the price – consider future
health implications
Did you know that many of the products used to construct
your basement will off gas for many, many years? Contractors
will not generally go out of their way to research and use safe
products that do not emit dangerous VOC’s (Volatile Organic
Compounds). It is ultimately your job to find these products
and insist on having them used by name and brand. Please
avoid OSB (oriented strand board at all costs), yes this includes