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Category Flooring and Finishes

Flooring and Finishes

Flooring for a New House: Every Option Compared on Cost, Wear, Water, Radiant Heat and Which Room It Belongs In

For an Ontario house with real winters: tile or stone in the wet rooms, engineered hardwood or good luxury vinyl plank in the living areas, hardwood if you will hold the humidity, laminate where budget rules and water does not, polished concrete on a slab, and carpet only where you want it soft. Ove

Harvey
May 28, 2015

Flooring and Finishes, Miscellaneous, Press Releases

Humidity in a New Home: Why Your Floors Split, Your Drywall Cracks, and the 35 to 50 Percent Rule That Prevents It

Wood moves with moisture. Dry winter air at 15 percent relative humidity shrinks every piece of wood in the house: floors gap and split, doors stop closing, trusses lift and crack the corner of the ceiling, mitres open, cabinet doors check. Humid summer air swells it all back and, past 60 percent, g

Harvey
February 11, 2015
2 Comments

Miscellaneous, Flooring and Finishes, Portfolio

Flooring What You Need To Know – Your home décor starts on the floor

Ontario builder advice Hardwood • tile • vinyl • engineered Comfort, durability & resale Flooring What You Need To Know – Your home décor starts on the floor Flooring is one of those decisions people think is mostly about colour,…

Harvey
February 27, 2014

Flooring and Finishes, Green Building, Miscellaneous, Portfolio

Formaldehyde in a New House: Where It Comes From, What Health Canada Says, and How to Build It Out

Formaldehyde is a gas released mainly by urea-formaldehyde glues in particleboard, MDF and hardwood plywood (cabinets, shelving, some flooring and furniture), by some finishes and fabrics, and by combustion. Health Canada's residential guideline is a long-term limit of 50 micrograms per cubic metre

Harvey
February 24, 2014

Exteriors, Flooring and Finishes, Miscellaneous

House Paint 101: Why a $90 Gallon Beats a $30 Gallon, Which Sheen Goes Where, and Exterior Paint That Survives an Ontario Winter

Paint is pigment, binder and solvent. Cheap latex uses clay and chalk fillers and a vinyl-acrylic binder; good paint uses titanium dioxide and 100 percent acrylic, which is why it covers in fewer coats, scrubs clean and holds colour. For a new house: a quality primer on fresh drywall, then two coats

Harvey
February 19, 2014
4 Comments

Flooring and Finishes

Choosing Hardwood Flooring for a New House: Solid or Engineered, Species, Width, Finish and Where Each One Belongs

For most new Ontario houses: engineered white oak, 5 to 7 inches wide, prefinished in a matte or satin waterborne finish, character or select grade depending on taste, $10 to $20 per square foot installed in 2026. Solid 3/4-inch hardwood where you want a floor that can be sanded four or five times a

Harvey
December 17, 2013
2 Comments

Flooring and Finishes, Green Building

Bamboo Flooring: Facts, Fiction, and Whether It Survives an Ontario Winter

Bamboo Flooring - What You Need To Know!

Bamboo is a grass, cut and glued into flooring three ways: horizontal and vertical (the classic striped look, about as hard as red oak, soft enough to dent), and strand-woven (shredded fibre compressed with resin, two to three times harder than oak and the only kind to buy for a family). It behaves

Harvey
December 17, 2013
2 Comments

Flooring and Finishes

Hardwood Floor Tips for an Ontario House: Keeping a Wood Floor Flat, Unscratched and Unfaded Through Twenty Winters

Hold the house between 35 and 50 percent relative humidity all year; that single habit prevents the winter gaps and the summer cupping that cause most hardwood complaints in Ontario. Then keep grit off it (mats at every door, shoes off, a soft-head vacuum), wipe water at once, lift furniture, trim t

Harvey
December 17, 2013